Best Value M.2 Drive?

[darthpepe]

Hey there, friends!

I just realized, while I was installing a new cooler and cables into my system, that I have an M.2 Slot on my motherboard (the ASRock X99m Extreme4). So I was wondering what a solid drive would be for my boot drive. I'm currently running Windows 10 64 bit off my Crucial BX100 250GB SSD, and I was thinking of getting a drive ONLY for Windows for my M.2 Slot. I don't really care what the price is, but I'd like to keep it as low as possible, especially since I won't need a lot of storage. 128GB or less preferably. I don't NEED it, but I love having my PC be super-duper quick during start up and loading games. That's why I was thinking of throwing my OS on the M.2 and loading games that load slowly on HDDs (battlefield, battlefront, gta v, etc) onto my Crucial.

Also, is it even worth it to invest in the drive? I'm not super familiar with how M.2 works and how it interacts with my motherboard specifically, so I would love to know if I should even get one before I switch Mobos.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Tigerhawk30]

Not exactly the same but I have a 128GB M.2 SSD in my Alienware 17 R3 laptop and Win10 is quite zippy on startup...fastest startup I've personally seen. From pressing the power button to login screen can't be more than 7 seconds on average.

I know you said no more than 128, but Newegg has a deal today on a 256 for not much more than a 128, ends today: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820215023&cm_sp=Homepage_FDD-_-P2_20-215-023-_-04162017

Good luck!

 

[Tigerhawk30]

This one has four out of four excellent reviews, is 128GB and is a lot cheaper: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9TS3JP6992

 

[darthpepe]

Not exactly the same but I have a 128GB M.2 SSD in my Alienware 17 R3 laptop and Win10 is quite zippy on startup...fastest startup I've personally seen. From pressing the power button to login screen can't be more than 7 seconds on average.

I know you said no more than 128, but Newegg has a deal today on a 256 for not much more than a 128, ends today: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820215023&cm_sp=Homepage_FDD-_-P2_20-215-023-_-04162017

Good luck!

That looks like a pretty solid deal, I'm gonna keep a watch on both the 128 and 256 models to see which I want to get when the time comes.

 

[darthpepe]

This one has four out of four excellent reviews, is 128GB and is a lot cheaper: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9TS3JP6992

The problem I have with this one is that it uses SATA III instead of PCI Express, which is going to be just as fast as the SSD I already have, which makes utilizing the M.2 nearly pointless.