SATA vs M.2 SSD

Nov 22, 2017
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I am about to order the parts for my new work computer build. I am a junior developer using Node and Mongodb for the backend of my projects.

Currently i have a very old computer with a 1TB HDD and am looking to speed up the time it takes to restore and move data.

I have been prowling the internet and have not found a clear answer yet. I am wondering if it is worth it to spend the money and get the Samsung 960 EVO 250GB (for OS and database usage) and a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB for everything else including my dev projects and compiling, or just go with two 850 EVO's or even one 1TB 850 EVO. I'm new at this so i'm looking for some help on what would be the best for my use case.

As far as my other hardware i am planning on getting the Asus - PRIME Z270-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard and 16GB of ram.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Solution
Performance wise the m.2 ssds are definitely the best but sometimes you have to work through some things with them such as drivers and performance variability from heat (still great performance).

From my personal experience and preference, I would go with the largest single drive you can afford even if that means going with the 1TB 850 EVO over some m.2 / ssd combo. Just my opinion obviously. Mainly the decision really comes down to price. I would go with the 1TB or 2TB 960 EVO m.2 if you have the big bucks.

Remember to to have everything backed up via the cloud or an external drive because if a SSD goes out the data will not be recoverable.

drekoriggm

Prominent
Nov 22, 2017
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Performance wise the m.2 ssds are definitely the best but sometimes you have to work through some things with them such as drivers and performance variability from heat (still great performance).

From my personal experience and preference, I would go with the largest single drive you can afford even if that means going with the 1TB 850 EVO over some m.2 / ssd combo. Just my opinion obviously. Mainly the decision really comes down to price. I would go with the 1TB or 2TB 960 EVO m.2 if you have the big bucks.

Remember to to have everything backed up via the cloud or an external drive because if a SSD goes out the data will not be recoverable.
 
Solution
Nov 22, 2017
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510


So in your opinion it would better to just go with one large ssd and then maybe a large HDD for data backup purposes?
 

drekoriggm

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Nov 22, 2017
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Yes, that's what I do. If you want something more automated, cloud backup can be nice since it will save files as you change them and retain older versions which could be nice for your projects. If you're good about manually backing up and making sure everything is up-to-date, then the external drive would be good too.
 

wetwonder

Reputable
Jul 30, 2014
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To go M.2 you want to make sure you get an "M type" and PCIe type card/drive, and that the hardware that excepts the M.2 - either Motherboard or card adapter for it - has 4-lane PCIe support rather than 2-lane.

Use that M.2 for your boot drive and your applications and you will be running just about as fast as possible, all things considered.

I use a 128gb M.2 to boot, and run Windows and 4 Adobe applications from it. But these don't take up much space - about 50GB I think, leaving 70GB free. And then I have a separate 256GB SSD drive that's exclusively for media/scratch caching.

If you have some other very large applications that need space, than you'd to to a 256GB M.2 boot/windows drive.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Why won't data be recoverable from SSD? What is recommended set up?
Any type drive can die. Some of them suddenly.
Generally though...an SSD death is complete.

Solution?
Don't rely on trying to get data back from a failed or failing drive.
Proactive backups are the solution.
 
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