Question Advice on upgrading storage ?

[AceOfSpadeZx]

I got an old pc from my uncle and want to upgrade the storage for it. I will also be using it for a gaming PC. It currently has a 400GB intel 750 series SSD and like three extra 1tb each HDD . For the 3 HDD only 1 of them is showing up in the disk management. I don't know much about PC, but want to upgrade the storage to be 2TB. I want an NVMe since they were said to be fast as well. I just want to know what I can buy for it to be compatible with my pc. I want to keep the 1 HDD for video storage as well (its connected to SATA6).

Motherboard: MSI Godlike x99 Carbon Fiber
~~~Storage Manual ~~~

• Intel X99 Express Chipset
•10x SATA 6Gb/s ports (2 x ports compatible with 1 x SATA Express port)*
- SATA1~6 support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10
- SATA7~10 ports only support IDE mode and AHCI mode
- Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology (Windows 7/ 8/ 8.1)

• 1 x SATA Express port*
• 1 x M.2 port, supports M.2 SATA 6Gb/s module* or M.2 PCIe module up to 32Gb/s speed**
- M.2 port supports 4.2cm/ 6cm/ 8cm length module
- M.2 PCIe module does not support RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 5 and RAID 10

• The SATA5 and SATA6 ports will be unavailable when installing a M.2 SATA interface module in the M.2 port.
• The SATA Express port/ SATA5~6 ports will be unavailable when installing the M.2 SATA interface module in the M.2 port.

 

[Aeacus]

Holy hell... MSI Godlike. Someone surely had loads of money to burn. 🙄

It has one M.2 PCI-E 3.0 (Gen3) slot, meaning that the best/fastest NVMe SSD you could put there, would essentially be Samsung 970 Evo Plus,
review: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-970-evo-plus-ssd,5608.html
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/BDYLrH,TwWfrH,Zxw7YJ,Fv8j4D/

The 2TB version is also my OS drive (Skylake build, full specs with pics in my sig).

While you could put PCI-E 4.0 (Gen4) drive into there as well, e.g Samsung 990 Pro, you will be limited to the speeds of PCI-E 3.0. So, about half what the Gen4 drive is capable of. Better to get PCI-E 3.0 drive (cheaper this way).

 

[AceOfSpadeZx]

Holy hell... MSI Godlike. Someone surely had loads of money to burn. 🙄

It has one M.2 PCI-E 3.0 (Gen3) slot, meaning that the best/fastest NVMe SSD you could put there, would essentially be Samsung 970 Evo Plus,
review: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-970-evo-plus-ssd,5608.html
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/BDYLrH,TwWfrH,Zxw7YJ,Fv8j4D/

The 2TB version is also my OS drive (Skylake build, full specs with pics in my sig).

While you could put PCI-E 4.0 (Gen4) drive into there as well, e.g Samsung 990 Pro, you will be limited to the speeds of PCI-E 3.0. So, about half what the Gen4 drive is capable of. Better to get PCI-E 3.0 drive (cheaper this way).

Thank you for answering! I didn't know that the motherboard was looked bad upon..., but if I was to by a m.2 for it would I have to change where my HDD is located to like SATA port 7 or 8 for it to still function?

 

[AceOfSpadeZx]

Okay I have done some research base on what you have provided I think I will be getting a Samsung 990 Pro with heatsink with a PCIE adapter and will just stick it into a PCEI slot since the motherboard have 6 slots. I am buying the 990 because if I am to upgrade, whenever, then I can just use it again, its also on sale. It will also not mess with my HDD stat 6 port since I am not putting it into the m.2 slot. I also understand that it will not allocate the max speed the 990 will offer since my motherboard is old, but its mainly for upgrade down the road. Do you think this is okay or would it not be compatible with it?

 

[Aeacus]

I didn't know that the motherboard was looked bad upon...

Not that it is frowned upon, but the thing is, MSI Godlike MoBos are the best what money can buy and filled to the brim with all kinds of features + then some. Also, they cost a fortune. It costed $600 USD, back in 2016 when it was released. That is A LOT of money just for a MoBo back then. E.g my MSI Z170A Gaming M5 costed me €176.90 ($190 USD) in 2016. That's three times less and mine is high-end MoBo.

At current date, MSI Godlike MoBos, e.g Z790 Godlike, will cost $1150 USD. Only select few are able to afford such a MoBo. Most of the people would buy ~$200 USD MoBo and use the rest of the money to get better CPU or GPU.

But i digress.

but if I was to by a m.2 for it would I have to change where my HDD is located to like SATA port 7 or 8 for it to still function?

With ample SATA ports, 10x in total (e.g my MoBo has 6x SATA ports), only two of them would be disabled when having M.2 drive in M.2 slot. Leaving 8x SATA ports free for other, SATA drives (be it SSD or HDD). Now, i can not tell where the HDD is hooked into, so, you may need to change the port if it is hooked to SATA5 or SATA6 port.

I also understand that it will not allocate the max speed the 990 will offer since my motherboard is old

970 Evo Plus would be better fit.

Some numbers;
990 Pro - max read: 7450 MB/s, max write: 6900 MB/s
PCI-E 3.0 - max bandwidth: 4000 MB/s
970 Evo Plus - max read: 3500 MB/s, max write: 3300 MB/s

So, if you go with 990 Pro, what you can get, is about half what the drive can actually deliver. But if you go with 970 Evo Plus, you can get full what drive is able to deliver.
Also, there is negligible diff between the two, even if you could get max speed of 990 Pro (which you can't).

Video comparison:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YoRKQy-UO4

with a PCIE adapter

That adapter can hold 1x NVMe and 1x AHCI drive. What i'm unsure about, is if you can put bootable OS on the drive when using PCI-E adapter. But it should work fine as data drive. Btw, that adapter is no faster than the dedicated M.2 slot on your MoBo.

Also, you need to plug that adapter into 4th PCI-E x16 slot (when counting from the top) and go to BIOS and put the PCI-E slots into 2-way mode, so that the 4th slot would be enabled and would work in x8 mode (or in x16 mode if CPU has 40x PCI-E lanes).

By default, MoBo PCI-E slot allocation would be in 1-way mode (only 1st PCI-E slot activated, others disabled). Though, you need to confirm that from BIOS, since your uncle could've changed the PCI-E slot allocation based on their use.

 

[AceOfSpadeZx]

Not that it is frowned upon, but the thing is, MSI Godlike MoBos are the best what money can buy and filled to the brim with all kinds of features + then some. Also, they cost a fortune. It costed $600 USD, back in 2016 when it was released. That is A LOT of money just for a MoBo back then. E.g my MSI Z170A Gaming M5 costed me €176.90 ($190 USD) in 2016. That's three times less and mine is high-end MoBo.

At current date, MSI Godlike MoBos, e.g Z790 Godlike, will cost $1150 USD. Only select few are able to afford such a MoBo. Most of the people would buy ~$200 USD MoBo and use the rest of the money to get better CPU or GPU.

But i digress.


With ample SATA ports, 10x in total (e.g my MoBo has 6x SATA ports), only two of them would be disabled when having M.2 drive in M.2 slot. Leaving 8x SATA ports free for other, SATA drives (be it SSD or HDD). Now, i can not tell where the HDD is hooked into, so, you may need to change the port if it is hooked to SATA5 or SATA6 port.


970 Evo Plus would be better fit.

Some numbers;
990 Pro - max read: 7450 MB/s, max write: 6900 MB/s
PCI-E 3.0 - max bandwidth: 4000 MB/s
970 Evo Plus - max read: 3500 MB/s, max write: 3300 MB/s

So, if you go with 990 Pro, what you can get, is about half what the drive can actually deliver. But if you go with 970 Evo Plus, you can get full what drive is able to deliver.
Also, there is negligible diff between the two, even if you could get max speed of 990 Pro (which you can't).

Video comparison:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YoRKQy-UO4



That adapter can hold 1x NVMe and 1x AHCI drive. What i'm unsure about, is if you can put bootable OS on the drive when using PCI-E adapter. But it should work fine as data drive. Btw, that adapter is no faster than the dedicated M.2 slot on your MoBo.

Also, you need to plug that adapter into 4th PCI-E x16 slot (when counting from the top) and go to BIOS and put the PCI-E slots into 2-way mode, so that the 4th slot would be enabled and would work in x8 mode (or in x16 mode if CPU has 40x PCI-E lanes).

By default, MoBo PCI-E slot allocation would be in 1-way mode (only 1st PCI-E slot activated, others disabled). Though, you need to confirm that from BIOS, since your uncle could've changed the PCI-E slot allocation based on their use.

Okay, since it doesn't make that much of a difference I will just get the 970 evo plus ( I have this for my laptop and it runs good). Also I forgot to say this as well but, I was not planning on getting rid of the 400GB 750 series storage. I was just gonna use that to hold my OS, while my HDD hold videos, and my new storage hold games and other stuff.

 

[geofelt]

Do not be much swayed by unrealistic vendor synthetic SSD benchmarks.
They are done with apps that push the SSD to it's maximum using queue lengths of 30 or so. They are done on new/clean drives for repeatability.
Most desktop users will do one or two things at a time, so they will see queue lengths of one or two.
What really counts is the response times, particularly for small random I/O. That is what the os does mostly.
For that, the response times of current SSD's are remarkably similar. And quick.
These experts could not tell any difference.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DKLA7w9eeA

Since you are dealing with samsung ssd devices, you can easily move your C drive to any ssd using the samsung ssd migration aid.
App and instructions here:

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

semiconductor.samsung.com

 

[Aeacus]

I was just gonna use that to hold my OS, while my HDD hold videos, and my new storage hold games and other stuff.

I'd phase out HDDs completely, and instead would get Samsung 870 Evo 2TB or 4TB SATA SSD to hold the videos. Because it is much faster than HDD, doesn't make any sounds, runs cooler and doesn't create vibrations as well. Oh, also better reliability. But much better read/write speeds would be the main thing.

I've phased out HDDs in my builds, running SSD only (both M.2 NVMe and 2.5" SATA), while 870 Evo 2TB is the exact one i have in my systems.
Pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/7nsnTW,3CmmP6,RBD7YJ/

2nd video comparison too: 2.5" SSD vs 3.5" HDD;

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j84eEjP-RL4

 

[Bob.B]

I got an old pc from my uncle and want to upgrade the storage for it. I will also be using it for a gaming PC. It currently has a 400GB intel 750 series SSD and like three extra 1tb each HDD . For the 3 HDD only 1 of them is showing up in the disk management. I don't know much about PC, but want to upgrade the storage to be 2TB. I want an NVMe since they were said to be fast as well. I just want to know what I can buy for it to be compatible with my pc. I want to keep the 1 HDD for video storage as well (its connected to SATA6).

Motherboard: MSI Godlike x99 Carbon Fiber
~~~Storage Manual ~~~

• Intel X99 Express Chipset
•10x SATA 6Gb/s ports (2 x ports compatible with 1 x SATA Express port)*
- SATA1~6 support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10
- SATA7~10 ports only support IDE mode and AHCI mode
- Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology (Windows 7/ 8/ 8.1)

• 1 x SATA Express port*
• 1 x M.2 port, supports M.2 SATA 6Gb/s module* or M.2 PCIe module up to 32Gb/s speed**
- M.2 port supports 4.2cm/ 6cm/ 8cm length module
- M.2 PCIe module does not support RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 5 and RAID 10

• The SATA5 and SATA6 ports will be unavailable when installing a M.2 SATA interface module in the M.2 port.
• The SATA Express port/ SATA5~6 ports will be unavailable when installing the M.2 SATA interface module in the M.2 port.

How much storage space does windows show you have?

 

[AceOfSpadeZx]

How much storage space does windows show you have?

It shows about 400GB for C drive and 1TB for D drive.

 

[USAFRet]

It shows about 400GB for C drive and 1TB for D drive.

Screencap of your Disk Management window, please.

 

[Bob.B]

It shows about 400GB for C drive and 1TB for D drive.

Are all hdd's connected?......power+data.

Is storage spaces enabled?