SSD question; 1tb 860 evo+250 960 evo or just a single 1tb 960 evo?

[Halazar]

I'm building a high-end gaming system(to pair with a streaming box to stream), and I was thinking about what kind of storage it would need.

The current build is like this;

Spoiler

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor  (Purchased For €315.00) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H150i PRO 47.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (€171.71 @ Amazon Italia) 
Thermal Compound: Thermal Grizzly - Kryonaut 1g 1g Thermal Paste  (€10.19 @ Amazon Italia) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (Purchased For €224.00) 
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (Purchased For €207.00) 
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€280.00) 
Storage: Toshiba - X300 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€126.44 @ Amazon Italia) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB K|NGP|N GAMING Video Card  (€1050.00) 
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro M Tempered Glass (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (€112.99 @ Amazon Italia) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€115.99 @ Amazon Italia) 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home Full 32/64-bit  (€150.00 @ Amazon Italia) 
Case Fan: Corsair - LL120RGB LED (Three Fans With Lighting Node PRO) 43.2 CFM  120mm Fans  (€93.46 @ Amazon Italia) 
Case Fan: Corsair - LL140 RGB LED (TwoFans With Lighting Node PRO) 51.5 CFM  140mm Fans  (€77.83 @ Amazon Italia) 
Other: Corsair Fan Controller Commander Pro (CL-9011110-WW)  (€65.45 @ Amazon Italia) 
Total: €3000.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-23 17:57 CET+0100



Don't give me shit for the fans, they're mostly a placeholder for the future fans... or maybe not I don't know if I want to be a RGB shitter or not yet

I initially tought of buying a normal HDD(the Toshiba one, 120€ for 4 gb; WD black is too pricy imho) for random softwares & files, and storing games that I feel don't need an SSD, and a SATA SSD like Samsung 860 EVO/Crucial MX500(leaning towards the Samsung for the longer warranty, but the Crucial is like 50€ less for the same space!) 1TB for games that I want to be on an SSD/games I play the most.

Now, it has come to my attention that a NVMe SSD is much, much faster also in reading speeds for games and everyday use than a SATA SSD, but the perception of the performance is roughly the same(gaming wise); so I tought I'd buy a 256GB 960 EVO to install the OS and critical softwares on(like Steam, OBS and the like just to have that incredible performance), games I prefer on the SATA SSD, and all the rest on the HDD.

 

But now it got me thinking; is it really worth to spend 340/390€(110€ for 960 EVO+230€ MX500/280€ for 860 EVO) on a combination of 2 SSDs of different sizes and speeds but with higher combined storage of 1TB+250GB, or it's wiser to either commit to 1 single cheaper SATA SSD(either the MX500 or the 860 evo), or better to just bite the bullet and get 1, single, more expensive NVMe SSD(a 1tb 960 evo for 370€)?


Also, the MX500 is simply the correct choice, right? No point to spend 50€ more... or is it? Is there like, an hidden reason I do not know about?

[Electronics Wizardy]

The nvme really won't be that much faster. You really won't notice going to nvme for most uses, and for program launches, its normally less than a 10% difference.

 

Id personally just go 1tb mx500

[nosirrahx]

In the past we said to google everything but in cases like this a youtube search is better:

NVMe VS. SATA SSD game load times

Search for that and see what you think. It sometimes matters but not very often and often in ways you won't "feel".

 

 

[Halazar]

Just now, nosirrahx said:

In the past we said to google everything but in cases like this a youtube search is better:

NVMe VS. SATA SSD game load times

Search for that and see what you think. It sometimes matters but not very often and often in ways you won't "feel".

 

 

oh I know I did plenty of research, I'm more asking for personal opinions here; I know some games REALLY like SSDs, like I know PUBG and path of exile really benefit from SSDs, but I don't know if they would benefit from much better SSDs, like I've seen some streamers use even high end, 1000€+ Intel SSDs, so there must be a reason for them to use those..

[Elo Gaming]

Do you have available space for m.2?

[Halazar]

4 minutes ago, Elo Gaming said:

Do you have available space for m.2?

You mean on the motherboard? yes, it should use the chipset pcie lanes, and in theory allow the 1080ti to utilize all the 16 pcie lanes of the cpu(the i7-8700k is honestly underwhelming for its price)

[Elo Gaming]

Best combination i think would be a mass storage hdd for all you're games such as this one: (both companies are similar in prices)

Seagate Variant:

2tb:https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-BarraCuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST2000DM006/dp/B01IEKG402/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1521826300&sr=8-3&keywords=hard+drive+2tb

4tb:https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-BarraCuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST4000DM004/dp/B071WLPRHN/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1521826542&sr=1-3&keywords=hard+drive+4tb

WD Variant:

2tb:https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Desktop-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B013QFRS2S/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1521826527&sr=8-6&keywords=hard+drive+2tb&dpID=519l6PabkxL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

4tb:https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Desktop-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B013HNYV8I/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1521826542&sr=1-7&keywords=hard+drive+4tb

and a NVMe SSD for your OS and some important apps like this one:

1.https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-960-EVO-Internal-MZ-V6E250BW/dp/B01LYFKX41/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1521826161&sr=1-3&keywords=m.2+ssd&dpID=41VsuUzjcjL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

2.https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1521826161&sr=1-7&keywords=m.2+ssd&dpID=41GJN9qS2CL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

3.https://www.amazon.com/Black-256GB-Performance-SSD-WDS256G1X0C/dp/B01MS6BYJD/ref=sr_1_8?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1521826161&sr=1-8&keywords=m.2+ssd

[nosirrahx]

8 minutes ago, Halazar said:

oh I know I did plenty of research, I'm more asking for personal opinions here; I know some games REALLY like SSDs, like I know PUBG and path of exile really benefit from SSDs, but I don't know if they would benefit from much better SSDs, like I've seen some streamers use even high end, 1000€+ Intel SSDs, so there must be a reason for them to use those..

Easy answer for me, M.2 only.

Its faster sometimes and lets you build a super clean system.

I have built a few systems now that have 0 SATA cables, power or data.

I have also built with one of those crazy fast but crazy expensive Optane SSDs. There is nothing else like it, including the crazy price. IMO, if you have $ to burn spend that on a GPU, CPU and kick ass monitor, those 3 trump everything when gaming.

[nosirrahx]

If $ is no option, this is the setup on my son's gaming rig:

[Halazar]

6 minutes ago, Elo Gaming said:

Best combination i think would be a mass storage hdd for all you're games such as this one: (both companies are similar in prices)

Seagate Variant:

2tb:https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-BarraCuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST2000DM006/dp/B01IEKG402/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1521826300&sr=8-3&keywords=hard+drive+2tb

4tb:https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-BarraCuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST4000DM004/dp/B071WLPRHN/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1521826542&sr=1-3&keywords=hard+drive+4tb

WD Variant:

2tb:https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Desktop-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B013QFRS2S/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1521826527&sr=8-6&keywords=hard+drive+2tb&dpID=519l6PabkxL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

4tb:https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Desktop-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B013HNYV8I/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1521826542&sr=1-7&keywords=hard+drive+4tb

and a NVMe SSD for your OS and some important apps like this one:

1.https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-960-EVO-Internal-MZ-V6E250BW/dp/B01LYFKX41/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1521826161&sr=1-3&keywords=m.2+ssd&dpID=41VsuUzjcjL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

2.https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-500GB-SSD-WDS500G2B0B/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1521826161&sr=1-7&keywords=m.2+ssd&dpID=41GJN9qS2CL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

3.https://www.amazon.com/Black-256GB-Performance-SSD-WDS256G1X0C/dp/B01MS6BYJD/ref=sr_1_8?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1521826161&sr=1-8&keywords=m.2+ssd

I don't think I need more than a 4tb HDD, and in /the/ case(see the pun? in case in the case? ehehehe) I can always add more in the future(I really want a WD black but they're so fucking pricey), but I do want an SSD for games I was just pondering it was worth having a different, much faster for booting and other critical applications or not 

 

4 minutes ago, nosirrahx said:

Easy answer for me, M.2 only.

Its faster sometimes and lets you build a super clean system.

I have built a few systems now that have 0 SATA cables, power or data.

I have also built with one of those crazy fast but crazy expensive Optane SSDs. There is nothing else like it, including the crazy price. IMO, if you have $ to burn spend that on a GPU, CPU and kick ass monitor, those 3 trump everything when gaming.

I wish I could buy 4TBs of SSD but the cost if way too damn high, especially if NVMe ahaha(I think thats what you mean by m.2), so you actually think  one drive for boot up and other applications is useful uh?

 

3 minutes ago, nosirrahx said:

If $ is no option, this is the setup on my son's gaming rig:

 

Spoiler

 

damn your son is lucky  

[genexis_x]

2TB MX500 or Sandisk Ultra 3D/WD Blue 3D. They often on sale. Or try to find 2TB 850 EVO. NVMe don't really provide significant speed boost in normal tasks.

[Halazar]

2 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

2TB MX500 or Sandisk Ultra 3D/WD Blue 3D. They often on sale. Or try to find 2TB 850 EVO. NVMe don't really provide significant speed boost in normal tasks.

2TB is kinda pricey I don't think I can stay in budget  Why the 850 evo over the mx500?

[nosirrahx]

Quote

I wish I could buy 4TBs of SSD but the cost if way too damn high, especially if NVMe ahaha(I think thats what you mean by m.2), so you actually think  one drive for boot up and other applications is useful uh?

A cheap (relatively) NVMe SSD for booting can be paired with expanding storage as your needs go. Start off with a smaller (relatively) SATA SSD and migrate your data to larger and larger SATA drives as your needs grow. Its a simple process as your OS is on a drive you wont be changing. You can research any apps that actually perform better on a NVMe drive and install those there, keep all of the other apps on the SATA drives.

[Halazar]

10 minutes ago, nosirrahx said:

A cheap (relatively) NVMe SSD for booting can be paired with expanding storage as your needs go. Start off with a smaller (relatively) SATA SSD and migrate your data to larger and larger SATA drives as your needs grow. Its a simple process as your OS is on a drive you wont be changing. You can research any apps that actually perform better on a NVMe drive and install those there, keep all of the other apps on the SATA drives.

How do I find out? I've tried doing a very basic google search but only "BEST SSDS 2018" articles pop up lol. Do I have to research each and every software at a time? what a chore!

[nosirrahx]

24 minutes ago, Halazar said:

How do I find out? I've tried doing a very basic google search but only "BEST SSDS 2018" articles pop up lol. Do I have to research each and every software at a time? what a chore!

I have been pretty lucky searching directly for the name of an app on YT with terms like 960.

In general as you move from gaming to content creation to database NVMe becomes more and more important. In gaming it usually does not matter much if at all but in content creation certain apps did seem to like NVMe better on a level that you would feel.