boot drive ssd Boot drive for OS?

[LHenrik]

Hello everyone,

 

EDIT: I just realized that I was suposed to post this in storage devices. I dont know if I can move it myself though.

 

I am looking into building a new system and am considering a separate boot drive for the OS.
But before making any decision I hope to get help with a couple of questions.

 

1). Is there any disadvantage with having a separate boot drive for the OS (Windows)?

 

2). Is there any advantage with choosing a very fast SSD such as:

·         Corsair Force MP510 SSD (256 GB) – PCIe Gen x4 M.2, Seq. Read 3100, Seq. Write 1050 ----- Article number: CSSD-F240GBMP510

 

3). Do a boot drive for the OS need a high TBW (data can be overwritten many times).

 

4). Will a separate boot drive for the OS impact Nvidia’s 30 series direct memory access (the one where they bypass the CPU and read directly from the SSD?

What I just want to make sure here is that there won’t suddenly be any problems if the graphics card reads from another SSD than the OS boot drive.

 

5). A more general SSD question. I have seen the videos LTT has put up on manufacturers changing the components which has led to performance drop and not changing the listed specs. Is there any way I can confirm the specs of the SSD or is it believed to be "safe" to buy from for example Corsair or Samsung?

 

 

Grateful for any help you can give!

[Abdullah Bhutta]

16 minutes ago, LHenrik said:

I just realized that I was suposed to post this in storage devices. I dont know if I can move it myself though

Moderators will change that, don't worry.

16 minutes ago, LHenrik said:

Is there any disadvantage with having a separate boot drive for the OS (Windows)

No, there is only advantages.

17 minutes ago, LHenrik said:

Is there any advantage with choosing a very fast SSD

Yes, but that doesn't matter in all cases. Fast SSD means faster load times. Quick response.

18 minutes ago, LHenrik said:

Do a boot drive for the OS need a high TBW (data can be overwritten many times)

It doesn't need to be much higher but also not lower. But Higher TBW is better.

20 minutes ago, LHenrik said:

Will a separate boot drive for the OS impact Nvidia’s 30 series direct memory access (the one where they bypass the CPU and read directly from the SSD?

What I just want to make sure here is that there won’t suddenly be any problems if the graphics card reads from another SSD than the OS boot drive

IMO if you are running a game from drive other than that of your OS, It will directly access the data from other drive.

21 minutes ago, LHenrik said:

A more general SSD question. I have seen the videos LTT has put up on manufacturers changing the components which has led to performance drop and not changing the listed specs. Is there any way I can confirm the specs of the SSD or is it believed to be "safe" to buy from for example Corsair or Samsung

Just buy from a well known brand, like Samsung or something else. If any issue occurs there's still the option for RMA.

[minibois]

-- Moved to Storage Devices --

[LHenrik]

On 6/27/2021 at 11:56 AM, Abdullah Bhutta said:

Moderators will change that, don't worry.

No, there is only advantages.

Yes, but that doesn't matter in all cases. Fast SSD means faster load times. Quick response.

It doesn't need to be much higher but also not lower. But Higher TBW is better.

IMO if you are running a game from drive other than that of your OS, It will directly access the data from other drive.

Just buy from a well known brand, like Samsung or something else. If any issue occurs there's still the option for RMA.

Thank you!

[Abdullah Bhutta]

On 6/27/2021 at 2:33 PM, LHenrik said:

 

4). Will a separate boot drive for the OS impact Nvidia’s 30 series direct memory access (the one where they bypass the CPU and read directly from the SSD?

What I just want to make sure here is that there won’t suddenly be any problems if the graphics card reads from another SSD than the OS boot drive.

Update:- Windows 11 can do it but if 

• DirectStorage requires an NVMe SSD to store and run games that use the "Standard NVM Express Controller" driver and a DirectX12 GPU with Shader Model 6.0 support.

[revonoc]

1 hour ago, Abdullah Bhutta said:

Update:- Windows 11 can do it but if 

• DirectStorage requires an NVMe SSD to store and run games that use the "Standard NVM Express Controller" driver and a DirectX12 GPU with Shader Model 6.0 support.

Specific question - I have the MSI GP66 with 2 PCIe 4.0 lanes - I want to add a 980 Pro 2tb to what is currently an OEM Micron 2210 1tb (PCIe 3.0). Should I clone the OS over to the 980 Pro or just install it and use it for games? Pros? Cons? Esp. re: future DirectStorage compatibility. My only other concern is making sure MSI's Recovery Partition is cloned correctly as I've seen that to be an issue before.

[Abdullah Bhutta]

15 hours ago, revonoc said:

Specific question - I have the MSI GP66 with 2 PCIe 4.0 lanes - I want to add a 980 Pro 2tb to what is currently an OEM Micron 2210 1tb (PCIe 3.0). Should I clone the OS over to the 980 Pro or just install it and use it for games? Pros? Cons? Esp. re: future DirectStorage compatibility. My only other concern is making sure MSI's Recovery Partition is cloned correctly as I've seen that to be an issue before.

If you connect it through your Mobo's PCIE lanes, then it will be much much slower.

But if you connect it directly to CPU lanes then no performance difference.

IMO you should clone your drive to 980. And 980 needs 4 CPU lanes to give full speed.

 

How to correctly clone your boot drive: 

 

[MyNameGoesHere]

 

This is something I've been wondering for quite a while, and I'm not sure my specific thought has been answered above yet.

 

Take the 2 below separate system configurations. In both cases, the CPU has a total of 20 PCIe lanes, 16 of which would obviously be used by the GPU:

1) Single NVMe drive (PCIe 4.0 x4 mode) direct to CPU for everything

-or-

2) NVMe drive (PCIe 4.0 x4 mode) direct to CPU for OS, and NVMe drive (PCIe 3.0 x4 mode) via Z590 chipset for games.

 

What would the difference in system performance be in config 2 over config 1?

 

I've been thinking that having separate drives would eliminate the possible bottleneck of the drive's read/write limits, but would the second drive be more limited by using PCIe 3.0?