SSD Help Needed!

[Slothzillaz]

Basically, I've got some of my parts together and I'm still deciding on exactly which SSD to get and I keep stumbling across different information. The motherboard I plan to use is the Z170A Tomahawk (MSI) and the drive I plan to use is the 850 EVO M.2-2280 (Samsung) 120GB model. The conflicting info is the connector I have to use: PCI-E, M.2 or a SATA connector. Probably a stupid question as it is called an M.2 drive, but I know the earlier ones were just compact drives that used SATA, and I want to get away from the 6Gbps limit. Thanks in advance!

Edit: gotten some (non relevant but still good to know) advice and would like to reword the question: is the 850 EVO M.2-2280 a true M.2 SSD as in it draws power and transfers data through the M.2 port and does my motherboard (MSI Z170A Tomahawk) fully support true M.2 SSD's?

 

[greens]

Because the 6Gbps limit is a factor?

You could literally have an array of 12 SSDs in RAID 0/1 and still not saturate it...

 

[USAFRet]

1. Don't get a 120GB. You will kick yourself 6 months from now.
2. Just get a regular SATA III drive.

 

[Slothzillaz]

In response to greens:
I want M2 for blazing fast boot times. The M2 model currently costs $3 more than the SATA model and the throughput is there.

In response to USAFRet:
Why not get a 120GB SSD? I've got a 1TB HDD for mass storage, so I've got that covered if that's what you mean.

 

[USAFRet]

In response to greens:
I want M2 for blazing fast boot times. The M2 model currently costs $3 more than the SATA model and the throughput is there.

In response to USAFRet:
Why not get a 120GB SSD? I've got a 1TB HDD for mass storage, so I've got that covered if that's what you mean.

A 120GB will work, but a 250GB is a much better size vs price ratio.

I used a 120GB for a couple of years, and it eventually became too small.
This drive also had multiple large storage drives with it.
That OS and applications got moved to a 250GB, and currently takes up around 130GB.

 

[Slothzillaz]

In response to USAFRet's response:
If it fits into my budget, I'll try and get a 250GB one, but that's really besides the point even though it is useful info.

 

[CTlinxComputers]

Because the 6Gbps limit is a factor?

You could literally have an array of 12 SSDs in RAID 0/1 and still not saturate it...

Only if they are very slow SSDs

an SSD with a SandForce 3700 can reach speeds of 12Gbps sequential reads/writes