PCI-E SSD worth it for Windows?

[TeoDaTank]

Hello all - Sorry for posting so much, but trying to keep them in separate threads.

I'm a huge SSD fan, but curious if a PCI-E SSD is worth it for WIndows, and maybe a couple programs?

I have a few specific questions: Since it goes into a PCI-E slot does it eat away at my lanes? AKA If I run a x16/x16/x8 3-Way SLI will the PCI-E for the SSD not work? Or if I just have x16/x16, will it effect the speeds?

I did some research and notice it is quite a bit faster than typical SATA, but is it just worth it for Windows and maybe one of my more favored games (Skyrim, etc. Something with A LOT of load times.)

Outside of gaming I do: Development, DBA(SQL mainly), and Video Editing/Streaming[Not much SSD based until time to compile].

Again, welcome any suggestions. If one is worth it, could someone recommend one? I just only Samsung 850 Evo is my 'go-to' for SSD normally.

 

[Gingerbread]

Won't do much actually, right now sata speed is enough for SSDs. Good to have a slot for ssd in the motherboard for the future when they become way faster but right now, not really worth it. Also yes when you have another PCI-E device it consumes lanes. So if you are using 16lane CPU then the GPU will run in x8 which doesn't make a difference if you are using a single card, however it hurts when you go for 2 or more cards.

 

[TeoDaTank]

Won't do much actually, right now sata speed is enough for SSDs. Good to have a slot for ssd in the motherboard for the future when they become way faster but right now, not really worth it. Also yes when you have another PCI-E device it consumes lanes. So if you are using 16lane CPU then the GPU will run in x8 which doesn't make a difference if you are using a single card, however it hurts when you go for 2 or more cards.

Thanks for the quick reply -Knowing about lanes was the most useful info. I only recently started paying attention to that so much, because I want to run SLI in x16/x16

 

[nigelivey]

Gingerbread is correct. Also, the price v performance gain for what you use the machine for doesn't stack up on a PCIe SSD.

 

[bambiboom]

Hello all - Sorry for posting so much, but trying to keep them in separate threads.

I'm a huge SSD fan, but curious if a PCI-E SSD is worth it for WIndows, and maybe a couple programs?

I have a few specific questions: Since it goes into a PCI-E slot does it eat away at my lanes? AKA If I run a x16/x16/x8 3-Way SLI will the PCI-E for the SSD not work? Or if I just have x16/x16, will it effect the speeds?

I did some research and notice it is quite a bit faster than typical SATA, but is it just worth it for Windows and maybe one of my more favored games (Skyrim, etc. Something with A LOT of load times.)

Outside of gaming I do: Development, DBA(SQL mainly), and Video Editing/Streaming[Not much SSD based until time to compile].

Again, welcome any suggestions. If one is worth it, could someone recommend one? I just only Samsung 850 Evo is my 'go-to' for SSD normally.

TeoDaTank,

Yes, If you use a PCIe SSD it uses PCIe lanes, either x4 or x2 depending on the model. The very fast Samsung SM951 NVMe are x4. Ordinarily this should be a problem. If you're using LGA1150 with 28 lanes and use triple SLI x16 GPU's the second two GPU's will be running at x8. Still, GPU's are said to run x8 without noticeable performance drop. I would note on that subject that the benefit of SLI apparently drops off very quickly after double SLI. It would be more beneficial to buy a pair of a higher level GPU than three of a step down.

There is no question that the performance of NVMe PCIe SSD' can be astoundingly good. On Passmark Performance Test baselines "Top 100" systems , the top disk score is 81556 using OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 which I think is discontinued but was a 240GB for about $900. Following is the Revodrive 79443, but the listed drive is Samsung 840 Evo 250GB. The Samsung SM951 M.2 AHCI produces a score of 64498 and the NVMe SM951 up to 44596. Of ovurse these scores must be careful RAID 0 configurations.

In terms of use, given the continual price drop of PCIe drives to the point they are not significantly more expensive, for a triple SLI system and for use as a development and video editing which can be multi-threaded, an i7-5930K- which has 6-cores and supports 40 PCIe lanes, on an ASUS X99-A and an x4 M.2 NVMe should fly through it all - that kind of thing. X99 and M.2 are a really impressive set of technologies.

There are so many fantastic choices in extremely fast disks. I've been looking at PCIe SSD's- specifically Intel 750 for my HP z420 workstation, and considering also a PCIe to M.2 adapter configuration for that systems and to liven up my elderly 12-core Dell Precision T5500, but actually either would be surplus to need. Except for occasionally slow transfer /backup of the entire files partition (70GB) the disk performance is sufficient. I've made a number of tests opening, saving, and transferring when the HP z420 I use- with a fast Intel 730 compared to the T5500 beofre I chaged the 3GB/s disk controller to 6GB/s (PERC H310). the difference in loading a very large 3D model was only 5-8 seconds. A conventional Samsung 850 Evo would be fine. It is very tempting though that the extreme performance of M.2 is now a semi-reasonable increase in price and a single M/2 NVMe can match a RAID 0 of Samsung 850 Evo.

But, in the real world the 850 Evo is so good and given the apparent fuss to configure PCIe SSD as boot drives, I would lean in that direction unless you're working with extremely large datasets in programs like Arc/Gis, Matlab, Revit, BIm, Mathematica, financial analysis or complex simulation.

Complicated.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) > 32GB DDR3 1866 ECC RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

Pending upgrade: HP /LSI 9212-4i PCIe SAS /SATA HBA RAID controller, 2X Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB (RAID 1)

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6 -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 / CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3500 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)

 

[azaran]

Price vs performance is rarely worth it to most people. However if you moved all your video/editing on to the SSD, you'd likely notice some pickup with high I/O. But unless you're billing per second of work being done, it likely isn't worth it for the speed increase.

 

[Gingerbread]

Won't do much actually, right now sata speed is enough for SSDs. Good to have a slot for ssd in the motherboard for the future when they become way faster but right now, not really worth it. Also yes when you have another PCI-E device it consumes lanes. So if you are using 16lane CPU then the GPU will run in x8 which doesn't make a difference if you are using a single card, however it hurts when you go for 2 or more cards.

Thanks for the quick reply -Knowing about lanes was the most useful info. I only recently started paying attention to that so much, because I want to run SLI in x16/x16

If you want to run in x16/x16 you need a Haswell-E and only the higher class which is either i7-5930K or i7-5960X, because the i7-5920K has 28 lanes. BUT it is not really needed. 2 gpus in x16/x16 won't give you anything noteworthy over 2 gpus in x8/x8. Maybe 1-5% performance increase but that is the best you can get.

 

[Tincan79]

I have a M.2 PCIe and I'm happy with it (read: 750MB write: 490MB); Windows 10, Games, Multitasking all flawless.
- I have two HDD (Raid1) for secondary and the transfer between (M.2 and HDD) is 30MB. Intend to buy two SDD SATA III (RAID1).
-An internet download transfer is about 110MB write to the M.2.
-M.2 form factor does cause some techies a headache in setup.