Upgrading SSD Boot device

[Tardboy]

Hello boys and girls!

 

I'm currently using a Samsung EVO something SSD as my boot device, but being a PC enthusiast i have decided that i want something cooler. I have been investigating my possibilities in terms of upgrades(M.2, NVME, PCIe), but there is SOOO much information to consider.

It seems that my current hardware has a whole lot to say, in terms of what i can use, and what i cannot.

I figured some of you might already be totally in to how the new generation of insanely fast storage devices work, so i wanted to ask you.

 

I have a 4. gen i7-4790 CPU and a ASUS Sabertooth z97 Mark 1 motherboard.

Which storage device CAN i use, and which SHOULD i get?

 

Thank you for assisting me

[Tardboy]

bump.

Is knowledge in this area rare?

[Captain_WD]

On 1.11.2016 г. at 11:57 AM, Tardboy said:

~snip~

Hi there Tardboy Welcome to the community! 

 

What are you going to do on your system. You can surely use faster storage devices but the question you want to ask yourself is if it will be worth the investment. 

If you are doing simple everyday things such as office work, browsing or gaming you won't see much improvement from going from your regular SATA SSD on a PCIe SSD simply because you already have a quite well-performing system and the improvements would be minor. 

If you are doing a more storage-demanding work you can surely benefit from a PCIe-based SSD. 

 

You don't seem to have a M.2 slot on your motherboard but you seem to have a SATAe port. 

 

You could consider adding a PCIe expansion card with a mSATA or M.2 ports and use a PCIe AHCI M.2 SSD. Check with your manufacturer if your motherboard supports NVMe standards. 

 

Giving us more details on what you are doing on the system will give us a better understanding of what we can give you as advice.

 

Captain_WD. 

[Tardboy]

Thanks for the response.

Even minor improvements are welcome.
I my computer for programming, game development and gaming.

I'm seeing read/write speeds on the PCIe and NVMe based SSDs of up to 3 times my SSD speed.
If i managed to use one of those fast ones as my boot device, wouldn't i be able to boot alot faster?

 

Tardboy

EDIT:
I found this topic
https://pcdiy.asus.com/2015/04/asus-z97-x99-motherboards-intel-750-series-nvme-ssds-all-you-need-to-know/
If it supports the Intel 750 SSDs, will it support Samsung 750 SSDs too?
 

[Captain_WD]

46 minutes ago, Tardboy said:

~snip~

How long is your current boot time? 

You may see some improvements on your boot time, but not necessarily. Try optimizing the way your PC boots by disabling some applications that start on boot. You can do that by going to Start, then Run, type MSCONFIG and clocking OK, clicking on startup tab and see which applications are needed on boot and which can be turned off. 

 

Mind that since you don't have a M.2 slot you could use a PCIe-based SSD directly on the PCI slot which may affect your GPU's performance and take up too much physical space. 

 

I'd consult with the manufacturer of the motherboard about what particular SSDs are supported and which of them would make sense in your case. 

 

Mind that such PCIe SSDs can cost quite a lot. 

 

Captain_WD. 

[Tardboy]

Can you link to any type of PCIe SSD which would fit in this motherboard?

My boot time is not an issue, it's only a few seconds.

I'm just seeking the upgrade because of the pc enthusiast in me, not because i need it

I only have a single GPU, so i dont think physical space is an issue.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Ah, this one's a doozy.

 

Since you don't have an M.2 slot and NVMe needs PCIe x2/x4, you're going to have to stick a converter card in one of the x16 slots. This will drop the PCIe graphics to x8 because configuration shenanigans.

 

But you asked "what should I get?" My answer to that is... nothing. I'm not recommending PCIe based SSD storage because there's no practical improvement over SATA based SSD storage. Just get a larger amount of SATA based storage so more things can benefit from SSDs speeds. Unless you have a specific scenario in which you need that speed, I see no point. It'd be like upgrading to one of those 18-core Xeon processors just because.

[Captain_WD]

39 minutes ago, Tardboy said:

~snip~

Unfortunately, as a Western Digital representative, I can't really recommend other companies' products so I'd suggest to simply look around for feedback and reviews on such drives. 

WD currently doesn't offer PCIe-based consumer SSDs. 

 

Captain_WD. 

[Tardboy]

Okay guys, thank you for your responses.
So should i look for an M.2 slot in my future motherboards?
And what about my SATAExpress port, is that worth anything?

[Captain_WD]

53 minutes ago, Tardboy said:

~snip~

M.2 is a nice form factor that offers some advantaged over 2.5" such as taking up less space, offering more budget-friendly PCI-e AHCI/NVMe based SSDs and so on. It is getting more and more popular so it may be a good thing to have in the future.

 

You may try to check out some potential usages for your SATAe port. Basically, You can use the SATA-Express port to connect either 2 standard SATA devices, or 1 SATA-Express device. Unless you are buying a SATA-Express SSD, you will not see a benefit over using the standard SATA ports.

 

Captain_WD.