[SOLVED] SSD m.2 for gaming

[shadowcat777]

Hey. I have a question about the SSD m.2 If they are less with gaming than regular SSD's.
I saw something like this when reading on Google.
Also will an m.2 improve the loading of games ?
The overall question is; is it worth buying an m.2 instead of having the regular SSD?

Kind regards,Shadow

 

[PC Tailor]

Just remember you can have SATA M.2.
M.2 is the form factor, what you are probably looking at is NVMe M.2 vs SATA M.2 vs SATA III (2.5 regular SSD).

A SATA M.2 is restricted to EXACTLY the same bandwidth as a SATA 2.5 drive, so technically there is absolutely no difference asides how the drive connects to the motherboard.

NVMe drives have a much higher bandwidth as they use a PCIe bus, not the SATA ones, HOWEVER in real application, you will not really notice a difference, especially in gaming. You would probably see less than 1 seconds loading time difference.

NVMe can excel with single large data transfer maybe, but outside of that, you may as well just opt for what you already have if you already have a standard 2.5 SSD.

 

[logainofhades]

I like M.2, as it makes cable management easier, as there are no cables. If you are looking to get a drive, for game storage, go with a 1tb, or 2tb, Intel 660p. They are Nvme, but are often priced similar, or less than, to that of M.2 SATA drives.

 

[tennis2]

The Adata SX8200 Pro is where it's at. Great performance, and they're frequently on sale after 15% coupon code at Rakuten $60 for the 512GB model. Tom's just published an article this week corroborating this claim.

If you're building new or are upgrading for capacity reasons, get an M.2 NVMe SSD since they aren't any more expensive than 2.5" SATA SSDs.

If you already own a decent SATA SSD and the capacity is still sufficient, no need to upgrade.

 

[logainofhades]

Yea, those are good drives too, and faster. For games, though, that speed is wasted.