Question Put OS on existing M.2 slot or on M.2 PCIe X4 Adapter?

[henrypam]

My Dell XPS currently has OS on 500GB Samsung SATA SSD. I also have 1TB 960 EVO SSD installed on the M.2 slot for music data storage. Sincemy Dell does not have extra M.2 slot, I just purchased 2TB 970 M.2 and a PCIe M.2 adapter. I plan to migrate the OS from the slower SATA SSD to either the 1TB M.2 or 2TB PCIe M.2. Which one should I put the OS on for better performance, 1TB M.2 or 2TB PCIe M.2?
One option is to replace the 1TB M.2 with the 2TB M.2 and clone OS to it, then install the old 1TB SSD onto the new PCIe M.2 adaptor.
Thank you for any advise.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

What is the model for your Dell XPS machine? Ideally you should have the apps and OS on the smaller SSD, while the larger SSD is set to storage or game library. You should also avoid having multiple partitions on any SD to help keep the drive operating optimally.

Real world performance, it doesn't really matter which drive is used as the OS drive, unless the drives are used for accessing a lot of data at any given time.

Also, don't clone, please, reinstall the OS from scratch.

 

[henrypam]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

What is the model for your Dell XPS machine? Ideally you should have the apps and OS on the smaller SSD, while the larger SSD is set to storage or game library. You should also avoid having multiple partitions on any SD to help keep the drive operating optimally.

Real world performance, it doesn't really matter which drive is used as the OS drive, unless the drives are used for accessing a lot of data at any given time.

Also, don't clone, please, reinstall the OS from scratch.

My Dell is xps 8930 I7.
If I plan to use the new 2TB for photo editing (LR and PS) then based on your suggestion OS should not be on it, right? . Any performance difference between the M.2 slot on motherboard vs the PCie X4 M.2 adapter?