[SOLVED] M.2 population

[BAD7752]

I am building a new pc. The motherboard is a MSI Z590-A Pro with 3 m.2 slots. I will be using an Intel i7-11700K CPU. I think that I want to use the first m.2 for a Samsung 980 pro to hold my programs. The second m.2 for an Intel Optain 32gb and the third slot for a Samsung 860 EVO for my personal files. Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

make sure to check up in the manual what types of M.2 are supported and what speeds for each slot.

any other drives connected can also be affected by populating M.2 slots.
some SATA ports may be disabled, speeds may be reduced, etc.

the third slot for a Samsung 860 EVO for my personal files.

you will see no difference in performance using an M.2 for personal storage vs any nice SATA III 3.5" SSD.
for the same price or less you can usually find a much larger SSD.

 

[USAFRet]

I am building a new pc. The motherboard is a MSI Z590-A Pro with 3 m.2 slots. I will be using an Intel i7-11700K CPU. I think that I want to use the first m.2 for a Samsung 980 pro to hold my programs. The second m.2 for an Intel Optain 32gb and the third slot for a Samsung 860 EVO for my personal files. Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated.

Ignore the Optane thing completely.

It has NO purpose married with solid state drives.

 

[SkyNetRising]

You could put pagefile on Optane drive. May be also move some temp folders there like web browser cache folder.
Other than that 32GB Optane is of no use.

 

[maestro0428]

Like was said, if ya fill all the slots, your gonna lose a lot a sata ports. And yeah, although Optane is awesome, the 32gb one is a 2x NVME and is overall only good for supporting big sata ssds or HDs. If you need one for a scratch/media/cache drive, get at least the 118GB version. I use that one in one of my rigs. As for not seeing a difference between NVME and sata, I have to disagree. It really depends on what you do with your system. I'm about ready to get rig of my last sata ssd for another NVME drive, because I waiting that much.

 

[USAFRet]

As for not seeing a difference between NVME and sata, I have to disagree. It really depends on what you do with your system.

And in my particular use with my drives, I see zero difference.
Timed and tested.

YMMV.

 

[maestro0428]

And in my particular use with my drives, I see zero difference.
Timed and tested.

YMMV.

Gotcha. Same here (as in timed and tested).