Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 and M.2 SSD

[Varcel]

I have a Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 motherboard with an i7-4790k and 16GB of RAM. running BIOS F8 which seems to be the most current. My boot drive is a Crucial CT512MX100SSD1 in a SATA3 port, and I have a Crucial CT1024NX299SSD1 for games, also on a SATA3 port. If relevant, I have a GTX 960 video card from EVGA.

I've spent the morning reading about M.2 SSDs and I have no clue at this point if getting one would be an improvement for me. The spec sheet says it has "1 x M.2 PCIe connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA & PCIe SSD support)" https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z97X-Gaming-7-rev-10 for their product page, specs on another tab.

Now to the questions at hand. Would an M.2 SSD be a significant improvement for me? I just use my computer for gaming and household type stuff. Is NVMe relevant, or is that a technology not supported by my board? I'll admit to being more than a little bit confused on that particular item.

Additionally, does anyone have suggestions for a particular drive? As I said, I have Crucials at the moment. Would having another manufacturer, and thus another bit of software for it, hinder things?

Thanks in advance!

 

[urbancamper]

Basically, it would help with boot times and load time for programs that are on it. Yes your motherboard supports it. Some of the less expensive ones have high read time but the write time is close to the same as a regular ssd.

This is low end. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820250082

This is a nice one. The write speed is higher then others that are less expensive. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820250085

This is widely considered the best. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147596

I personally would go for the second one. Since you would need another M.2 slot to have something to fast enough to write too. it is the best balance.

 

[Varcel]

I personally would go for the second one. Since you would need another M.2 slot to have something to fast enough to write too. it is the best balance.

What do you mean by another slot? Because the slot I have isn't up to it and I need a better one?

 

[urbancamper]

No. The one you have is just fine. What I am saying is without the ability to run 2 M2 ssd, having extremely high write speeds is useless. That is why I recommended the second one. The first one is no faster then a normal ssd. The third one has write speed that can not be taken advantage of on your setup.

So I recommended this one. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820250085

 

[Calvin7]

Note the specifications for the drive recommended.
Interface: PCI-Express 3.0 x4

PCI-E 3.0 x4 32 Gb/s (4 GB/s)

Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 is a 2014 model with PCI-E 2.0 x2 M.2 slot which can deliver up to 10 Gb/s data transfer speeds. This is a not a 32 Gb/s PCI-E 3.0 x4 M.2 slot which is found on newer model Intel motherboards (Z170/Z270).

 

[Varcel]

Note the specifications for the drive recommended.
Interface: PCI-Express 3.0 x4

PCI-E 3.0 x4 32 Gb/s (4 GB/s)

Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 is a 2014 model with PCI-E 2.0 x2 M.2 slot which can deliver up to 10 Gb/s data transfer speeds. This is a not a 32 Gb/s PCI-E 3.0 x4 M.2 slot which is found on newer model Intel motherboards (Z170/Z270).

That's one thing I was wondering about. I couldn't tell if my slot was x4 or not.