Is an m.2 really worth it?

[gunmaster1173]

Hey guys I just wanted your opinion on this, do you guys really think buying an m.2 is worth the money? I live in Canada and an m.2 hyperx predator is 350$ for 240gb and a Samsung 950 evo 512gb is 500gb but their are cheaper versions that are 100-300$ but at the end is it worth spending an extra 100-300$ for an m.2?

[Hman1250]

The 950 Pro is the FASTEST SSD on the market right now, thanks to NVMe

[Andrew Storlie]

Personally ill be buying the 1tb 950 pro when it comes out and it will be my only hard drive in my pc

[crystal6tak]

Their write speed are double SATA SSD and read speed quadruple SATA SSD. You decide 

[Belgarathian]

M.2 with 4x PCI lanes is hella fun. Is it worth it? That's up to you, but probably not... I only deal with RAW files and games so having 2000MBps read/write really doesn't benefit me in any way, shape, or form. 

[manikyath]

The 950 Pro is the FASTEST SSD on the market right now, thanks to NVMe

the rest of the system needs to support NVMe properly tho.

 

for all we know he's running a P4 with windows xp

[Boink]

Objectively, if money is not an issue, yes. If it is an issue I suggest a much cheaper SATA SSD and wait a couple years or NVMe to be more widely supported and less expensive.

[gunmaster1173]

The 950 Pro is the FASTEST SSD on the market right now, thanks to NVMe

Personally ill be buying the 1tb 950 pro when it comes out and it will be my only hard drive in my pc

Their write speed are double SATA SSD and read speed quadruple SATA SSD. You decide

M.2 with 4x PCI lanes is hella fun. Is it worth it? That's up to you, but probably not... I only deal with RAW files and games so having 2000MBps read/write really doesn't benefit me in any way, shape, or form.

Not that it matters to the majority of users. A sata SSD is already plenty fast to the point where you can hardly notice a difference.

NVME requires support from the mobo and bios.

If you're talking sata drives, there is no reason to spend more on an M.2 unless you're using a laptop or have exhausted your sata ports.

the rest of the system needs to support NVMe properly tho.

for all we know he's running a P4 with windows xp

Thanks for all the imput guys, I've decided to wait it out a little bit so more m.2 come out so I have a bigger selection then I'll probably buy one, thanks for all the help guys

[brandishwar]

I recently used an M.2 Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB instead of the 2.5" drive in a build for a friend. It cut down on the cable bulk in the system since it was two less cables to install. On that mark alone I'd call it worth it, but only if the price isn't that much more than a 2.5" drive. In the build in question, I paid only 150 USD for the M.2, and the 2.5" drive was 140 USD. Well wroth it to get rid of two cables in the system. If the M.2 was 200 USD compared to 140 or 150 USD for the 2.5" drive, I would've gone for the latter.

[azorahai]

Personally ill be buying the 1tb 950 pro when it comes out and it will be my only hard drive in my pc

Agreed. I have the 512gig version but my MOBO can handle two m.2 drives. When the 1tb version comes out I'm gonna add it to get 1.5tb!

[gunmaster1173]

Agreed. I have the 512gig version but my MOBO can handle two m.2 drives. When the 1tb version comes out I'm gonna add it to get 1.5tb!

What mobo do u have?

[gunmaster1173]

I recently used an M.2 Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB instead of the 2.5" drive in a build for a friend. It cut down on the cable bulk in the system since it was two less cables to install. On that mark alone I'd call it worth it, but only if the price isn't that much more than a 2.5" drive. In the build in question, I paid only 150 USD for the M.2, and the 2.5" drive was 140 USD. Well wroth it to get rid of two cables in the system. If the M.2 was 200 USD compared to 140 or 150 USD for the 2.5" drive, I would've gone for the latter.

Do you have the link for it? Like on newegg or something?

[brandishwar]

Do you have the link for it? Like on newegg or something?

It was a sale price that I paid when I bought it. It's currently about 180 USD through Micro Center, slightly less through Amazon. NewEgg has the 2.5" version of the drive for around 160 USD. So whether the 20 USD difference is worth it is up to you. In my opinion, it's worth it, especially if it means getting rid of cables out of the system.

NewEgg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147399&cm_re=samsung_850_evo_m.2_500gb-_-20-147-399-_-Product

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-EVO-3-5-Inch-MZ-N5E500BW/dp/B00TGIW1XG

[Ominous]

Neither, get a floppy disk.  Much faster.

 

Seriously though, the 950 would probably be the better option.  

[gunmaster1173]

It was a sale price that I paid when I bought it. It's currently about 180 USD through Micro Center, slightly less through Amazon. NewEgg has the 2.5" version of the drive for around 160 USD. So whether the 20 USD difference is worth it is up to you. In my opinion, it's worth it, especially if it means getting rid of cables out of the system.

NewEgg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147399&cm_re=samsung_850_evo_m.2_500gb-_-20-147-399-_-Product

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-EVO-3-5-Inch-MZ-N5E500BW/dp/B00TGIW1XG

Neither, get a floppy disk. Much faster.

Seriously though, the 950 would probably be the better option.

Yea I think as an m.2 I rather have the 950 since it's more worth it than the 850 evo since I already have an 850 evo and the 950 is 4 times faster

[brandishwar]

Yea I think as an m.2 I rather have the 950 since it's more worth it than the 850 evo since I already have an 850 evo and the 950 is 4 times faster

And it's almost twice as much for the same capacity as the 850 EVO, or is price something no one seems to consider in making recommendations? I'd rather pay 180 USD for an M.2 850 EVO 500 GB than 330 USD for a 500 GB 950 Pro M.2. Even if I was going smaller to only 250GB, I'd still go for the 850 EVO at only 100 USD over the 950 Pro at 180 USD.

[Jahramika]

Well I think for portable devices that use batteries like laptops and such the energy savings over a standard drive is a big improvement over a spinning disk plus the performance.

[gunmaster1173]

And it's almost twice as much for the same capacity as the 850 EVO, or is price something no one seems to consider in making recommendations? I'd rather pay 180 USD for an M.2 850 EVO 500 GB than 330 USD for a 500 GB 950 Pro M.2. Even if I was going smaller to only 250GB, I'd still go for the 850 EVO at only 100 USD over the 950 Pro at 180 USD.

They have the same gb and such but it's almost double the price for 4 times the performance

[gunmaster1173]

Well I think for portable devices that use batteries like laptops and such the energy savings over a standard drive is a big improvement over a spinning disk plus the performance.

The m.2 will be going in a desktop

[brandishwar]

They have the same gb and such but it's almost double the price for 4 times the performance

And it's up to you as to whether you feel that price is worth it. In my opinion, it's not. Because most aren't going to notice that performance difference outside of boot times. The computer I mentioned earlier, a 5820k with 16GB RAM, boots from cold in about 10 seconds on an 850 EVO M.2 500 GB. Only those who are thrashing drives left and right will notice the better performance rating of the 950 Pro. Content creators come to mind. Linus's server where he has SSDs in a RAID 5+0 configuration connected up to a dual 10Gbps Ethernet hit by multiple video editors comes to mind.

Workstations used for anything other than content creation? Likely not. Even software development doesn't thrash the drive enough to warrant paying almost 1 USD/GB for storage, unless you're a software developer writing video editing or photo editing software. High-end gaming systems? Likely not. Average home computers and laptops? Again, likely not. Your system, then? Likely not worth it going for the 950 Pro when an 850 EVO will likely provide super-fast performance. The difference between the 850 and 950 you probably wouldn't even notice.

[gunmaster1173]

And it's up to you as to whether you feel that price is worth it. In my opinion, it's not. Because most aren't going to notice that performance difference outside of boot times. The computer I mentioned earlier, a 5820k with 16GB RAM, boots from cold in about 10 seconds on an 850 EVO M.2 500 GB. Only those who are thrashing drives left and right will notice the better performance rating of the 950 Pro. Content creators come to mind. Linus's server where he has SSDs in a RAID 5+0 configuration connected up to a dual 10Gbps Ethernet hit by multiple video editors comes to mind.

Workstations used for anything other than content creation? Likely not. Even software development doesn't thrash the drive enough to warrant paying almost 1 USD/GB for storage, unless you're a software developer writing video editing or photo editing software. High-end gaming systems? Likely not. Average home computers and laptops? Again, likely not. Your system, then? Likely not worth it going for the 950 Pro when an 850 EVO will likely provide super-fast performance. The difference between the 850 and 950 you probably wouldn't even notice.

Yea might just wait it out till it gets cheaper because I already have a Samsung 850 evo SSD

[PrimeSonic]

And it's up to you as to whether you feel that price is worth it. In my opinion, it's not. Because most aren't going to notice that performance difference outside of boot times. The computer I mentioned earlier, a 5820k with 16GB RAM, boots from cold in about 10 seconds on an 850 EVO M.2 500 GB.

There's only one reason I can think of to put a 950 PRO in a system for non-content creation system: bragging rights.

 

Really that's it.

I have a 950 PRO with a 6700K, I can boot from cold to the login screen in 7-8 seconds. Seriously. Not that big of a deal compared to the 850 EVO.

And load times in games with load times still aren't exactly instantaneous given the low queue depths.

 

So really, it's just spending more money because you want to show off a black pcb.

 

I'm going to go for an 850 EVO when I'm ready to expand my local storage.

As the owner of a 950 PRO, I can say that, if you aren't doing crazy stuff like video editing, the only thing you're getting from this drive is a bigger epeen.

[gunmaster1173]

There's only one reason I can think of to put a 950 PRO in a system for non-content creation system: bragging rights.

Really that's it.

I have a 950 PRO with a 6700K, I can boot from cold to the login screen in 7-8 seconds. Seriously. Not that big of a deal compared to the 850 EVO.

And load times in games with load times still aren't exactly instantaneous given the low queue depths.

So really, it's just spending more money because you want to show off a black pcb.

I'm going to go for an 850 EVO when I'm ready to expand my local storage.

As the owner of a 950 PRO, I can say that, if you aren't doing crazy stuff like video editing, the only thing you're getting from this drive is a bigger epeen.

Thanks for the point of view :3

[z97]

I haven't seen too much difference in windows/game load times on my m.2 as compared to my SSDs

 

I'd wait till it drops imo. (Mine was due to needing more room and not having any more place to store drives.)

[gunmaster1173]

I haven't seen too much difference in windows/game load times on my m.2 as compared to my SSDs

I'd wait till it drops imo. (Mine was due to needing more room and not having any more place to store drives.)

Yea I'll probably wait it out till it drops in price since I'm saving up for a 980ti