[SOLVED] Questions regarding NVMe SSD vs SATA SSD

Sean87NC

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Jun 12, 2017
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Hello,

I have a couple questions in regards to storage options before I upgrade. Just want to clarify some information. Right now, I am using a Samsung 500GB SSD for my hard drive. I want to upgrade to 1tb or larger. I have been looking at NVMe options.

My motherboard says it supports 2 x M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4.
From MSI site and manual.
4 x SATA 6Gb/s ports1
2 x M.2 slots (Key M)
M2_1 supports up to PCIe 3.0 x4, 2242/ 2260 /2280 storage devices
M2_2 supports up to PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6Gb/s, 2280 storage devices

Its my understanding that if I get an PCIe 3.0 NVMe storage card, that the transfer speeds would be up to 4GB/s. I am looking at some on Amazon/Newegg and they state "Read/Write up to 3500/3000MB/s". I guess the performance will vary. In any case, this would be a a fairly large performance increase from the SATA SSD which only can do transfer speeds of up to 600MB/s. It also seems the bandwidth is much higher as well. 32GB/s...

If I go ahead and grab a card do I need to change anything in the BIOS for it to work? The manual for the board doesn't say anything. It would seem the performance difference between the two is huge. 600MB/s transfer speeds compared to 4GB/s. Am I missing something? I feel like I should of went with NVMe when I first built my setup.

Also, the prices seem very good and on par with the SATA SSD options.
I am posting the first one I came across but its only $140 1TB NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 - Amazon - $139


Setup
MSI Z370M MORTAR Motherboard
Intel - Core i7-9700K 9th Generation 8-Core - 8-Thread 3.6 GHz (4.9 GHz Turbo) Socket LGA 1151
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16
EVGA Supernova 750 G3, 80 Plus Gold 750W, Fully Modular,
Phanteks PH-EC416PTG_BK Eclipse P400 Steel ATX Mid Tower Case
MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB GDRR5X DirectX 12 352-bit
Samsung 860 EVO 500GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD
CORSAIR - Hydro Series H115i PRO 280mm Liquid Cooling System with RGB Lighting - Black/Gray


Thanks for your input.
 
Solution
May I suggest using a 1tb m.2 pcie samsung 970 evo plus.
https://www.newegg.com/samsung-970-evo-plus-1tb/p/N82E16820147743
Yes. it will cost more than other alternatives.
But, you will get a top performing drive with a 5 year warranyt.

Perhaps of more importance will be the ease of conversion.
Just install the 970 evo + in a m.2 slot and install the samsung pcie driver.
Run the ssd migration aid which will transfer your windows C drive to the m.2 drive.
You can download the driver, app and instructions here:
When done, change the boot order and you can erase the old ssd if you wish.
I have done this process several times with no issue.
You shouldn't need to do anything special in the Bios for the NVME SSD (other than set it to the boot drive, assuming you are using that to boot from)....

With respect to performance, keep in mind, the performance stated is the maximum performance - under very unrealistic test conditions.

It is possible to get a really fast Sata SSD that in real world use performs better than a cheap NVME drive - the technology for the two drive types is essentially the same, it's only the interface that is really different. The key to look at for how fast a drive will actually performs is IOPS (input / output operations per second) - and these vary depending on task so most drives have several ratings for read, write and random (the last being most important for performance when running software).

There have been several interesting comparisons done looking at game loading performance using a HDD, a sata SSD and an NVME SSD - both types of SSD are much faster than the HDD, however typically Sata and Nvme SSD's perform very similarly with good quality drives. The only situation where the fast NVME drives really get a noticeable benefit is with copying large chunks of sequential data - that is where the drive can make use of the higher bandwidth. That isn't something that is used much though unless you are saving very large single files (e.g. large raw video files or something).

I'm not saying to avoid NVME - they can be faster in some situations, and for similar money you may as well go with NVME over Sata. It's just not the performance boost the numbers suggest so there's not much point paying a large premium for one. If you build your new machine using an NVME as the boot drive you could keep the Samsung 860 as a secondary drive for storage as that is still a really good drive.
 

Sean87NC

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Jun 12, 2017
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No, I don't normally do large file copies but sometimes.
I will upgrade to 1TB NVMe and use the 500GB SSD as a 2nd drive. I am going to shop around and see what I can find. I appreciate the information.
 
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May I suggest using a 1tb m.2 pcie samsung 970 evo plus.
https://www.newegg.com/samsung-970-evo-plus-1tb/p/N82E16820147743
Yes. it will cost more than other alternatives.
But, you will get a top performing drive with a 5 year warranyt.

Perhaps of more importance will be the ease of conversion.
Just install the 970 evo + in a m.2 slot and install the samsung pcie driver.
Run the ssd migration aid which will transfer your windows C drive to the m.2 drive.
You can download the driver, app and instructions here:
When done, change the boot order and you can erase the old ssd if you wish.
I have done this process several times with no issue.
 
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Solution

Sean87NC

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Jun 12, 2017
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Thanks geofelt. That isn't a bad SSD and I appreciate the information. I will likely get Samsung again because I have always used their products. I have an RTX 3080 on its way. I really want to migrate to the new storage soon.
 

Sean87NC

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Jun 12, 2017
71
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May I suggest using a 1tb m.2 pcie samsung 970 evo plus.
https://www.newegg.com/samsung-970-evo-plus-1tb/p/N82E16820147743
Yes. it will cost more than other alternatives.
But, you will get a top performing drive with a 5 year warranyt.

Perhaps of more importance will be the ease of conversion.
Just install the 970 evo + in a m.2 slot and install the samsung pcie driver.
Run the ssd migration aid which will transfer your windows C drive to the m.2 drive.
You can download the driver, app and instructions here:
When done, change the boot order and you can erase the old ssd if you wish.
I have done this process several times with no issue.

I have a questions for you. On that website when I try to download the Data Migration tool, from any computer, I get this message. Do you as well? I was able to get the 4.0 version which I suspect is fine.

We apologize for your inconvenience
Please try again within 24 hours

There is a daily limit on the number of the updated software.
Unfortunately, the download limit for the day has been reached, please try again within 24 hours.
We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused you.
You can still download the previous version of Data Migration by clicking the button below.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I have a questions for you. On that website when I try to download the Data Migration tool, from any computer, I get this message. Do you as well? I was able to get the 4.0 version which I suspect is fine.

We apologize for your inconvenience
Please try again within 24 hours

There is a daily limit on the number of the updated software.
Unfortunately, the download limit for the day has been reached, please try again within 24 hours.
We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused you.
You can still download the previous version of Data Migration by clicking the button below.
I get the same.
It is a limitation on their end.
 

Sean87NC

Honorable
Jun 12, 2017
71
6
10,545
May I suggest using a 1tb m.2 pcie samsung 970 evo plus.
https://www.newegg.com/samsung-970-evo-plus-1tb/p/N82E16820147743
Yes. it will cost more than other alternatives.
But, you will get a top performing drive with a 5 year warranyt.

Perhaps of more importance will be the ease of conversion.
Just install the 970 evo + in a m.2 slot and install the samsung pcie driver.
Run the ssd migration aid which will transfer your windows C drive to the m.2 drive.
You can download the driver, app and instructions here:
When done, change the boot order and you can erase the old ssd if you wish.
I have done this process several times with no issue.

I was able to run the migration software but after it shutdown. I booted back up and I wasn't able to boot to the NVME. I am looking in disk management and it says this, "Offline This disk is offline because it has a signature collision with another disk that is online"
I am wondering if I need to unplug the SATA SSD?

Erm, partitions look odd as well. It is like it didn't copy anything at all but I watched the data migration tool go through all 380GB of data. Did I do something wrong?
Disk MGT Screenshot
 

Sean87NC

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Jun 12, 2017
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I unplugged the SATA drive and it boot into the NVME storage and is working fine. I suspect when it cloned the drive, Windows didn't want both on at same time. I am going to plug it back in and see if I can delete the data on the disk. Not sure how at the moment. If the PC boots up it will likely boot up to the old SSD. I specified the NVME in bios for boot priority but that didn't work. Maybe it will work now that I booted to it?
 

Sean87NC

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Jun 12, 2017
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I unplugged the SATA drive and it boot into the NVME storage and is working fine. I suspect when it cloned the drive, Windows didn't want both on at same time. I am going to plug it back in and see if I can delete the data on the disk. Not sure how at the moment. If the PC boots up it will likely boot up to the old SSD. I specified the NVME in bios for boot priority but that didn't work. Maybe it will work now that I booted to it?


For any clone migration, the FIRST thing you need to do when it is finished is power off, disconnect the old drive, and allow the system to boot up from the new one.

Gotcha. I have actually cloned hundreds of disk but never kept the old disk still in the PC. First time I ever saw that message before :)
 

Sean87NC

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Jun 12, 2017
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Well, that actually went very smooth other than my mistake. The NVME installed easily. Driver detected it. Migration tool transferred just under 400GB to the new 1TB drive and ran at about 315MB/s. I am going to do some performance test with the new NVME drive to see what she does. Appreciate the help and advice.
 
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Sean87NC

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Jun 12, 2017
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Okay, last question. I plugged the SATA SSD back in and of course it boots to it. FINE. Any suggestions on how to wipe it? It seems I can't boot to the new NVME while the SATA is in. I am going to try something and will be right back.
 

Sean87NC

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Jun 12, 2017
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I just wanted to add to this post that originally I was using 380GB roughly on my 500GB SATA SSD. When cloning it showed this as the amount it was copying. After the successful operation, I show that 551GB used out of 930GB. I am not sure why it expanded out that much.
I am looking properties of C:\ and it says the size is 335GB. Anyways, this probably is a topic for another post.