Next upgrade? Wait for M.2 prices to go down?

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LucasG

Gawd
Joined
Jul 2, 2004
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Hey guys, I recently bought an used computer and started upgrading it slowly. I am a bit excited and looking at improving it even more. I have the following right now:
  • ASUS PRIME Z390-A
  • Intel Core i7-9700K
  • Corsair Hydro Series H60 (Upgrading later to start overclocking the CPU)
  • Hynix.lnc HMA82GU7MFR8N-TF 1x16GB 2133MHz (New G.SKILL Ripjaws V 2x8GB DDR4 3200MHz on the way)
  • EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5
  • Dell 24" UltraSharp U2417H
  • Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD
  • Azza PHOTIOS 250 Gaming Case
  • EVGA Supernova 650 G3 650W
To improve general performance I am thinking on getting an Samsung M.2 970 EVO 1TB but I have read the prices should be go down next year, should I wait?

For gaming performance, I've tried doing a little overclocking to the GTX 1070 but it doesn't seem to be a good silicon to OC as just a little bit of OC makes it unstable on most games, specially the memory.

I am basically considering upgrading the SSD to an M.2 from 500GB to 1TB, changing the CPU cooler to OC and then swapping that 1070 for something newer such as a 2080 TI. But maybe should I consider upgrading my monitor first?

What's your suggestion? I do some video editing and gaming at the moment.
 
LucasG said:
But maybe should I consider upgrading my monitor first?
Click to expand...

My teen girl was not around the last time my main rig was something so tiny as 24" or at a resolution as low as 1080p.

Your display is the part of your PC that you most directly interfaces with. also it is the one you will upgrade less often.
 
Difference in real world performance from different SSD interfaces is ... pretty minimal. The big kick is from random access, and you get that regardless of M.2 or plain old SATA3. Most of your time spent waiting on a computer isn't on long contiguous file copies, which would be where you would see benefit from on M.2 PCIe connection.

Yes you should 100% put any upgrade money at a new monitor. Speakers, Peripherals, Chair, and Desk are also good things to invest in (that often get overlooked). Desks can get very expensive around here.
 
geok1ng said:
My teen girl was not around the last time my main rig was something so tiny as 24" or at a resolution as low as 1080p.

Your display is the part of your PC that you most directly interfaces with. also it is the one you will upgrade less often.
Click to expand...

What would you suggest? 4K seems like it's not worthy as yet there's not enough GPU power to have most games perform properly at 60 fps. Would a 1070 work fine with a 2K monitor? What would be the suggested size for a 2K monitor, 27"? The one I had before was 25.5" actually.

Brian_B said:
Difference in real world performance from different SSD interfaces is ... pretty minimal. The big kick is from random access, and you get that regardless of M.2 or plain old SATA3. Most of your time spent waiting on a computer isn't on long contiguous file copies, which would be where you would see benefit from on M.2 PCIe connection.

Yes you should 100% put any upgrade money at a new monitor. Speakers, Peripherals, Chair, and Desk are also good things to invest in (that often get overlooked). Desks can get very expensive around here.
Click to expand...

The idea of the SSD upgrade is mostly for moving big video files as well as having enough space for plenty of games, 500GB is actually not that much for today's titles. The RAM I am already upgrading so that should help a little. Peripherals I am good at the moment. Chair, speakers, keyboard, mouse and microphone.
 
LucasG said:
The idea of the SSD upgrade is mostly for moving big video files as well as having enough space for plenty of games, 500GB is actually not that much for today's titles. The RAM I am already upgrading so that should help a little. Peripherals I am good at the moment. Chair, speakers, keyboard, mouse and microphone.
Click to expand...

Well if your moving those video files all day long, I can see a good use case there. Your right, 500G isn't much for video at all. But if we are just talking once a day or something, personally, I would just get a big capacity spinner to house that video, copy any file I happened to be working on at the moment to the SSD (and if you need more SSD storage, that's fine too, it's not crazy expensive...)

But quality of life, at least for me, would come in on the monitor... and not by just a little bit. Unless your moving those files all day long and just sitting staring at a progress bar for many minutes a day
 
LucasG said:
I am basically considering upgrading the SSD to an M.2 from 500GB to 1TB, changing the CPU cooler to OC and then swapping that 1070 for something newer such as a 2080 TI. But maybe should I consider upgrading my monitor first?
Click to expand...


m.2 can be either SATA or NVMe (PCIe), and the slots on most current mainboards support both. There's probably no reason you couldn't get a larger 860 Evo, Crucial MX500, etc. to put in your system's m.2 slot. You don't have to get a NVMe unit like the 970 Evo to utilize the slot.

As noted, A 2080ti is incredible overkill for a 1080p display. 4k displays, IIRC, are still somewhat marginal in terms of FPS + graphics quality. May want to consider a 1440p G-Sync display instead.


LucasG said:
The idea of the SSD upgrade is mostly for moving big video files as well as having enough space for plenty of games, 500GB is actually not that much for today's titles. The RAM I am already upgrading so that should help a little. Peripherals I am good at the moment. Chair, speakers, keyboard, mouse and microphone.
Click to expand...


Moving them where? If you're archiving on a slower local HDD, NAS, etc. then there's no sense in going NVMe since you'll still be bottlenecked on the other side.
 
Brian_B said:
But quality of life, at least for me, would come in on the monitor... and not by just a little bit. Unless your moving those files all day long and just sitting staring at a progress bar for many minutes a day
Click to expand...

Not really, so I guess I can see the monitor being a much better upgrade. How will I be affected performance wise though going to a bigger monitor with a GTX 1070? Will the G-Sync actually help feel less of a performance hit?

BlueLineSwinger said:
m.2 can be either SATA or NVMe (PCIe), and the slots on most current mainboards support both. There's probably no reason you couldn't get a larger 860 Evo, Crucial MX500, etc. to put in your system's m.2 slot. You don't have to get a NVMe unit like the 970 Evo to utilize the slot.

As noted, A 2080ti is incredible overkill for a 1080p display. 4k displays, IIRC, are still somewhat marginal in terms of FPS + graphics quality. May want to consider a 1440p G-Sync display instead.

Moving them where? If you're archiving on a slower local HDD, NAS, etc. then there's no sense in going NVMe since you'll still be bottlenecked on the other side.
Click to expand...

You are correct, most videos are saved in a NAS, but when editing I do need some space, but it isn't that much. I guess I am trying to justify the upgrade to have more games installed at once and not worry so much about loading/copying speeds.
 
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If it were me I would buy an M.2 sata drive for more space, they are usually the same cost as a 2.5" drive. NVME isn't worth it.

With a 1070 I would run 1080p high refresh rate, or 1440p. To do 1440p high refresh takes something like a 1080ti or 2080. You can get a 1440p high refresh monitor and just play with lower fps and upgrade your GPU later. It depends on what type of games you play and your preference.
 
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