M.2 vs. Sata SSD

[LeeYoh]

Hi guys, so my next plan for upgrade is to get a new ssd.  Looking at the articles and reviews, it seems like m.2 is better?  I need help deciding which one to get so any suggestions are welcome.  I also want to move my OS from HDD to the SSD I plan to buy since start up is getting a little bit slow.  Please suggest any good ( but a little cheap? ) SSD or M.2 for both my games AND operating system.  I currently have Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB filled with games only and I'm not really sure if it was worth getting ( bought it about 5 months ago iirc ).  Thanks guys!

[Max_Settings]

Well regular m.2 drives are not that much better than SATA. The M.2 drives that everyone says are better are PCI-E drives. Those hit around 2000-2500mbps while SATA hit around 500-550 mbps

[Enderman]

Just now, Max_Settings said:

Well regular m.2 drives are not that much better than SATA. The M.2 drives that everyone says are better are PCI-E drives. Those hit around 2000-2500mbps while SATA hit around 500-550 mbps

Only if they are NVME.

There are also non-NVME M.2 drives that are just slightly faster than sata.

The speed difference is not noticeable.

[LeeYoh]

Just now, Max_Settings said:

Well regular m.2 drives are not that much better than SATA. The M.2 drives that everyone says are better are PCI-E drives. Those hit around 2000-2500mbps while SATA hit around 500-550 mbps

Oh right, I was going to ask about the PCI-E version too, but decided not to put it. Can you suggest any good pcie ssd?

[tp95112]

You wont notice a difference. Get a sata one and be done.Id suggest Samsung Evo 

[Max_Settings]

1 minute ago, LeeYoh said:

Oh right, I was going to ask about the PCI-E version too, but decided not to put it. Can you suggest any good pcie ssd?

You really won't notice a difference unless you do large file transfers, but if you want one becasue a lot of people just get them because they can, get the Samsung 960 evo

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, LeeYoh said:

Oh right, I was going to ask about the PCI-E version too, but decided not to put it. Can you suggest any good pcie ssd?

Crucial MX300, SK Hynix SL308, ADATA SU800, Western Digital Blue, Samsung EVO 850...

[TheCherryKing]

NVMe will offer significant performance in certain workloads that require random reads and writes like virtualization. NVMe has more in common with the SCSI protocol than it has with the AHCI protocol. In typical desktop use and gaming NVMe won't really improve performance but in other cases NVMe can have significant performance improvements. 

[Saddy]

14 minutes ago, LeeYoh said:

Oh right, I was going to ask about the PCI-E version too, but decided not to put it. Can you suggest any good pcie ssd?

If your motherboard even supports NVME, you really need to know what you are going to be using it for. 

 

Its kind of like upgrading from a bike to a $400k car to commute to work, or a $600k custom car.  They are both huge steps up, but you won't really notice any big differences that matter for the 600k one compared to the 400k.

[Mira Yurizaki]

For the average consumer, PCIe drives are not worth it because there's not a use case where it will take full advantage of the performance.

 

As some measure of evidence, here's the read bandwidth charts for a Samsung 950 Pro, Samsung 850 Evo, and a 7200RPM HDD. The SSDs basically line up and offers no improvement in loading times.

Spoiler

 

[SPARTAN VI]

^ Is there something similar as the above that shows actual load times? Bandwidth charts are cool, but what we'd actually notice is how quickly or slowly a game/map/level loads.

[agent_x007]

22 hours ago, Saddy said:

If your motherboard even supports NVME, you really need to know what you are going to be using it for. 

There is no such thing as "motherboard NVMe support".
It would be like "PCI-e USB 3.0 adapter support".
Example : LINK.

PS. Also, here's a PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 AHCI drive : LINK