Question 970 EVO 1TB M.2 vs 860 EVO 1TB?

Feb 19, 2019
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I've been debating on whether I should get the 970 EVO 1TB (NVMe M.2) or the 860 EVO 1TB. I will be mostly using my computer for gaming and basic school work.

Can somebody explain to me the difference between the both storage types and if the 970 EVO PLUS is worth the extra $100?
 
What motherboard do you have? Does it have an M2 slot? It's important to know otherwise you may get a SSD that won't work on your system.

The 970 EVO is much faster then the 860. The 970 is a M2 NVMe SSD that connects to your motherboard through the faster PCIe bus. On the other hand the 860 EVO is using the old SATA connection method which is also used by hard drives. The 970 EVO plus is an upgraded version of the 970 EVO and it offers increased performance over older drive. It was released recently and it was supposed to be at the same price level as the older 970 EVO. However it seems to be more expensive right now, but it's price is expected to fall in the near future. Therefore if you can wait for 2-3 weeks you may be able to get a cheaper 970 EVO plus. Otherwise If you want to get a SSD now, I don't think it's worth paying 100$ more for a 970 EVO plus, since the price difference doesn't reflect the performance difference of both drives. On the other hand if you could somehow find both drives at the same price right now the EVO plus is the obvious choice. Good luck.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the 86o EVO comes in 2 versions, one is the M2 version and the 2nd one is the 2.5 SATA (Disk) drive version. But both of them are using the SATA protocol and therefore they have exactly the same performance.
 
Feb 19, 2019
3
0
10
What motherboard do you have? Does it have an M2 slot? It's important to know otherwise you may get a SSD that won't work on your system.

The 970 EVO is much faster then the 860. The 970 is a M2 NVMe SSD that connects to your motherboard through the faster PCIe bus. On the other hand the 860 EVO is using the old SATA connection method which is also used by hard drives. The 970 EVO plus is an upgraded version of the 970 EVO and it offers increased performance over older drive. It was released recently and it was supposed to be at the same price level as the older 970 EVO. However it seems to be more expensive right now, but it's price is expected to fall in the near future. Therefore if you can wait for 2-3 weeks you may be able to get a cheaper 970 EVO plus. Otherwise If you want to get a SSD now, I don't think it's worth paying 100$ more for a 970 EVO plus, since the price difference doesn't reflect the performance difference of both drives. On the other hand if you could somehow find both drives at the same price right now the EVO plus is the obvious choice. Good luck.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the 86o EVO comes in 2 versions, one is the M2 version and the 2nd one is the 2.5 SATA (Disk) drive version. But both of them are using the SATA protocol and therefore they have exactly the same performance.

Thanks for the reply.

I bought the Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi, so it does have a slot for the 970 EVO plus. But as someone who is most likely going to use the computer for games and some school work, a lot of people have been telling me that the difference between the 970 EVO plus and the 860 EVO SSD is little to none. I originally bought the 970 EVO Plus, wanting the best for my new computer, but if the difference won't be felt then I may return it and buy the 860 EVO instead (and save around $100).
 
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Thanks for the reply.

I bought the Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi, so it does have a slot for the 970 EVO plus. But as someone who is most likely going to use the computer for games and some school work, a lot of people have been telling me that the difference between the 970 EVO plus and the 860 EVO SSD is little to none. I originally bought the 970 EVO Plus, wanting the best for my new computer, but if the difference won't be felt then I may return it and buy the 860 EVO instead (and save around $100).

The 970 EVO plus doesn't have big performance difference vs the older 970 EVO. On the other hand the 970 EVO is 3-4x faster than the 860 EVO and I think it's worth paying more. The performance difference can be felted especially for a boot drive but it's true that most of the time you won't be able to experience it. However this is a problem with the most of the current gen software and the fact that it was designed for HDD use and therefore cannot take advantage of the faster NVMe drive. Eventually as future software get smarter and more advanced you will be able to experience the difference a lot more often. Finally yes in gaming you won't be able to see much performance difference right now. So it's up to you to decide which one to buy. However I have one last suggestion. Perhaps you could save some money by getting two 500GB SSDs, one 500GB 970 evo for boot drive and one 500GB 860 evo 2.5 SATA drive. I don't know how much you may be able to save this way, but it's worth considering it. Good luck.