[SOLVED] Bought a faster ssd. Should I migrate windows?

[Delhu]

Hey guys,

OS is currently installed on a 500gb 850 evo (I also have a 2tb hdd). I just bought a 970 evo plus 2tb. Should I "migrate" (ie uninstall and reinstall) windows on the 970? Or it won't make a meaningful difference to justify the hassle?
(I plan to keep using the 850)

Thanks,
Delhu

 

[USAFRet]

Whichever the second drive turns out to be, what will you use it for?

I'd be inclined to leave the OS as it is, on the 850.

 

[Leptir]

The 850 EVO is a SATA drive limited by the max bandwidth of the SATA interface. The 970 EVO Plus is an NVMe drive, i.e. a hell of a lot faster. So I would definitely use it for Windows, no question about it. For long and complicated reasons, it won't boot Windows "a hell of a lot faster", but it will be faster.

 

[kanewolf]

The 850 EVO is a SATA drive limited by the max bandwidth of the SATA interface. The 970 EVO Plus is an NVMe drive, i.e. a hell of a lot faster. So I would definitely use it for Windows, no question about it. For long and complicated reasons, it won't boot Windows "a hell of a lot faster", but it will be faster.

The difference in real life usage will be minimal. I agree with @USAFRet. If your OS is already on SSD, leave it be. If you want to do a clean OS install, then do it on the NVMe.

 

[Delhu]

@USAFRet : my initial idea was to keep the OS on the 850 as well as drivers and most if not all of the softs (brave, steam, antivirus/malwares ...), and install my games on the nvme. But a friend of mine had the same reaction as @Leptir and told me to just put everything on the nvme.
Hence my question.

 

[USAFRet]

@USAFRet : my initial idea was to keep the OS on the 850 as well as drivers most if not of the softs (brave, steam, antivirus/malwares ...), and install my games on the nvme. But a friend of mine had the same reaction as @Leptir and told me to just put everything on the nvme.

If the new NVMe is large enough for everything, then yes, move it all to that.
If you're going to continue to use the 850, opinions differ in both directions.

OS and applications on the faster drive
or
games on the faster drive

In reality, for a dedicated game system, you'll see little difference either way.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3AMz-xZ2VM

 

[Karadjgne]

The 850 EVO is a SATA drive limited by the max bandwidth of the SATA interface. The 970 EVO Plus is an NVMe drive, i.e. a hell of a lot faster. So I would definitely use it for Windows, no question about it. For long and complicated reasons, it won't boot Windows "a hell of a lot faster", but it will be faster.

When the speed limit is 70mph, does it matter if the minivan can do 90mph, or the Lamborghini that does 300mph. Either one is limited by other factors.

You'll be limited by other factors than bandwidth, it takes a cpu a certain amount of time to process the info, so once you exceed that speed, the speed gain itself becomes meaningless.

Games use massive amounts of small files, the cpu can only deal with so many at any given time, so for the most part, with gaming, NVMe and Sata are close enough to make no realistic difference. Where NVMe shines is in Large file transfers, like real-estate and legal documents etc where 1 file is larger than some games. That's where transfer speeds really matter.

Keep the OS on the smaller drive, along with anything OS related or dependant like Office and Adobe software etc. Games, especially the storage files, stick on the larger drive.

 

[Leptir]

When the speed limit is 70mph, does it matter if the minivan can do 90mph, or the Lamborghini that does 300mph. Either one is limited by other factors.

You'll be limited by other factors than bandwidth, it takes a cpu a certain amount of time to process the info, so once you exceed that speed, the speed gain itself becomes meaningless.

Games use massive amounts of small files, the cpu can only deal with so many at any given time, so for the most part, with gaming, NVMe and Sata are close enough to make no realistic difference.

Actually, you are not correct. The CPU will always spend time waiting for the SSD to deliver data, and an NVMe drive will always deliver data faster.

I agree that NVMe drives shine in long, sequential data read/write. But even when accessing lots of small files all over the place, an NVMe drive will still be faster. For example the 850 EVO can do 10,000 IOPS, random read, 4KB, QD1. The 970 EVO Plus does 19,000 IOPS. That's not an insignificant speed improvement.

Now, we can talk about the cost benefit of purchasing an NVMe drive to replace a SATA drive. That's a valid point. But in this particular case, the OP has already purchased the NVMe drive. Why you guys think he shouldn't use it for Windows and for gaming is incomprehensible to me.

 

[neojack]

migrating partitions and boot to a NVME drive can be complicated.

my setup uses a midrange kingston 250gb SSD for system , and faster 1TB Nvme Intel 660p for games.
Also keeping your system on a tiny drive makes system backups a lot easier. i just select all partitions from the 250gb drive and backup to my external HDD drive with macrium free. I do this before every major windows or driver updates.

 

[USAFRet]

Actually, you are not correct. The CPU will always spend time waiting for the SSD to deliver data, and an NVMe drive will always deliver data faster.

I agree that NVMe drives shine in long, sequential data read/write. But even when accessing lots of small files all over the place, an NVMe drive will still be faster. For example the 850 EVO can do 10,000 IOPS, random read, 4KB, QD1. The 970 EVO Plus does 19,000 IOPS. That's not an insignificant speed improvement.

Now, we can talk about the cost benefit of purchasing an NVMe drive to replace a SATA drive. That's a valid point. But in this particular case, the OP has already purchased the NVMe drive. Why you guys think he shouldn't use it for Windows and for gaming is incomprehensible to me.

I have an Intel 660p, and a selection of SATA III drives.
While the 660p is NOT a fast performer in the NVMe world, its numbers are significantly higher than the Samsung 860 EVO.

1TB Intel 660p:
https://www.storagereview.com/review/intel-ssd-660p-series-review
Sequential Read/Write max up to 1,800MB/s (both)
Random 4K Read/Write max up to 220,000 IOPS (both)

1TB Samsung 860 EVO:
https://www.storagereview.com/review/samsung-860-evo-ssd-review
Seq.Read/Write Speed: Up to 550/520MB/s
Ran.Read/Write Speed (QD32): Max. 98K IOPS / 90K IOPS

Based on raw numbers, we'd expect a significant difference.
In actual practice, in my typical use case with Adobe Lightroom...I see zero difference.
Not just 'feel', but actual measured time, doing the exact same operation.


As I mentioned above, if everything will fit on the new NVMe, then do that. Put everything on it.
But if both drives are going to be used, the answer is not quite so clear cut.

 

[Leptir]

I have an Intel 660p, and a selection of SATA III drives.

The 660p is really not a fast drive. I should know, I have the 2tb version, I bought it for backups and nothing else; it's big and cheap, but not fast. The OP has a 970 EVO Plus which is a significantly faster drive. All other things being equal, it will feel faster in everyday use than his old SATA drive. I admit, not by a huge margin, but still faster. Why not avail yourself of that advantage?

 

[USAFRet]

The 660p is really not a fast drive. I should know, I have the 2tb version, I bought it for backups and nothing else; it's big and cheap, but not fast. The OP has a 970 EVO Plus which is a significantly faster drive.

As said...
"While the 660p is NOT a fast performer in the NVMe world, its numbers are significantly higher than the Samsung 860 EVO. "

 

[Karadjgne]

And as I said, it rarely makes a difference in games. Doesn't matter if an NVMe can r/w 19k iops or the Sata 10k iops if the cpu can only deal with 5k iops worth of data being fed. It does make a difference to a hdd pushing 50-180 iops and leaving the cpu with waiting room. Game files are almost always measured in K not M, so 0.1seconds or 0.2 seconds to read a file is nothing compared to a hdd taking 1-2 seconds to read the same file.

Negligable differences.

 

[geofelt]

I actually did the same migration.
Needing more space than my 500gb 850 pro had, I installed a 1tb samsung 970 evo +
Install the samsung nvme drivers first and use the ssd migration app to copy all to the new m.2.
The process is easy.
Not needing the old drive any more, I keep it as a backup.

You will get a performance improvement, But I can't say I noticed anything magical.
Still I like the simplicity of having all on a single large C drive.
If I ever need more space, I will go to a 2tb drive instead of a second drive.
While the sequential speeds of a pcie drive are impressive, I only notice it when doing a virus scan.
For the most part small random I/O performance is not very different.

I

 

[Delhu]

Thank you everyone for your input. I found @USAFRet video quite insightful; I was thinking that the difference between a sata ssd and a nmve one would be more significant.
I went with my initial idea given comments from @USAFRet and @Karadjgne : I kept the OS and softwares on the 850 and will put the games on the 970.
Thanks again!