M.2 as boot drive

[Bill Silverlight]

Howdy!

I am finishing up my new config, which should be very beefy and carry me for many years to come, in theory.

However I am facing a dilema concerning all my storage.

 

Here is what I have so far:

- Programs: Sandisk Ultra II 480GB

- Games: Sandisk Ultra II 480GB

- Youtube: WD Caviar Black 2TB

- Files: WD Caviar Black 1TB

- Recordings & Backup: Synology NAS 5TB (4x2TB with Synology's custom RAID)

 

I was thinking of getting an M.2 drive for boot, since my motherboard supports it (I'm going with X99, Asus Deluxe or Sabertooth, but that's another subject).

PCIe with NVMe seems like the way to go, but in France the only thing I can find is the Samsung 950Pro, which is 256GB and seems overkill for just boot and possibly a few programs I use non stop like web and Adobe. All the others are SATA III. I have heard it makes a big difference, but in the real world is it really worth the extra cost and obsessing over it?

 

If SATA III is enough, the Ultra II SSDs are sponsored by Sandisk, I have to admit ideally I would probably like to get a Sandisk, it seems more honest, since I will be building the whole system in a video. Are their M.2 SSDs good?

 

Thanks a lot for your help!
Bill

[Speedbird]

It's not wroth it to go M.2. You'll have to manually specify the location of a program to install every time, or edit the registry and risk screwing up your system

 

Just install Windows on one of your Sandisks. Boot times don't really get much faster than 10 seconds anyway

[Deli]

As a boot drive, 950 Pro isn't making that much difference to a typical Sata III SSD, to be honest.

 

I have two systems, one with 850EVO, the other one with 950 Pro as boot drives, both M.2. Two systems feel more or less the same.

[e4matt]

I have the samsung PRO 256GB.. as my boot drive...and it's a beast, I can't even get to BIOS fast enough because it boots so fast. Good problem to have. Strongly recomment it. For the price, I'd get the Samsung PRO 256gb...just make sure your mobo can handle 2200MBs read speeds... a lot of Z97S mobos can only do 1100mb. To remedy this though, you'll need a spare PCI-E slot and an M.2 to PCI-E Adapter. Also having Windows 10 does help with m.2 nvme drivers.

[Deli]

1 hour ago, e4matt said:

I have the samsung PRO 256GB.. as my boot drive...and it's a beast, I can't even get to BIOS fast enough because it boots so fast. Good problem to have. Strongly recomment it. For the price, I'd get the Samsung PRO 256gb...just make sure your mobo can handle 2200MBs read speeds... a lot of Z97S mobos can only do 1100mb. To remedy this though, you'll need a spare PCI-E slot and an M.2 to PCI-E Adapter. Also having Windows 10 does help with m.2 nvme drivers.

Go to BIOS has nothing to do with the speed of your boot drive.

[Bill Silverlight]

4 minutes ago, Speedbird said:

It's not wroth it to go M.2. You'll have to manually specify the location of a program to install every time, or edit the registry and risk screwing up your system

 

Just install Windows on one of your Sandisks. Boot times don't really get much faster than 10 seconds anyway

Thanks for your reply!

I have been using seperate boot and program drives for years now, I'm not too worried about that. But then you would recommend simply getting another traditional SSD rather than a more expensive M.2?

2 minutes ago, e4matt said:

I have the samsung PRO 256GB.. as my boot drive...and it's a beast, I can't even get to BIOS fast enough because it boots so fast. Good problem to have. Strongly recomment it. For the price, I'd get the Samsung PRO 256gb...just make sure your mobo can handle 2200MBs read speeds... a lot of Z97S mobos can only do 1100mb. To remedy this though, you'll need a spare PCI-E slot and an M.2 to PCI-E Adapter. Also having Windows 10 does help with m.2 nvme drivers.

Great to have first-hand advice!

[e4matt]

Just now, Deli said:

Go to BIOS has nothing to do with the speed of your boot drive.

Just emphasizing how fast it is, I press the ON button on my case, and I'm already loading into windows 10.... I don't even see the boot screen for clicking <DEL> to get to BIOS. I literally have to use MSI Fast Boot once I am in Windows 10 to have it restart my computer to get into BIOS.

[Deli]

1 hour ago, e4matt said:

Just emphasizing how fast it is, I press the ON button on my case, and I'm already loading into windows 10.... I don't even see the boot screen for clicking <DEL> to get to BIOS. I literally have to use MSI Fast Boot once I am in Windows 10 to have it restart my computer to get into BIOS.

It is in the settings in the BIOS that determine how long the window opens to go to BIOS, not the speed of the boot drive. The system will first go to BIOS before the OS will be loaded.

[Speedbird]

8 minutes ago, Bill Silverlight said:

Thanks for your reply!

I have been using seperate boot and program drives for years now, I'm not too worried about that. But then you would recommend simply getting another traditional SSD rather than a more expensive M.2?

That's all up to you. You can save money by going for a traditional SATA drive, or you can get on the bleeding edge with M.2 and NVMe. The former will save you some money, the latter will give you the latest and greatest and reduce your boot time by a few seconds

[e4matt]

Just now, Deli said:

It is in the settings in the BIOS that determine how long the window opens to go to BIOS, not the speed of the boot drive.

w/e. 

Samsung 950 PRO is awesome for the price, plus m.2 is almost the size of a credit card cut in half length-wise and stacked... who likes fumbling around for sata/power cables, anyways.