[SOLVED] Compatibility for ssd

[CollisIV]

My friends birthday is coming soon and I wanted to get him a new SSD to help with his boot times, he bought a prebuilt from IBUYPOWER the motherboard is a Asus z170-k,
I looked through the motherboard manual and was confused by the wording they used I see that in the manual it says it will support a 2280 m-key style m.2 drive but im not sure if it will support NVME or SATA,
I was curious if this motherboard will support the SAMSUNG 980 M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 3.0 and the gen 3 speeds included (3500 MB/s read)
If someone could double check the compatibility to help me make sure this drive will work with his board it would be greatly appreciated

Here is the link to the motherboards manual https://www.asus.com/us/SupportOnly/Z170-K/HelpDesk_Manual/
Also here is a link to the SSD I was going to buy https://www.newegg.com/samsung-1tb-980/p/N82E16820147804?Item=N82E16820147804&quicklink=true

 

[USAFRet]

An SSD is a great addition, but "better boot time" is a poor reason.


But.....
Yes, that motherboard will support an NVMe drive.
M.2 - PCIe 3.0 x4
https://www.quietpc.com/asus-z170-k

It would also support a SATA III SSD.

What does he use this system for?

What are the rest of the specs on this system? Specifically, the power supply.
iBuyPower is known for cheaping out on those.

 

[CollisIV]

An SSD is a great addition, but "better boot time" is a poor reason.


But.....
Yes, that motherboard will support an NVMe drive.
M.2 - PCIe 3.0 x4
https://www.quietpc.com/asus-z170-k

It would also support a SATA III SSD.

What does he use this system for?

What are the rest of the specs on this system? Specifically, the power supply.
iBuyPower is known for cheaping out on those.

Right now he has a 2TB hard drive that he got with the computer, his boot times are not terrible but not as fast as he would like them.
But that's not the only reason there are a few games we play together that recommend using an SSD for the game files such as Call of duty.
He uses this computer for gaming, And for the power supply I had him check the sticker he said it was 600 watts but didn't say the brand.
I also heard that SSD I picked didnt have DRAM so I should look for something that does? is that going to make a big enough difference for a OS drive?

 

[USAFRet]

Right now he has a 2TB hard drive that he got with the computer, his boot times are not terrible but not as fast as he would like them.
But that's not the only reason there are a few games we play together that recommend using an SSD for the game files such as Call of duty.
He uses this computer for gaming, And for the power supply I had him check the sticker he said it was 600 watts but didn't say the brand.
I also heard that SSD I picked didnt have DRAM so I should look for something that does? is that going to make a big enough difference for a OS drive?

Yes, an SSD is highly recommended. But not just for boot time improvement.
And any SSD, not necessarily an NVMe.
The actual gaming differences between SATA III SSD and NVMe SSD are pretty small.

As for the PSU...yes, do check that.
"600 watts" is irrelevant. Need to know the specific details.

A new/better PSU may be more beneficial along with the SSD.

 

[CollisIV]

Yes, an SSD is highly recommended. But not just for boot time improvement.
And any SSD, not necessarily an NVMe.
The actual gaming differences between SATA III SSD and NVMe SSD are pretty small.

As for the PSU...yes, do check that.
"600 watts" is irrelevant. Need to know the specific details.

A new/better PSU may be more beneficial along with the SSD.

I mean I can recommend a better PSU and I understand the whole idea behind SSD's personally I just see it as if I can get a drive that is NVME for the same price as a 2.5 drive then I would want the NVME for the faster speeds(even if the faster speeds are a little irrelevant in the grand scheme). But im curious as to how a PSU is going to improve performance for him, as the current situation is that he is in medical school and doesn't have a giant spending budget for getting new parts hence why for his birthday I wanted to get him a new SSD since they are not to expensive. But I will have to ask him when he gets home if he could check the brand, I know bad PSUS can cause terrible/fatal problems.

 

[USAFRet]

If there is price parity between NVMe and SATA III, then get the NVMe.
Else, evaluate.

The PSU improves performance, by not exploding.
Seriously.

iBuyPower is well known for cheaping out on the PSU. People see "600 watts", and think that is all that matters.

 

[CollisIV]

If there is price parity between NVMe and SATA III, then get the NVMe.
Else, evaluate.

The PSU improves performance, by not exploding.
Seriously.

iBuyPower is well known for cheaping out on the PSU. People see "600 watts", and think that is all that matters.

Ah I see its as good a time as any to upgrade it considering he is planning on buying a RTX card when they go msrp in 2030 all jokes aside I wouldnt recommend him to boot a rtx card with that psu so I will help him pick one out.
Last question I had should I worry about if the samsung 980 does not have any DRAM?

 

[USAFRet]

Ah I see its as good a time as any to upgrade it considering he is planning on buying a RTX card when they go msrp in 2030 all jokes aside I wouldnt recommend him to boot a rtx card with that psu so I will help him pick one out.
Last question I had should I worry about if the samsung 980 does not have any DRAM?

If he is planning on a high end GPU, a PSU replacement is mandatory.

The Samsung 980 is a fine SSD. Top end.
Ignore the dram thing.

 

[boju]

Just to add regarding SSD performance, Sata or Nvme, either one, once Windows begins to load and after login, you'll or he'll be impressed how immediate you can start doing things. Random access time is what really matters and both 2.5" / Nvme variants are pretty much the same. Advantages Nvme has though is no cables and copying large files is faster.

SSD won't change boot time prior to Windows loading though. I guess you're aware of that.

For best performance, have Windows & games on the SSD. 1TB at least in size, preferably 2TB imo. Loading games is improved obviously but what's more significant is asset loading on the fly especially in open world games that like to do that, ie Gta5, Ghost Recon etc.