[SOLVED] Sabrent Rocket M.2 SSD vs. HP EX920 M.2 SSD?

[ZerozxCJ]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of getting parts together to build a PC (my first time!) and I'm trying to decide on a SSD for storage.

I've seen a lot of people recommending builds that have the Sabrent Rocket (1TB) but someone else recommended the HP EX920 (1TB) SSD to me because it's cheaper and also has a 1GB cache whereas the Sabrent SSD apparently has no cache.

I'm hoping to get some additional input as I'm having a difficult time deciding. If you recommend a completely different SSD, let me know. This would be in addition to a regular HDD. One related question when it comes to SSDs: do they have to have enclosures/heat sinks to cover them, or can they just be attached to the motherboard as-is? What's the best option? Also, are they supposed to come with a screw to properly secure it to the motherboard?

And if the rest of the build matters in deciding on the SSD, here is the list:
Original build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/4zNRk6
Slightly updated based on someone's recommendation: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8WfJb8

Thanks for any help! Let me know if you need additional information from me.

 

[Newtonius]

Sabrent has better reads and writes with r/w being 3400MB/s & 3000 MB/s. The ex920 has about 3100 MB/s read speed and 1600 MB/s, essentially half. While you normally would never need speeds above 1.5 GB/s if the option is available at the same price, why not go for it? So go with the Sabrent. Both will have good life expectancy as well.

Also no you don't need a heatsink on it unless you plan to write a lot of data to it for a long period of time. It'll get a little toasty when writing data sure but if it's not for a while and not huge files it should be fine. They normally rest around 40-50C. The temp max is around 80-90c

 

[popatim]

The Sabrent Rocket comes in PCIE3 or PCIE4 so be careful which one you order.

 

[ZerozxCJ]

The Sabrent Rocket comes in PCIE3 or PCIE4 so be careful which one you order.

Thanks. So assuming I get the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max motherboard, would I need the PCIE3 or PCIE4 version? From what I can tell, the Sabrent Rocket that I'm looking at on Amazon says "PCIe 3.1 Compliant." I assume that means it only accepts the PCIE3 version.

 

[popatim]

It means that the drive is PCIE3 . It will also work in a PCIE4 slot but the slot will downgrade itself to PCIE3.

The same goes for a PCIE4 drive, it downgrades itself to PCIE3 when put into a PCIE3 slot.
I've not seen anyone try this to know if it halves the drives speed or if the drive will nearly max out the PCIE3 bus. (If anyone knows, hit us up with a link please)

 

[Newtonius]

It means that the drive is PCIE3 . It will also work in a PCIE4 slot but the slot will downgrade itself to PCIE3.

The same goes for a PCIE4 drive, it downgrades itself to PCIE3 when put into a PCIE3 slot.
I've not seen anyone try this to know if it halves the drives speed or if the drive will nearly max out the PCIE3 bus. (If anyone knows, hit us up with a link please)

Thanks. So assuming I get the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max motherboard, would I need the PCIE3 or PCIE4 version? From what I can tell, the Sabrent Rocket that I'm looking at on Amazon says "PCIe 3.1 Compliant." I assume that means it only accepts the PCIE3 version.

Yeah it just uses as much bandwidth as it can get from the lanes it's provided. It won't bottleneck what any other gen 3 wouldn't. For example, if the motherboard says, "filling the 3rd m.2 slot will render the 3rd PCIe slot useless" then that's the only limitation. The gen 4 m.2 in a gen 3 slot will not steal the lanes/bandwidth from other slots, only what it's given.