Upgrading NVMe Storage

[LockdownJimmy]

Hey all,

 

I am running out of space on my 1TB NVMe drive and am looking to install another 1TB.  The one I own is the WD SN770, so DRAMless but around 5K speed.

 

I have a little more budget this time around, so I'd like to add a 1 or 2 TB drive that has DRAM and at least 5k speeds to become my main drive.

 

My motherboard is a b550m Aorus Pro-P (PCIe 4.0x4, PCIe 3.0x4).

 

I'm looking for a guide on the best way to copy the info from my old drive to the new one and end up with my new drive in the PCIe 4.0 slot with the old drive wiped and sitting in the 3.0 slot.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Kid.Lazer]

Do you need a granular, step-by-step guide; or just a point-me-in-the-right-direction guide? Here's the latter:

 

-Install your new SSD

-Clone old SSD to new SSD. (my preference is Macrium Reflect)

-Remove old SSD from system temporarily

-Boot from the new SSD and verify all your data is intact.

-If that previous test is successful, reinstall old SSD and format it.

 

As for an exact drive, looks like the cheapest 2TB option with a DRAM cache right now is the Patriot VPN100. I cannot, however, speak to its performance or quailty. If you want something more name-brand, you could jump up to a Mushkin Vortex Redline or Samsung 970 EVO.

[LockdownJimmy]

29 minutes ago, Kid.Lazer said:

Do you need a granular, step-by-step guide; or just a point-me-in-the-right-direction guide? Here's the latter:

 

-Install your new SSD

-Clone old SSD to new SSD. (my preference is Macrium Reflect)

-Remove old SSD from system temporarily

-Boot from the new SSD and verify all your data is intact.

-If that previous test is successful, reinstall old SSD and format it.

 

As for an exact drive, looks like the cheapest 2TB option with a DRAM cache right now is the Patriot VPN100. I cannot, however, speak to its performance or quailty. If you want something more name-brand, you could jump up to a Mushkin Vortex Redline or Samsung 970 EVO.

This is very handy, thank you.  The only thing I really need clarified, is whether I should do the cloning with the new drive in the 3.0 slot and then switch it to the 4.0 when I am ready to boot with it, or if there is a different order.

[Kid.Lazer]

It really shouldn't matter either way, but I, personally, would leave everything exactly as it is, and simply put the new SSD in the remaining empty slot. If you then want to move things around for whatever reason, do it at the check-for-issues step (#4 in my list). That way, you'll already have the old drive removed, so you can swap it easily.

[LockdownJimmy]

4 minutes ago, Kid.Lazer said:

It really shouldn't matter either way, but I, personally, would leave everything exactly as it is, and simply put the new SSD in the remaining empty slot. If you then want to move things around for whatever reason, do it at the check-for-issues step (#4 in my list). That way, you'll already have the old drive removed, so you can swap it easily.

Oh that would make it much less complicated.  Do you think using the PCIe 3.0 for the boot drive would slow me down at all?

[Kid.Lazer]

What kind of stuff are you doing with your PC? Unless you are regularly transferring massive files between your drives, you won't even notice a difference.

[Dedayog]

1 hour ago, LockdownJimmy said:

Hey all,

 

I am running out of space on my 1TB NVMe drive and am looking to install another 1TB.  The one I own is the WD SN770, so DRAMless but around 5K speed.

 

I have a little more budget this time around, so I'd like to add a 1 or 2 TB drive that has DRAM and at least 5k speeds to become my main drive.

 

My motherboard is a b550m Aorus Pro-P (PCIe 4.0x4, PCIe 3.0x4).

 

I'm looking for a guide on the best way to copy the info from my old drive to the new one and end up with my new drive in the PCIe 4.0 slot with the old drive wiped and sitting in the 3.0 slot.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

5k speeds do not matter unless you're needing it for production work on a massive scale.

 

You can get great drives for good prices by ignoring the marketing.

[LockdownJimmy]

55 minutes ago, Kid.Lazer said:

What kind of stuff are you doing with your PC? Unless you are regularly transferring massive files between your drives, you won't even notice a difference.

I use my PC for gaming and web-based work from home.  The only large transfers have been massive game downloads that I have to delete to make room for more.

[Kid.Lazer]

1 hour ago, LockdownJimmy said:

I use my PC for gaming and web-based work from home.  The only large transfers have been massive game downloads that I have to delete to make room for more.

In that case, I wouldn't even worry about it. The game downloads will be limited more by your internet bandwidth and, to a lesser extent, CPU performance as decompression of downloads has become pretty heavy in recent times. PCIe generation in the context of SSDs will really only matter for gaming when technologies like Direct Storage become mainstream, and we simply aren't there yet.