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NVMe SSD Worth It for General Consumers?

TTesla
By TTesla
in Storage Devices
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I know usually the answer is no, but with today's prime day on the 940 EVO (500 gb NVME M.2 for $160), I was wondering if that changes?

I plan on mostly gaming, with occasional other workloads (nothing atypical). Will I notice the difference between a SATA SSD, and an NVME one? Especially considering that even with the prime day sale, SATA SSDs of the same storage capacity are cheaper.

Double check everything, I am usually wrong.

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So far the only SSD I've ever own is in my newest laptop, which only fits an NVMe SSD, and i've never owned a SATA based SSD, so this is kinda biased. I love the speeds it provides. It's very snappy for shut down and restart, took about 7 seconds for a full restart cycle. Programs feel snappier, and file transfers are super speedy. Again, this is from a guy who hasn't owned a SATA based SSD, and hasn't commonly seen this kinda speed before. I think it's a great investment, despite being a bit more expensive for the same storage capacity.

"If it has tits or tires, at some point you will have problems with it." -@vinyldash303

this is probably the only place i'll hang out anymore: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/274320-the-long-awaited-car-thread/

 

Current Rig: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Abit IN9-32MAX nForce 680i board, Galaxy GT610 1GB DDR3 gpu, Cooler Master Mystique 632S Full ATX case, 1 2TB Seagate Barracuda SATA and 1x200gb Maxtor SATA drives, 1 LG SATA DVD drive, Windows 10. All currently runs like shit :D 

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2 minutes ago, terrytek said:

So far the only SSD I've ever own is in my newest laptop, which only fits an NVMe SSD, and i've never owned a SATA based SSD, so this is kinda biased. I love the speeds it provides. It's very snappy for shut down and restart, took about 7 seconds for a full restart cycle. Programs feel snappier, and file transfers are super speedy. Again, this is from a guy who hasn't owned a SATA based SSD, and hasn't commonly seen this kinda speed before. I think it's a great investment, despite being a bit more expensive for the same storage capacity.

You have an M.2 port. That can be used for SATA drives as well. SATA is both a data standard and form factor, M.2 is a form factor, and NVMe is only a standard.

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3 minutes ago, AskTJ said:

If you can saturate the speed of NVME, sure.

I think you mean if I can saturate the speed of SATA, because that's when you'd see a difference. 

 

How do I know if I will or won't?

Double check everything, I am usually wrong.

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1 minute ago, TeenTesla said:

I think you mean if I can saturate the speed of SATA, because that's when you'd see a difference. 

 

How do I know if I will or won't?

If your just gaming, and running windows, the peformance difference is very small. Id personally get a 1tb sata ssd instead.

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5 minutes ago, Daniel Z. said:

You have an M.2 port. That can be used for SATA drives as well. SATA is both a data standard and form factor, M.2 is a form factor, and NVMe is only a standard.

thing is, i got no room for a sata ssd (hp spectre x360) so m.2 ssd upgrade is in the works.

 

and i'm so out of touch with tech these days. *sigh* :/

"If it has tits or tires, at some point you will have problems with it." -@vinyldash303

this is probably the only place i'll hang out anymore: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/274320-the-long-awaited-car-thread/

 

Current Rig: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Abit IN9-32MAX nForce 680i board, Galaxy GT610 1GB DDR3 gpu, Cooler Master Mystique 632S Full ATX case, 1 2TB Seagate Barracuda SATA and 1x200gb Maxtor SATA drives, 1 LG SATA DVD drive, Windows 10. All currently runs like shit :D 

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1 minute ago, terrytek said:

thing is, i got no room for a sata ssd (hp spectre x360) so m.2 ssd upgrade is in the works.

 

and i'm so out of touch with tech these days. *sigh* :/

Yeah, I'll probably be out of touch with tech in the next few years too.

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5 minutes ago, terrytek said:

thing is, i got no room for a sata ssd (hp spectre x360) so m.2 ssd upgrade is in the works.

 

and i'm so out of touch with tech these days. *sigh* :/

I think you might be a bit confused there.

M.2 is the name of the physical port, the thing that the drive goes into.

That port can use the SATA or the NVME standards, which massively affects throughput and speed.

So you might have a M.2 SATA SSD that looks exactly like a M.2 NVME SSD and not realize it unless you looked closer (Manufacturers might do this because it's more space efficient for example).

Luckily, I checked and all the options of the HP Spectre X360 are NVME, so you're good there.

Double check everything, I am usually wrong.

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(sobs)

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5 minutes ago, LienusLateTips said:

(sobs)

Yeah I saw that before I posted, which stopped me from immediately buying the EVO. I posted here in case anything changed since those good ol' days

Double check everything, I am usually wrong.

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NVME is only good if you need to move large data around often.

For the OS/Game performance, the random 4k write/read speeds are just marginaly better vs the good SATA equivalents.

 

I would suggest you to grab something like Crucial MX500 which is a bargain right now.

 

It trades blows with the Samsung 850 EVO and is available just for $105 (500GB) in both 2.5" or M.2 form factors.

The 1TB starts at $185 on Amazon which is an awesome deal for such a good SATA SSD.

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Basically, if you have extremely large file transfers for an extended amount of time, get NVMe. If you're just the average gamer, don't. At most it will be like 2 seconds faster to boot.

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1 hour ago, Droidbot said:

Do you work with large files (RAW images, large video content, etc)?

 

Yes? Then buy NVMe.

 

If no, buy SATA.

 

That's the simple answer.

Does it really much a big difference? Cause I only had a Sata SSD in my laptop, and it feels fast enough for me to work with raw files in lightroom.

 

Because I am going to build my next computer soon, I am really thinking about weather I should get an nvme drive.

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2 minutes ago, Type 2501 said:

Does it really much a big difference? Cause I only had a Sata SSD in my laptop, and it feels fast enough for me to work with raw files in lightroom.

 

Because I am going to build my next computer soon, I am really thinking about weather I should get an nvme drive.

Depends what size RAW tho. If you're working with a 5DSR or A7RIII then go NVMe.

 

Us plebians with 16-21MP cameras, just run HDDs or SATA SSDs

idk

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