SSD Upgrade Questions

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Langanobob

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I'm upgrading a desktop computer and the motherboard has an empty m2 ssd slot. I have read (on the internet!) that for optimum efficiency it's best to use a separate hdd or ssd for the operating system and programs and another seperate drive for data files.

I think the m2 ssd's are a lot faster than sata ssd's. I already have the operating system and programs on an internal sata ssd. Is it worth it to pay the extra $$ for an m2 ssd and transfer the operating system and programs to it, and use the sata ssd for data files? Data files are mainly photo and video stuff and the programs are video and photo editing, nothing professional just hobby level.

I need to upgrade to a larger drive anyway, I guess part of my question is it worth it to go to an m2 ssd or just get a second sata drive? The wires and space for the second drive are all there already, but so is the empty m.2 slot on the motherboard. Or, the option of getting a single sata drive big enough for the operating system, programs and data files? This may be slower but I probably will not know the difference. Thanks for any comments!
 
M.2 is just a form factor, some drives are sata , others are NVMe drives that use PCI express. NVMe drives are typically faster than their SATA counter parts, usually much faster in terms of linear reads but only marginally faster in terms of random I/O. If you can afford one, I'd just get a single NVMe drive big enough to fit everything.
 
Thanks for the clarification. So, an M.2 slot on a motherboard can take either a SATA or NVMe drive. Getting one larger drive makes more sense and should be sort of competitive pricewise with two smaller drives. I'm playing catch up with my computer knowledge.
 
For hobby and home use I don't think you will notice much of a difference in speed with you OS (may depend on what OS you are using). I use an internal SSD for the OS and running programs but keep all my work and backups on an external spinning (spinning rust) drive. Make sure you have plenty of fast memory! Having said that, having your OS on a separate drive makes it much easier and safer if you need to reinstall the OS.
 
You may want to research if the m2 ssd slot can accept NVME or not.
In terms of speed, it will probably give you fraction of a second faster than the regular SSD hook up to the HD connector.
 
NVMe if the slot will handle it. I just use the one drive m2.0, NVMe and it is faster than my previous Samsung SSD by a wide margin.

If the operating system is on the NVMe drive, the boot up time is greatly reduced. I'm talking like 7 seconds from the time I hit the power button.
You can keep both if you really need the storage space, the SSD/SATA is no slouch either.
 
Just got a 1TB nvme ssd for 32$ on prime day.. it blows the doors off my previous samsung 950 pro nvme .. and laughs at regular sata ssd.
That being said we are talking fractions of a second in real life applications.

It made a huge difference with playing jedi fallen order because the game caches oddly(unreal 4 engine?) and would cause studdering everytime it would load part of the level.
loading it 3x faster really helped the game experience.

clone your current ssd drive to the new nvme drive (I prefer using a 15$ usb enclosure and macrim reflect free for this )
computer off..
then unplug current ssd and put the new m.2 ssd in.

Idea of speed difference:
regular intel ssd maxes out sata around 550MB/s read 500MB/s write
old NVME 256GB samsung 950 pro (cost $360 in 2015) 1300/950 it had been slowing down as it filled it started out at 1500/1200 IIRC.

New sandisk $32 1TB NVME 3420/2882

This is on a 2015 era Skylake i7-6700k system with pci 3.0(normal)


Additional info. If you do use macrim reflect free it will do everything you need it to.. but some of the options are sorta hidden.. ie resizing partitions and such.
there is no auto clone+expand partition option but its not hard. I actually just googled it and watched a 30s of a couple of youtube videos to see where the options are.

other option acronis is 12$ on sale today (my preferred disk cloning/backup software)
 
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How in the world did you get a 1TB SSD for $32? That's below manufacturing cost.

Personally, I would use the biggest drive possible to make it easier to store stuff instead of 2 separate drives, but if you already have 1 SSD and is going to add another one I would say put all your data in the new drive and use the existing one on the program. Most of the large data traffic in video editing is on the data and if your OS / program / swap space / etc are on the boot drive it is easier to manage and faster. Most servers have the boot / program on one drive and the data on other drives for ease of management as well as performance reasons.
 
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PandaBear said:
How in the world did you get a 1TB SSD for $32? That's below manufacturing cost.
Click to expand...
Glad you asked

.
ssd.jpg


-9% cashback I got for the amazon GC.
 
PandaBear said:
Interesting, so the GC Gift and Discover 40% off are for anything not just this particular SSD right?
Click to expand...
it was a bunch of prime day discounts mostly.. had to buy something that day or most would have evaporated.

I am somewhat a deal hunter as some here know.. :whistle:
 
i have still ssd 2,5 disks from previous server "donor", i was afraid how long they last when i bought them new.
here i am, thinking about when they will die, so i have excuse to buy nvme......500mb/s not amused.
 
sk_pete said:
i have still ssd 2,5 disks from previous server "donor", i was afraid how long they last when i bought them new.
here i am, thinking about when they will die, so i have excuse to buy nvme......500mb/s not amused.
Click to expand...

not sure what you mean? what makes 500mbit/sec not amused? your server drives are that slow?
 
I have 2ea Samsung 2TB M.2 NVMe drives on the i9 gaming rig. I do not use other drives for data.

I also have a Samsung SSD SATA-III on my older i7 gaming rig.

The difference in speed is remarkable. With the M.2, pictures load instantly, games refresh very fast, and there are very few things that slow the computer down.

For non gamers, photoshop changes of large pics are an order of magnitude faster. I can see no reason to use other drives if you can afford the M.2 drives for everything.
 
Check the "key" like a, b, or a plus b as m.2 is the form factor as it's the interface or whatever the controller can process and the "key" it uses to connect that dictates what type of ssd it is and id use whatever. if its an a and b key its a sata m.2.

If you have an nvme slot go for it they cost less than sata m.2's now. If you didnt have an nvme slot then you could get a pcie adapter which arent much and use that but id just rather use a regular sata ssd like a wd blue since its cheaper. Hard drives aren't terrible but it shouldn't be allowed to do everything as the small files in the OS really bog it straight down and kill performance. In my old laptop it legit took 6 whole minutes for the poor Hitachi 320 gigger to finally go down from 100% but switching to a 2.5 inch wd blue ssd made the 100% utilization go down in 2 seconds and immediately became usable.

The nvme wd blue in my new laptop is dramless and even says it doesnt support host memory buffer either yet it still has extremely impressive iops which is what matters as sequential is more gimmick while iops are what people experience. After booting by the time task manager auto pops up the utilization already went down to nothing. The sata wd blue is supposed to have a dram cache so it helps its constrained controller.

I'd stick to well known brand names like WD and Samsung as they high quality nvme ssds for not a whole lot. about 120 or less for their 1tb ones. if its a sata m.2 then youre basically limited to the wd blue 500gb but its more expensive than a 2.5 inch and even nvme's. I'd then transfer the os and program files to it and continue to use the HD as mass storage as using it for single queue files isn't bad. Photos and stuff are pretty quick to open when the OS isnt hammering it.
 
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