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Buying a new SSD SATA 3 or m.2 for my situation?

Facemelt
By Facemelt
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Go to solution Solved by unholyprfection,

Normally I would recommend Windows on the 100GB SSD, Storage (Pics, videos, ect...) HDD and Games on the larger SSD. If you are working on a video project I would recommend keeping the files you need on the SSD and then moving them to the HDD if you want to save them. as for storing the programs the SSD will allow them to load faster. I personally run Windows on my SSD and games on my HDD (ran out of space on the SSD) Giving windows its own drive (aside from a few smaller programs) I have found that it allows games to run better of the HDD then it use to as they no longer compete for the read/write of 1 disk.

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Hey,

 

new member here. Been following Linus for quite some time and today I found myself with a question that I just can't find a good answer too and I figured it was time to join the forum.

So I am around 2 months away from a new computer but my HDD is acting up (using 100% I/O) and the only things I have on there is Discord and razer stuff AND windows. I thought the Drive could handle it but I guess not.
I have 4 year old 100GB SSD (corsair force GT SATA 3)  that I loaded my main game on to and while running it I think windows can't load properly (I literally get a computer freeze for up too 90 sec). I was thinking of buying a SATA 3 SSD that has amazing write read for large and small files for the price HyperX Savage. 

 

So that is my situation, now for the use of my computer. I haven't fully decided on what kind of build I will be getting with my new computer but it will be used for gaming and Aftereffects/premiere/photoshop for collage. 

 

So for the storage the old SSD is holding up really well since I haven't messed with it so I will be keeping it. Now for the actual question.


On which drives should I store aftereffects/photoshop on which windows and on which my games and with that comes the question is m.2 worth it in my case?

 

I think I should store windows on the old SSD and keep everything else on the new one since the old one is only 100gb and the new one should be 250GB. That should be enough for all the programs with 2-3 games. I don't have any idea how that will effect windows. Is it a problem that it is on a separate drive or not? I can get the mentioned SSD for 120€ in my country while I haven't looked up any m.2's since I don't know if they are worth the money for such use.

Any help and ideas are appreciated since buying an SSD before a new computer is no big deal.

 

Thanks

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Normally I would recommend Windows on the 100GB SSD, Storage (Pics, videos, ect...) HDD and Games on the larger SSD. If you are working on a video project I would recommend keeping the files you need on the SSD and then moving them to the HDD if you want to save them. as for storing the programs the SSD will allow them to load faster. I personally run Windows on my SSD and games on my HDD (ran out of space on the SSD) Giving windows its own drive (aside from a few smaller programs) I have found that it allows games to run better of the HDD then it use to as they no longer compete for the read/write of 1 disk.

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Just now, unholyprfection said:

Normally I would recommend Windows on the 100GB SSD, Storage (Pics, videos, ect...) HDD and Games on the larger SSD. If you are working on a video project I would recommend keeping the files you need on the SSD and then moving them to the HDD if you want to save them. as for storing the programs the SSD will allow them to load faster. I personally run Windows on my SSD and games on my HDD (ran out of space on the SSD) Giving windows its own drive (aside from a few smaller programs) I have found that it allows games to run better of the HDD then it use to as they no longer compete for the read/write of 1 disk.

Seems reasonable yea. Since I should be running only 1 program from each type of storage that should not clog up the data flow. Do you think m.2 is worth it for me or will SATA 3 be more than enough? And do you have any preferences on where to save your browser (chrome) to or does it even matter?

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Just now, Facemelt said:

Seems reasonable yea. Since I should be running only 1 program from each type of storage that should not clog up the data flow. Do you think m.2 is worth it for me or will SATA 3 be more than enough? And do you have any preferences on where to save your browser (chrome) to or does it even matter?

Chrome doesn't really matter. Once it loads it is stored in the RAM. If it takes a long time to load then you could try switching it but it is such a small program that this normally won't be the case. If m.2 offers better read/write at the same price or cheaper then go with it. If not SATA is what mine uses and I find it works great

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For most users m.2 is a waste since it doesn't improve boot times or app launch times, but since you mentioned stuff like premier and photoshop you might want to consider it.

 

As far as I know it won't improve the launch time for those apps but if you store projects and videos and whatnot on the m.2 ssd you'll probably see a performance jump of some sort when exporting files, importing, etc. Anything that does a lot of reads and writes. If you are interested in an m.2 ssd, you should look at the 960 evo. Anything cheaper isn't worth it.

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14 minutes ago, Facemelt said:

Do you think m.2 is worth it for me or will SATA 3 be more than enough?

Big point to understand: M.2 is just a size/shape of SSD, it's not an indication of speed. Both SATA and NVMe SSDs come in the M.2 form factor, and you have to make sure you're buying the one you want. A SATA drive that plugs into M.2 is no faster than the 2.5" version of the same SSD.

 

I would not recommend an NVMe drive at the current prices, at least not for any consumer usage scenario I can imagine. If you planned to spend that much money, just buy a SATA drive with twice the capacity. If you want an M.2 SATA drive for whatever reason, that's probably fine. They're often within only a few dollars of the 2.5" equivalent.

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2 minutes ago, typographie said:

Big point to understand: M.2 is just a size/shape of SSD, it's not an indication of speed. Both SATA and NVMe SSDs come in the M.2 form factor, and you have to make sure you're buying the one you want. A SATA drive that plugs into M.2 is no faster than the 2.5" version of the same SSD.

 

I would not recommend an NVMe drive at the current prices, at least not for any consumer usage scenario I can imagine. If you planned to spend that much money, just buy a SATA drive with twice the capacity. If you want an M.2 SATA drive for whatever reason, that's probably fine. They're often within only a few dollars of the 2.5" equivalent.

Thanks for the imput. I am not gonna go with the m.2 since I would rarely use that much speed anyway and it would cost me 70€ more for the same storage space. Although 3200 MB/s sounds like a damn good deal to upgrade from 550 MB/s I don't think ill ever need it. Or am I wrong?

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9 minutes ago, Facemelt said:

Although 3200 MB/s sounds like a damn good deal to upgrade from 550 MB/s I don't think ill ever need it. Or am I wrong?

You're not entirely wrong. On paper, NVMe is potentially a lot faster than SATA. The problem is actually finding a real usage scenario where you will see/feel that difference. Most of the things you're likely to actually do will already be as fast as they will noticeably get using a good SATA SSD, even if the NVMe drives win on the storage benchmarks.

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the big improvement in NVMe over SATA is IOPS. Que depth is lowered considerably.

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3 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

the big improvement in NVMe over SATA is IOPS. Que depth is lowered considerably.

Well basicaly the same question thanbefore. AFAIK IOPS don't matter untill you hit 100% so what would I need to do with my SATA SSD to hit 100%? The real question I am noticing is basicaly why buy so mcuh if you will almost never use it. Why buy a truck to transport a washing machine. When would i hit 100% IOPS of my SSD if ever?

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2 minutes ago, Facemelt said:

Well basicaly the same question thanbefore. AFAIK IOPS don't matter untill you hit 100% so what would I need to do with my SATA SSD to hit 100%? The real question I am noticing is basicaly why buy so mcuh if you will almost never use it. Why buy a truck to transport a washing machine. When would i hit 100% IOPS of my SSD if ever?

large video projects with a lot of overhead would be one scenario, server file stacking...

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Just now, knightslugger said:

large video projects with a lot of overhead would be one scenario, server file stacking...

Well that answers it then. It would help me maximum once a week and I can waitthat out anyway :D Thanks for all the info.

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