[SOLVED] Does the speed of an M.2 NVMe SSD matter for casual use | Which SSD to buy.

[Daniel Phantomhive]

Motherboard: Z170A PC MATE
Current storage: 1TB Toshiba DT01ACA100


I've been meaning to get a 1TB M.2 drive.
However, i have no idea what i need/which to pick.

I would be using it as a Boot Drive, for Web Browsers, Game Launchers (Steam, Battle.net), Some Games. And also save ShadowPlay Instant Replay recordings to it.

These are the 4 SSDs that are on my Radar
(All 1 TB)

1. Crucial P1 (Write:1700 Mb/s | Read: 2000 Mb/s) ~120 Euro
2. Silicon Power P34A60 (Write:1600 Mb/s | Read: 2200 Mb/s) ~145 Euro
3. Silicon Power P34A80 (Write:3000 Mb/s | Read: 3200 Mb/s) ~ 160 Euro
4. Adata XPG SX8200 PRO (Write:3000 Mb/s | Read: 3500 Mb/s) ~160 Euro

Which one of these, should one get?
Does the speed of them matter for my use case?

 

[siaan312]

The raw sequential read and write speeds are not important

if you want to see which is better
look for the iops.
perferably in the QD (queue depth) of 1.

Also having a dram cache is essential.

 

[Daniel Phantomhive]

The raw sequential read and write speeds are not important

if you want to see which is better
look for the iops.
perferably in the QD (queue depth) of 1.

Also having a dram cache is essential.

I looked up what IOPS is
And what it is on those drives

1. Crucial P1 (Random Write:170k | Random Read: 240k)
2. Silicon Power P34A60 (Random Write:250k | Random Read: 240k)
3. Silicon Power P34A80 (Random Write:390k | Random Read: 450k)
4. Adata XPG SX8200 PRO (Random Write:390k | Random Read:380k)
   
   
   What..err...
   Does this mean that the "Silicon Power P34A80" is the better choice?

 

[popatim]

The most reliable one is the better choice.
You probably won't notice a single bit of difference between them without a benchmark.

 

[siaan312]

The most reliable one is the better choice.
You probably won't notice a single bit of difference between them without a benchmark.

True, but as all of these are respectable companies you can't be sure which one is more reliable.

I looked up what IOPS is
And what it is on those drives

1. Crucial P1 (Random Write:170k | Random Read: 240k)
2. Silicon Power P34A60 (Random Write:250k | Random Read: 240k)
3. Silicon Power P34A80 (Random Write:390k | Random Read: 450k)
4. Adata XPG SX8200 PRO (Random Write:390k | Random Read:380k)
   
   
   What..err...
   Does this mean that the "Silicon Power P34A80" is the better choice?

Those number are probably for QD of 32, which while is also a measure of performance, and usually also dictates the QD of 1 performance, its only usually, and sometimes a drive with better sequentials or high QD iops will suffer in the little bitty tasks you do like opening a program

 

[popatim]

I ignore Q32 for the most part and focus on the Q1 Random speeds. Anything over 35 is good IMO.

As for reliable, that's all on User reviews after a year or more of reviews are available. Otherwise it's sheer Trusting the brand name so I go for Samsung, Crucial/Micron, & SanDisk/WD mainly. Others, like Adata, can have some good drives but they also have some I would never even consider using.