Question Need to upgrade my M2 drive, which of these options should I go for?

[TarekElsakka]

I have had a Crucial P1 500GB as my boot drive for many years now and it's time for an upgrade as it's done a lot of work and the health has dropped. My country's going through a pretty rough time economically and imports are few and far between nowadays so the options within my budget aren't a lot, and I've narrowed them down to these:

Crucial P3 1TB PCIe 3.0 M.2 2280 SSD

Crucial P3 Plus 1TB PCIe 4.0 (does my mobo even support it? MAG-Z390 Tomahawk)

Lexar NM620 1TB SSD, M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3x4

TEAMGROUP MS30 1TB with SLC Cache 3D NAND TLC M.2 2280

Kingston NV1 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe SNVS 1000G

Which one of these would you recommend? They're all virtually the same price here. I've read that DRAM is important for a boot drive but unfortunately none of the drives in my budget seem to have it. If necessary, I can maybe try to increase the budget a bit and include these drives:

SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB
SAMSUNG 980 SSD 1TB M.2 NVMe
SAMSUNG 980 SSD 1TB PCle 3.0x4, NVMe M.2 2280 (says V-NAND SSD on the photo)
ADATA SSD 1.0TB XPG S50 LITE S M.2 PCIe M.2 2280 COLOR BOX SEPARATED HEATSINK

But only if necessary since I'm not really a power user and the extra read & write speeds won't be a dealbreaker for me, I just want something that's reliable for a boot drive.

Current setup:
1 nvme boot drive
2 HDDs 7200 RPM
1 AX3000 Dual Band PCI-E WiFi 6

Not really an expert so not sure how many PCI slots and stuff I still have. I also read that if I add another nvme (since there are 2 slots supposedly), it'll cancel out slots 5 & 6.

Thank you

 

[Lutfij]

Crucial P3 Plus 1TB PCIe 4.0 (does my mobo even support it? MAG-Z390 Tomahawk)

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-Z390-TOMAHAWK/Specification

Your board has 2x M.2 slots. Both of which will accept PCIe4.0x4 SSD's, only thing is that they will be relegated to run at PCIe3.0x4 speeds. If you're going to migrate to a motherboard that will give you PCIe4.0x4 connectivity then you look at PCIe 4.0x4 drives.

I would choose either of the Crucial SSD's in your lineup, without taking any consideration of what they cost. IMHO, you're going through a lot of effort/thought over a boot drive. In real world scenarios you won't be able to tell much with regards to boot times. If you got the drive to serve as a game's library drive, then you'd be able to tell the difference with game loading times.

 

[TarekElsakka]

Crucial P3 Plus 1TB PCIe 4.0 (does my mobo even support it? MAG-Z390 Tomahawk)

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-Z390-TOMAHAWK/Specification

Your board has 2x M.2 slots. Both of which will accept PCIe4.0x4 SSD's, only thing is that they will be relegated to run at PCIe3.0x4 speeds. If you're going to migrate to a motherboard that will give you PCIe4.0x4 connectivity then you look at PCIe 4.0x4 drives.

I would choose either of the Crucial SSD's in your lineup, without taking any consideration of what they cost. IMHO, you're going through a lot of effort/thought over a boot drive. In real world scenarios you won't be able to tell much with regards to boot times. If you got the drive to serve as a game's library drive, then you'd be able to tell the difference with game loading times.

Thank you for your thorough and informative reply. Yes, I have done more research since posting this and it seems like my best bet would be the regular Crucial P3 since I'm not really going to be upgrading/changing my motherboard any time soon due to budget concerns. I have also inspected the PC and it seems like SATA 5 & 6 aren't really used so it's fine if they get disabled. Initially I wanted to replace my current nvme (Crucial P1) with the newer one (P3) but now I've decided I'll just use both.

The main reason I wanted a bigger NVME is to run heavy games from it and decrease loading times (Cyberpunk 2077, etc.), so I am not sure if I should clone the P1 to the P3 or just use the P3 as extra storage for games and stuff. What would be your recommendation in that scenario? Bear in mind the P1 has been used for many years and is now at 83% health 38694 GB Total writes.

Lastly, I'm probably going to need to remove the WiFi card to be able to install the M2 correctly, right? Check this photo for reference. Also I don't see the screw that's supposed to hold the m2 drive in, or am I seeing it incorrectly?

 

[Bob.B]

Thank you for your thorough and informative reply. Yes, I have done more research since posting this and it seems like my best bet would be the regular Crucial P3 since I'm not really going to be upgrading/changing my motherboard any time soon due to budget concerns. I have also inspected the PC and it seems like SATA 5 & 6 aren't really used so it's fine if they get disabled. Initially I wanted to replace my current nvme (Crucial P1) with the newer one (P3) but now I've decided I'll just use both.

The main reason I wanted a bigger NVME is to run heavy games from it and decrease loading times (Cyberpunk 2077, etc.), so I am not sure if I should clone the P1 to the P3 or just use the P3 as extra storage for games and stuff. What would be your recommendation in that scenario? Bear in mind the P1 has been used for many years and is now at 83% health 38694 GB Total writes.

Lastly, I'm probably going to need to remove the WiFi card to be able to install the M2 correctly, right? Check this photo for reference. Also I don't see the screw that's supposed to hold the m2 drive in, or am I seeing it incorrectly?

Use the P1 for the OS and apps.
Use the P3 for storage.

 

[Lafong]

Also I don't see the screw that's supposed to hold the m2 drive in, or am I seeing it incorrectly?

The screws to tie down the M.2 drive are typically included with the motherboard purchase in a small sealed bag. Most likely you should have received a bag with 2 such screws.

You can buy an assortment of such screws from places like Amazon, but be careful...the screws are not standardized. Different motherboard brands take slightly differing screws.

 

[TarekElsakka]

Use the P1 for the OS and apps.
Use the P3 for storage.

Thank you. I'll keep using the P1 for storage but I bought a different SSD that I stumbled upon, 860 EVO SATA M.2 SSD 1TB. I did a lot of research and it seems to be highly recommended by everyone, it's a bit more expensive but not by a lot, hopefully I made the right decision!

The screws to tie down the M.2 drive are typically included with the motherboard purchase in a small sealed bag. Most likely you should have received a bag with 2 such screws.

You can buy an assortment of such screws from places like Amazon, but be careful...the screws are not standardized. Different motherboard brands take slightly differing screws.

Oh crap, I left the box in another place so I'll probably have to go and fetch it tomorrow. If I can't find it or it's not in the box, would I be able to find similar screws at a PC hardware shop? And is it normal for the riser to be installed without the mounting screw?

 

[Lafong]

If I can't find it or it's not in the box, would I be able to find similar screws at a PC hardware shop? And is it normal for the riser to be installed without the mounting screw?

An ordinary hardware store may not have what you need. I failed miserably in the US and had to use Amazon.

A PC repair shop might be able to help you or lead you to a source.

Here's what I bought at Amazon. Several different style of screws. Some work on Asus, some work on Gigabyte, some work on Asrock, etc.

Amazon.com