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Recommendations for two SSDs (system and games separately)

J

jdempsey

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 26, 2017
Messages
199
Hi guys, I've been on an upgrade cycle with my main gaming rig (recent upgrade to a watercooled 1080ti, no a i7-8700k and new MB), and now that I'm doing that, I want to upgrade my main system drive to an m.2 ssd, and get a secondary drive for games.

Currently I'm using an older 128GB Samsung 840 Pro for my boot drive, which doesn't leave much space for anything else of course, and a couple of 4TB 3.5" sata HDDs for games, etc.


Works fine, but with a newer MB, I'd like to take advantage of M.2 options for case organization and gains in boot speed, etc., and I'd also like to get a 1TB SSD to put games on. I know it's not a world of performance difference, but I do have a few load heavy games I play regularly (and with Rust for example, crash regularly, and reloading takes forever).

Obviously I know there's not much advantage (possibly the opposite) to getting a single large m.2 drive to put the OS on and games, so I'm wondering what you guys feel is the best performance/value option for:

a) a 250-500GB m.2 boot/OS drive, favoring performance here. I know there's not a lot of perceivable difference between say a 860 and 960 evo, but I'll spend a few more bucks for better performance here, as long as it's not at the expense of reliability.

b) a 1TB or greater secondary drive, sata or m.2, for games, where value takes a higher priority, since I know the performance difference here will be minuscule.


What I'm thinking thus far, is something like a 256GB 960 EVO/PRO for my boot drive, and then the Crucial MX500, or an 860 EVO for games.


I'm expecting to see some boxing-day/x-mas return sales in the next week, so I'm trying to get my ducks in a row, and want to make sure I"m on the right track.. I don't keep up on storage tech much, so let me know if there's some great option I'm missing here?


Thanks guys!
 
Well, now I'm seeing all the benchmarks that show the much lower performance of the smaller Samsung SSDs over the larger ones and realizing it's less simple than I hoped lol..
 
So looking for the best cost/performance for a boot drive, only really needing 250gb, what do you guys think is the best option?
 
First, you seem to be confusing m.2. It's a physical interface that supports multiple protocols. For SSDs m.2 can be either SATA or NVMe (PCIe) (subject to mainboard support, of course).

There's no perceptible real-world benefit to NVMe SSDs for gaming (and most every other home use) systems. Save some money and skip that, and get a SATA unit instead. This page has some good numbers that show this.

Also, as you've noticed, larger SSDs tend to have better performance relative to smaller, otherwise identical units. This is true across all brands and for both SATA and NVMe. It's inherent in the way the drives are designed, how many NAND flash chips are used that the reads/writes will be split across (e.g. a 256 GB drive may use two, while a like 1 TB unit would use eight).

Were I in your spot I'd get a single 1 TB m.2 SATA SSD for both the OS and any apps/games.
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
First, you seem to be confusing m.2. It's a physical interface that supports multiple protocols. For SSDs m.2 can be either SATA or NVMe (PCIe) (subject to mainboard support, of course).

There's no perceptible real-world benefit to NVMe SSDs for gaming (and most every other home use) systems. Save some money and skip that, and get a SATA unit instead. This page has some good numbers that show this.

Also, as you've noticed, larger SSDs tend to have better performance relative to smaller, otherwise identical units. This is true across all brands and for both SATA and NVMe. It's inherent in the way the drives are designed, how many NAND flash chips are used that the reads/writes will be split across (e.g. a 256 GB drive may use two, while a like 1 TB unit would use eight).

Were I in your spot I'd get a single 1 TB m.2 SATA SSD for both the OS and any apps/games.
Click to expand...



Ok no, I wasn't confusing the two specs for the same interface, and yes, I realize there's no real world advantage of using NVMEe SSD for gaming. I guess I didn't make it clear that I was not looking for a M.2 drive for the gaming drive, and was already planning to use a 2.5" sata drive for this purpose (or m.2, if there was a better contender for price/performance, I have the slots on the new MB, so it was an option).


I simply want an M.2 (yes nvme) drive for the system drive to save physical case space and reduce cable management and clutter, and take advantage of the minuscule potential performance gains for the OS (boot time, whatever, I'm spending money, I may as well upgrade a bit, do I need it? No, technically my old 840 is sufficient, but I'd like a bit more space on this drive and might as well hedge for a few more years).


I may end up going with a single drive, but right now I'm considering going with an OEM SM961 (m.2 nvme) in 256gb for my boot drive, which I can get for around $125 and a Crucial MX500 (2.5" sata) 1tb for my game drive, which is $250. That puts me about $100 less than I can get a 1TB 960 evo in any form factor. Although I can of course get an older 850 1TB for cheaper than either of these options. I haven't found a hard chart comparing, but from what I've seen the SM961 (OEM 960 Pro?) seems to offer better performance in the smaller capacity than the 960 evo's do.



Am I overthinking, or making this more difficult than necessary? Probably, but in all honesty I had no "need" to do any upgrading, or even have a computer in the first place, let alone justification for all the money I've been spending on this machine lately, other than, I "want". On the other hand, I enjoy researching my options, and figuring out where my "value" comfort zone is.
 
I can see where I"m confusing you, re-reading my post.


What I'm not getting however, is what option saves me money over the option I'm considering (sm961 and mx500), in a single m.2 1tb drive, nvme, sata, or otherwise, let along offers better potential value?


I'm guessing that'll read as argumentative, and it's not my intent. I'm asking for specific recommendations, considering the hardware I'm coming from, and my intent to make an "upgrade", perceptible or not.


Either way, the feedback is appreciated. Thanks!
 
I am seeing PM961 1TB models (OEM 960 evo) new pulls for about $375, so that may be a good option also, although maybe riskier from a warranty standpoint.
 
If you really want a nvme based m.2 for your boot drive*, just get a samsung//WD/Crucial (if they make them) 256gb drive for the best price you can find. Then a 500gb to 1tb 2.5'' ssd for your games. I definately prefer splitting the boot drive and major program/games drive. It makes backing up your OS a lot quicker/easier.


*I too really don't think nvme is worth it, nor the pro vs evo price difference for most people but your cash, your call.
 
Ranulfo said:
If you really want a nvme based m.2 for your boot drive*, just get a samsung//WD/Crucial (if they make them) 256gb drive for the best price you can find. Then a 500gb to 1tb 2.5'' ssd for your games. I definately prefer splitting the boot drive and major program/games drive. It makes backing up your OS a lot quicker/easier.


*I too really don't think nvme is worth it, nor the pro vs evo price difference for most people but your cash, your call.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I definitely like splitting these drives also.


I'm not obsessed about the nvme thing, it's just, that I'm not seeing any significantly cheaper options for that smaller boot drive, in m.2 sata. Maybe I'm missing them.
 
cybereality said:
Are you sure about that? I saw this video which clearly shows the NVMe drive killing SATA.
https://www.techspot.com/news/67222-storage-real-world-performance-nvme-vs-sata-vs-hdd.html
Click to expand...


Those results are contrary to just about every other comparison I've seen, and seem a bit suspect. Also, there are no indications as to what their testing criteria/methodology is, even in their full review. We don't even know what hardware is being used, drivers installed, etc., and only know the OS is some form of Win 10 from the video. Are they stringent in making sure everything is identical for every drive tested? Compare that to the Tech Report review I linked to previously, which dedicates a full page to the subject.

Also, while good, solid units (I have a few M4s and M500s still kicking), Crucial's SSDs have never been the fastest. A better comparison would have been against the 850 Pro. This also would have leveled the playing field somewhat in that whatever caching trickery and such that's probably going on behind the scenes (we do know they used Samsung's drivers/software for the tests, a fail in itself as it doesn't apply to any other drives) would apply to both drives.
 
Yeah, I am honestly interested to find the answer and don't give too much trust to just one site.

Right now I'm checking out the new Crucial MX500 SATA drive, which looks really nice and $200 cheaper than the Samsung NVMe. Just trying to figure out if M.2 NVMe will be that much better in real-world than a standard SSD, but it seem there may not be a big difference.
 
Yeah, the MX500 according to pretty much every review out there, is not in contention for fastest SSDs, but everyone seems to think it makes a great choice when you want "not the fastest SSD" and pretty much beats anything else out there price wise for storage size, even freshly released and at retail price.


I went ahead and ordered a 256GB PM961 pull off ebay to use for my boot drive, and unless I see some really compelling sale prices to make any other 1TB SSDs competitive with the MX500, will be ordering one of those also for my games.
 
Hi! , yeah 480gb nvme is what you seek for boot and a good handful of few things...anything else just get SATA's or traditional Hardrive imo.
 
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