SSD Expansion Thoughts

[AutonomousRedux]

Budget (including currency): Doesn't matter

Country: U.S.A.

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: All

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

So here's the deal. I've recently noticed how snobbish I've become and decided I no longer particularly care for the sounds of hard drives in my rig. I don't want to go the NAS route so I'm looking at swapping in some SSDs.

 

Here's the rub: I've got to ideas floating around in my head. A) I can go the traditional route and replace my WD Blues for some SATA 2.5" drives. Or 2) I can use a PCI card and put m.2s and do away with cables entirely.

 

I'm not particularly concerned wtih price, but I do wanted performance and storage per dollar. Looking at 1 or 2TB capacities. Which drives would you all suggest for both categories?

 

Thanks in advance.

[brob]

Comes down to how many units are involved. One or two, go with NVMe drives on a card. More than that and the limits of available PCIe lanes is going to make 2.5" SATA units more practical.

 

NVMe drives definitely offer best performance. At the low end of that envelope are drives that are very cost competitive with SATA SSD.

[AutonomousRedux]

10 hours ago, brob said:

Comes down to how many units are involved. One or two, go with NVMe drives on a card. More than that and the limits of available PCIe lanes is going to make 2.5" SATA units more practical.

 

NVMe drives definitely offer best performance. At the low end of that envelope are drives that are very cost competitive with SATA SSD.

I'm thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of two or three 2TB drives. Would that pose a problem if they're SATa M.2s on the card, or should I stick with 2.5"?

[brob]

Depends on the card and the motherboard slot.

 

Personally I think it's a waste to use NVMe capable m.2 slots for SATA drives.

 

I've always gone for bigger drives rather than more smaller ones.

[AutonomousRedux]

8 minutes ago, brob said:

Depends on the card and the motherboard slot.

 

Personally I think it's a waste to use NVMe capable m.2 slots for SATA drives.

 

I've always gone for bigger drives rather than more smaller ones.

I'm leaning towards that Asus hyper m.2 expansion card on an Asus B550-A Strix paired with a 5600x.

[brob]

33 minutes ago, AutonomousRedux said:

I'm leaning towards that Asus hyper m.2 expansion card on an Asus B550-A Strix paired with a 5600x.

 

Short answer, don't do it!

 

Longer answer:

 

I believe the motherboard has two m.2 NVMe connectors, one 16x16 PCIe 4.0 slot, and one 16x4 PCIe 3.0 slot (if none of the 1x1 slots are enabled).

 

There is a note in the motherboard user manual that suggests an M.2 Hyper card should be put in the 16x16 PCIe 4.0 slot normally used by the GPU and the GPU moved to.the 16x4 PCIe 3.0 slot. This would severely impact most gaming.

 

Suggestion 1: limit yourself to the two motherboard connectors. Get 4TB units if storage quantity is an issue.

 

Suggestion 2: consider a motherboard that supports more m.2 NVMe connectors. A number of B550 motherboards support 3 connectors. Some X570 support 4 or more. Numerous Intel 10th, 11th, and 12th gen motherboards support 4 or more.

[AutonomousRedux]

On 12/5/2021 at 8:47 PM, brob said:

 

Short answer, don't do it!

 

Longer answer:

 

I believe the motherboard has two m.2 NVMe connectors, one 16x16 PCIe 4.0 slot, and one 16x4 PCIe 3.0 slot (if none of the 1x1 slots are enabled).

 

There is a note in the motherboard user manual that suggests an M.2 Hyper card should be put in the 16x16 PCIe 4.0 slot normally used by the GPU and the GPU moved to.the 16x4 PCIe 3.0 slot. This would severely impact most gaming.

 

Suggestion 1: limit yourself to the two motherboard connectors. Get 4TB units if storage quantity is an issue.

 

Suggestion 2: consider a motherboard that supports more m.2 NVMe connectors. A number of B550 motherboards support 3 connectors. Some X570 support 4 or more. Numerous Intel 10th, 11th, and 12th gen motherboards support 4 or more.

Apologies for the delay in getting back.

 

AFAIK, aren't graphics cards not even close to saturating the 3.0 PCI lanes at this point in time? I'm pretty sure the only hardware in any system at this time that actually benefits from PCI-E 4 is storage.

[brob]

13 hours ago, AutonomousRedux said:

Apologies for the delay in getting back.

 

AFAIK, aren't graphics cards not even close to saturating the 3.0 PCI lanes at this point in time? I'm pretty sure the only hardware in any system at this time that actually benefits from PCI-E 4 is storage.

 

Running an RTX 3080 or higher on x4 PCIe 4.0 will definitely result in a negative impact on gaming performance. Most likely RTX 3070 & Ti will also be negatively impacted. RTX 3060 & Ti probably wouldn't suffer. 

 

I think it quite safe to predict that the next gen GPU are going to need higher bandwidths than the current. So starting out with a marginal situation strikes me as short sighted.

[AutonomousRedux]

I see. Thank you.