Additional drive

[DeadEggplant]

I want to get an additional drive as my current 1tb isnt enough for all my games but I can't decide, I'm currently looking at the sn850x priced at £80 for the 1tb version and £140 for the 2tb. I'm just wondering whether I should get the 1 or 2tb, as in which one is more cost effective. I'm currently leaning towards the 2tb one so I never have to uninstall a game but I'm not sure if 140 is steep for an ssd.

 

 

Current Build:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/jPNGLc

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  (£159.99 @ Box Limited) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  (£43.55 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: MSI B650 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard  (£133.00 @ Computer Orbit) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (£124.99 @ Currys PC World) 
Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (£80.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Video Card  (£469.00 @ Computer Orbit - OOS) 
Case: Montech XR ATX Mid Tower Case  (£49.00 @ Computer Orbit) 
Power Supply: MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£84.95 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £1145.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-10-18 14:57 BST+0100

[Hinjima]

1 minute ago, DeadEggplant said:

I want to get an additional drive as my current 1tb isnt enough for all my games but I can't decide, I'm currently looking at the sn850x priced at £80 for the 1tb version and £140 for the 2tb. I'm just wondering whether I should get the 1 or 2tb, as in which one is more cost effective. I'm currently leaning towards the 2tb one so I never have to uninstall a game but I'm not sure if 140 is steep for an ssd.

 

 

Current Build:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/jPNGLc

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  (£159.99 @ Box Limited) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  (£43.55 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: MSI B650 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard  (£133.00 @ Computer Orbit) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (£124.99 @ Currys PC World) 
Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (£80.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Video Card  (£469.00 @ Computer Orbit - OOS) 
Case: Montech XR ATX Mid Tower Case  (£49.00 @ Computer Orbit) 
Power Supply: MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£84.95 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £1145.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-10-18 14:57 BST+0100

I would say that £140 is average price for a 2TB M.2 SSD.

If you are on a budget we do usually recommend the Kingston NV3, its £93 for the 2TB one and plenty fast for games  

[DeadEggplant]

I'm not necessarily on a budget, I just dont want to be stupid with my purchase. As in buying a 2tb SSD when I won't go over 1tb, how common is it for people to have a main 1tb ssd paired with another 1tb additional drive?

[Hinjima]

6 minutes ago, DeadEggplant said:

I'm not necessarily on a budget, I just dont want to be stupid with my purchase. As in buying a 2tb SSD when I won't go over 1tb, how common is it for people to have a main 1tb ssd paired with another 1tb additional drive?

Its fairly common as most people like to upgrade to a 1TB or 2TB second SSD later, just like you.

Some people also like to have a 500GB SSD for their OS and a 1-2TB SSD for games.

I personally don't like having multiple drives but I do well enough with a 2TB SSD for all my games.

 

I do have 3x8TB External HDD's though.

 

A Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2 TB is £120 and a WD SN7100 2TB is £114.

I can't really decide for you but I would get a 2TB SSD so you don't have to worry about being limited by space later.

 

[DeadEggplant]

Would you reccommend the 990 evo plus or SN7100 over the SN850x, performance wise or should I stick with the one I picked out?

[Hinjima]

4 minutes ago, DeadEggplant said:

Would you reccommend the 990 evo plus or SN7100 over the SN850x, performance wise or should I stick with the one I picked out?

In terms of gaming performance they will be equal.  Hard to say between them.
Due to the price I would pick the 990 Evo Plus 2TB.

[Tetras]

16 minutes ago, DeadEggplant said:

I'm not necessarily on a budget, I just dont want to be stupid with my purchase.

If you can afford it, £140 definitely isn't stupid. It is not like you're overpaying, this is the normal price for a high-end PCI-E 4.0 drive.

 

If you can wait, there's a possibility of a better deal on Black Friday.

 

RE: 2TB, games are growing all the time and you only get a few M.2 slots on most boards. It makes sense to maximise capacity.

 

A decent drive will also give you many years of service, potentially a decade or more.

[Needfuldoer]

Look at it this way: it's twice the space for less than twice the price. Even if you don't need the space now, you probably will later.

[DeadEggplant]

2 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Look at it this way: it's twice the space for less than twice the price. Even if you don't need the space now, you probably will later.

Yeah you have a fair point. I like it when I have all my games installed so I can play them whenever without waiting 50 years for them to install

[DeadEggplant]

10 minutes ago, Tetras said:

If you can afford it, £140 definitely isn't stupid. It is not like you're overpaying, this is the normal price for a high-end PCI-E 4.0 drive.

 

If you can wait, there's a possibility of a better deal on Black Friday.

 

RE: 2TB, games are growing all the time and you only get a few M.2 slots on most boards. It makes sense to maximise capacity.

 

A decent drive will also give you many years of service, potentially a decade or more.

I think ill buy the SSD now but I'll upgrade my monitor on black friday (Assuming it will be on sale)

[DeadEggplant]

Do you recommend buying the heatsink version or is not too much of a problem. The heatsink version of the sn850x is £148

[leclod]

Those SSD prices move quite a lot. I believe now is not the best time for buying.

I bought a 4TB SN850X for £187 last year. Just saying.

I'd buy the 2TB NV3 for £96 as @Hinjima suggested.

Edited October 18, 2025 by leclod

[Tetras]

2 hours ago, DeadEggplant said:

Do you recommend buying the heatsink version or is not too much of a problem. The heatsink version of the sn850x is £148

Heatsinked drives can be a problem, e.g. if your motherboard already has one, or if too tall it can make contact with the graphics card.

 

Drives without a heatsink are easier to re-use and usually a bad idea to try and remove a factory fitted heatsink.

[kokosnh]

2 hours ago, leclod said:

I'd buy the 2TB NV3 for £96 as @Hinjima suggested.

There is a SN5000 2TB for £98.10 on Amazon.co.uk (sold by Amazon) so I would sugest getting that, insted of QLC NV3 if you want to go cheap. 
WD SN5000 is at least decent DRAMless TLC Ssd, with 5 years warranty and 900TBW. 

If you want something better with DRAM, go for

MSI SPATIUM M480 PRO It’s £130 on Amazon.co.uk (sold by Amazon)

 

the mobo has 2 x M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 slots, and the second one has no heatsink, but if it’s gaming, then it should be just fine, as it should heat up only when you install or update games, and that should not take that long for it to be a problem. 
But you can always just buy second market M.2 heatspredder, they are cheaper than Ssd with built in heatsink.