[SOLVED] Best type of SSD for performance?

[JRose4123]

I was just watching a video on youtube I stumbled upon about SSD info, and he was explaining each type and the pros and cons.. they basically were saying for the most part the NVMe drives work the best, is that true? I know theyre a little more expensive than the others, but as far as all the form factors (2.5", U.2, M.2, PCI-E..) NVMe's typically have the fastest read and write transfer speeds? I usually prefer the old 2.5" and I have a Samsung 840 evo currently in my system but was debating on switching over to an M.2 when I upgrade my mobo if its worth it? I like the 2.5" 's just cause of how simple and easy they are, but can anyone actually say is it faster and get better performance from one of these SSD types? Are there any other pros to having one vs. a 2.5"

 

[R_1]

it is faster.
However, you are not likely to notice it in daily use outside very special workloads. if you have SATA drives adding an NVME will be no faster when copying from one to the other, slowest device in the chain determines the speed.

aside from the benchmarks numbers the major pro of an m.2 connected drive is the lack of cable clutter, they lie flat on the board.

 

[JRose4123]

it is faster.
However, you are not likely to notice it in daily use outside very special workloads. if you have SATA drives adding an NVME will be no faster when copying from one to the other, slowest device in the chain determines the speed.

aside from the benchmarks numbers the major pro of an m.2 connected drive is the lack of cable clutter, they lie flat on the board.

Right, and the cable issue is the least of my problems but as far as speed I saw the numbers and M.2's looks to be the fastest. So maybe in the future if I got an M.2 NVMe and used that along with a 2/3tb hard drive as my secondary that still wouldnt be super fast?

 

[hang-the-9]

I was just watching a video on youtube I stumbled upon about SSD info, and he was explaining each type and the pros and cons.. they basically were saying for the most part the NVMe drives work the best, is that true? I know theyre a little more expensive than the others, but as far as all the form factors (2.5", U.2, M.2, PCI-E..) NVMe's typically have the fastest read and write transfer speeds? I usually prefer the old 2.5" and I have a Samsung 840 evo currently in my system but was debating on switching over to an M.2 when I upgrade my mobo if its worth it? I like the 2.5" 's just cause of how simple and easy they are, but can anyone actually say is it faster and get better performance from one of these SSD types? Are there any other pros to having one vs. a 2.5"

M.2 drives take up no space on the case so can make the build neater looking. Aside from that don't worry about the speed differences, it's there for nvme but not enough to spend time debating what to pick.

 

[JRose4123]

M.2 drives take up no space on the case so can make the build neater looking. Aside from that don't worry about the speed differences, it's there for nvme but not enough to spend time debating what to pick.

I see, so ultimately its not really worth it to spend the extra $, and not a noticeable difference right? Yes it does it look nicer but I could care less about putting in a 2.5" drive cause thats what I prefer, but if its almost the same as far as speed than I guess Ill just stick to my 2.5

 

[CountMike]

"Noticeable" is in the eye of beholder, I have Samsung 960 evo and a Kingston A200 SSDs on same machine. I also have Windows 10 on both of them in dual boot. Times when I can see difference is when windows is updating or SW that writes a lot on disk. Windows update finishes faster but what is even more important is that NVME drive produces much less load on system, using only 10 -15% of disk usage while doing same thing on SATA SSD nails it's usage to 100% most of time which also raises memory and CPU usage and lowers performance making it more difficult to run programs at that time. Other than that only couple of seconds of faster BOOT times.

 

[mwstephenson85]

I see, so ultimately its not really worth it to spend the extra $, and not a noticeable difference right? Yes it does it look nicer but I could care less about putting in a 2.5" drive cause thats what I prefer, but if its almost the same as far as speed than I guess Ill just stick to my 2.5

I think if your motherboard supports m.2 (which it seems it does) that you should get at minimum 1. m.2 drive for it, so it can be your os/boot drive.

I realize people are saying you won't notice a difference, but it is nice to have 1. Even some of the cheapest m.2 drives in small sizes like 256GB would work and be faster than 90% of sata ssd's. Honestly the prices are so good right now and if you look for the right drive you can get like 2000 read/write for amazing deals right now. It's not like it was before.

So I think what you are looking for is:

1. M.2 drive 256-512GB as your boot/os drive (also work drive if you do some editing etc.)
2. Sata SSD 1-2TB ( look for the best price per GB )
3. 6-12TB HDD (Mass storage)
4. external HDD (portable)

Something Like this.

But Yes I think you should get at least 1 m.2 and yes I think you should try to find one with some speed.
I think it matters and you will want it.

 

[JRose4123]

I think if your motherboard supports m.2 (which it seems it does) that you should get at minimum 1. m.2 drive for it, so it can be your os/boot drive.

I realize people are saying you won't notice a difference, but it is nice to have 1. Even some of the cheapest m.2 drives in small sizes like 256GB would work and be faster than 90% of sata ssd's. Honestly the prices are so good right now and if you look for the right drive you can get like 2000 read/write for amazing deals right now. It's not like it was before.

So I think what you are looking for is:

1. M.2 drive 256-512GB as your boot/os drive (also work drive if you do some editing etc.)
2. Sata SSD 1-2TB ( look for the best price per GB )
3. 6-12TB HDD (Mass storage)
4. external HDD (portable)

Something Like this.

But Yes I think you should get at least 1 m.2 and yes I think you should try to find one with some speed.
I think it matters and you will want it.

Yeah thats mostly what I'm thinking too. But no, my mobo is older its an ASUS P6X58D-E over like 10 yrs old something like that That doesnt have any m.2 slots, I think it was once of the first boards that came out around when USB3.0 was 'newer' . but still runs fine with my currents specs. I do wanna upgrade some stuff soon so it runs even better/faster since I think its time now. I wanna get a new mobo/cpu/ram/ and I guess an M.2. But overall yes it seems a little better to get an M.2/NVMe, seems like it might be worth it for me, and I'd prob spend the extra and get something a little bigger like a 1tb or close to that. Right now I currently have a Samsung 840 evo 1tb sata SSD, and a WD 2tb 7200rpm I used as my old but now a secondary. But eventually I'm sure ill upgrade and get an NVMe to use as my boot drive and Ill be happier with that.

 

[mwstephenson85]

Yeah thats mostly what I'm thinking too. But no, my mobo is older its an ASUS P6X58D-E over like 10 yrs old something like that That doesnt have any m.2 slots, I think it was once of the first boards that came out around when USB3.0 was 'newer' . but still runs fine with my currents specs. I do wanna upgrade some stuff soon so it runs even better/faster since I think its time now. I wanna get a new mobo/cpu/ram/ and I guess an M.2. But overall yes it seems a little better to get an M.2/NVMe, seems like it might be worth it for me, and I'd prob spend the extra and get something a little bigger like a 1tb or close to that. Right now I currently have a Samsung 840 evo 1tb sata SSD, and a WD 2tb 7200rpm I used as my old but now a secondary. But eventually I'm sure ill upgrade and get an NVMe to use as my boot drive and Ill be happier with that.

O wow so you have been running an Extreme edition gen 1 cpu all this time. I'm guessing 4 core 8 hyperthreading. Something like 3.2ghz - 4.0ghz boost. Prolly 16GB of ram at 1600mhz ddr2 but maybe u went for 32GB because they were pushing that even then lol, but i think u have 16 don't know why. I think your bios is legacy on that board too so can't use new AMD cards. To be honest its still possible to pull like 60FPS @ 1080p with ultra settings on along of new games in system like that with a rtx 2060 super for example. But most people would say you are crazy for doing it. I think if you build a new pc you should keep this one and run it until the wheels fall off. Makes a good 2nd pc. It's had a good run lol. But ya you are for sure approaching the time where u might want to seriously consider building a new computer all together soon. I know you went extreme on this rig, but the game has changed abit and by this I mean you can build an extreme gaming rig for much cheaper now, but it won't be extreme for streaming at the same time or doing video editing etc. So if you take anything away from this just an example is a ryzen 3700x for example would be extreme for your gaming cpu @ like $273.00 right now but the way you built your pc before is you went all out and I understand that not saying you shouldn't do that this time, but if you were to get a 3900x it really becomes more of like are you wanting to game at ultra settings while also streaming and recording in hd etc. I hope all that makes sense because you don't need to feel bad if you save some money. Just don't go low on your graphics card. Go all out on the new RTX 3080 ti or something and then just get a decent mobo ( not the best but not the worst) some good bang for buck ram @ like 3600mhz CL 16 If you want to go intel again the regular 9900k is a fine chip it is better for gaming so Well im done ranting. Just know that if we are talking just the tower and components inside you should be able to get a massive upgrade for like $1,500- $2,000 and this number is mainly so high because the $2,000 is assuming you will drop $1,000 + on the new RTX 3080/90 ti which you should definitely do lol.

I guess realistically what you would really want is to spend $2,500 though but $2,000 is not bad its just with the 3080 ti ( wait until it releases) you are gonna be cutting in close @ $2,000 so $2,500 is more realistic also you don't have to go this high you could get a 3080 super or something so don't listen to me, but I think $2,500 is what u want don't ask me why, but I think its what u really want to do even if ur budget doesn't want to do it.

I do think if you were to build this $2500 system though you can ride a nice long wave of it like u did ur old system. Just have to updgrade GPU again sometime in like 2025. Then ride it to 2030 or something.

You could also go the route of not getting the best GPU but like 2nd-3rd best and upgrade your gpu 3-4 times over the course of 10 years.
So like a 3070 super then in 2023 mid u grab a new mid card etc. and that keeps your peformance up and lets u get new features that may not be on previous cards depending on what changes. Ok sorry for wall of text.

 

[JRose4123]

O wow so you have been running an Extreme edition gen 1 cpu all this time. I'm guessing 4 core 8 hyperthreading. Something like 3.2ghz - 4.0ghz boost. Prolly 16GB of ram at 1600mhz ddr2 but maybe u went for 32GB because they were pushing that even then lol, but i think u have 16 don't know why. I think your bios is legacy on that board too so can't use new AMD cards. To be honest its still possible to pull like 60FPS @ 1080p with ultra settings on along of new games in system like that with a rtx 2060 super for example. But most people would say you are crazy for doing it. I think if you build a new pc you should keep this one and run it until the wheels fall off. Makes a good 2nd pc. It's had a good run lol. But ya you are for sure approaching the time where u might want to seriously consider building a new computer all together soon. I know you went extreme on this rig, but the game has changed abit and by this I mean you can build an extreme gaming rig for much cheaper now, but it won't be extreme for streaming at the same time or doing video editing etc. So if you take anything away from this just an example is a ryzen 3700x for example would be extreme for your gaming cpu @ like $273.00 right now but the way you built your pc before is you went all out and I understand that not saying you shouldn't do that this time, but if you were to get a 3900x it really becomes more of like are you wanting to game at ultra settings while also streaming and recording in hd etc. I hope all that makes sense because you don't need to feel bad if you save some money. Just don't go low on your graphics card. Go all out on the new RTX 3080 ti or something and then just get a decent mobo ( not the best but not the worst) some good bang for buck ram @ like 3600mhz CL 16 If you want to go intel again the regular 9900k is a fine chip it is better for gaming so Well im done ranting. Just know that if we are talking just the tower and components inside you should be able to get a massive upgrade for like $1,500- $2,000 and this number is mainly so high because the $2,000 is assuming you will drop $1,000 + on the new RTX 3080/90 ti which you should definitely do lol.

I guess realistically what you would really want is to spend $2,500 though but $2,000 is not bad its just with the 3080 ti ( wait until it releases) you are gonna be cutting in close @ $2,000 so $2,500 is more realistic also you don't have to go this high you could get a 3080 super or something so don't listen to me, but I think $2,500 is what u want don't ask me why, but I think its what u really want to do even if ur budget doesn't want to do it.

I do think if you were to build this $2500 system though you can ride a nice long wave of it like u did ur old system. Just have to upgrade GPU again sometime in like 2025. Then ride it to 2030 or something.

You could also go the route of not getting the best GPU but like 2nd-3rd best and upgrade your gpu 3-4 times over the course of 10 years.
So like a 3070 super then in 2023 mid u grab a new mid card etc. and that keeps your performance up and lets u get new features that may not be on previous cards depending on what changes. Ok sorry for wall of text.

Haha yeah I will at some point, maybe when I get some Unemployment $ from all the time I didnt or another stimulus, but soon yeah Id like to at least upgrade my mobo/cpu/ram, I have a decent 2.5 ssd but I kinda wanna upgrade for something better performance.
Currently right now yeah my rig I have now is great and works fine, I dont game or do streaming or any of that, but I got a 1st gen Intel o7-960, so yeah its older cause I built this comp like over 10 years ago and 22 gb ram and the mobo I guess is basic. But it all runs nice, I just wanted something fast and that would last.
But I did some calculations and for all the stuff Im gonna wanna upgrade Id prob need around at least $1000, but actually with a new SSD prob a little more so around that