[SOLVED] Multiple vs. Single M.2 NVMe SSD

[Broccolii]

Hi all,

I plan to buy a Samsung 970 Plus 1 TB as storage drive and maybe an additional Samsung 970 Plus 240GB or 500GB for boot drive. I know SSDs do not function like HDDs. Nevertheless, I am wondering if there is any advantage to use multiple M.2 SSD (boot and storage drive separated) compared to a single M.2 SSD (boot and storage drive not separated).

Does two M.2 NVMe SSD have any advantage over a single M2. NVMe SSD?

If I use multiple M.2 SSD, will it better to have the faster M.2 SSD as boot drive or as storage drive?

An issue here is, that the M.2 SSD with smaller capacity has less speed than the SSD with higher capacity (240GB < 500 GB < 1 TB).

If I just use one M.2 SSD, does partition it affect its performance?

Can I freely partition a M.2 SSD with disk management? For example, can I just partition my 1 TB M.2 SSD to 188 GB and 812 GB? Or are there any things to consider like partition alignment that only allow me to partition my SSD to a specific size?

I have upgraded my PC for the first time, and I would appreciate your help!

 

[bmockeg]

I’d use one drive, there is no advantage to having multiple. You actually will have a disadvantage as you already noted. The fact that smaller SSD have a lower speed. The only advantage to having a separate boot drive is if you download a lot of malware and expect to reinstall windows on a regular basis so that you don’t wipe all of your other programs and games each time.

 

[USAFRet]

Personal preference.

I like having the OS and applications on one drive, other drives for other things.
Other people like a single drive for everything.

The speed difference is not noticeable.


But don't partition like that. When you start to run out of space in the OS partition, fixing things will be messy.

 

[geofelt]

I vote for a single large C drive.
It is much easier to manage a single drive.
That also means no partitioning.
There is no real difference in performance with one drive vs. two.
Backup of a single drive is easier than from multiple drives
( You are planning on EXTERNAL backup I hope)

 

[Skorp62]

To address your question directly about two NVMe drives: What most people fail to mention is that the awesome speed of an NVMe drive is derived from the direct connection to the CPU's PCIe buss. Most motherboards only have one slot connected directly. The other M2 slot is serviced by the motherboard's chipset which will reduced the speed gains (and usually share bandwidth with your SATA Ports). In order to install two NVMe drives and realize the massive speed gains of both, you would have to add a PCIe adater board for the second NVMe drive. These are usually only about $20.00; so that is your decision. To address partitioning of NVMe drives: The larger the drive, the more overhead in addressing it, which also decreases speed a little bit - but pretty much insignificant. Your idea to have a smaller, 512 GB boot / swap NVMe and then a larger 1 TB storage drive is a very common choice. During partitioning, it is still recommended to leave approximately 10% of the drive space "unallocated" to compensate for the ageing of the drive. In your case, 450 GB for the boot drive and 900GB for the storage drive. I will assume that you have already purchased the drives, but if you have not, you can save some money by just using standard SSD instead of NVMe. In "normal" private use, you would most likely not be impacted by the speed difference, even though it looks massive on paper.