Question storage advice and thoughts

[cesmode]

Hi guys. Building a new pc soon, a very budget one but coming from what I have currently it'll be a good step up. Need some advice and input on a few areas:
What I currently have:
-i7 3770
-nvidia gtx 1060
-western digital black 7200rpm HDD (yes, hdd not SSD).
-16gb ddr3
-running windows 7
Aiming for:
-Asus z390A motherboard
-i5-8400
-16gb ddr4
-keeping the gtx 1060 (only bought it 1.5 yr ago)
-upgrade to windows 10 hopefully
-Western digital blue sata 3 6g/s ssd

The last item is where I need some input...a buddy told me about even faster drives, nvme. Been researching, and I believe my mobo can hold two chips (with tweaking in the bios). My mobo only has one heatsink for one of the chips, Id probably have to buy a second for the 2nd chip. My concerns are heat generation and bottlenecking with my i5-8400.

Thoughts? Would the jump from hdd to ssd be enough? Or future proof a bit and go the m.2 route? Will heat be an issue along with bottlenecking?

Note: I never have added aftermarket fans and additional cooling (I know 🙁) so with that considered, all stock cooling, what are your thoughts?

 

[PC Tailor]

What chips are you referring to? Unless you're referring to M2 slots?

In which case, the Z390A has 2 M2 slots, both of which support PCIe interface. Upgrading from a HDD to a standard SATA SSD is a big boost, but your bottleneck is the SATA interface. Upgrading to a NVME and utilising the PCIe interface boasts a huge performance improvement. So if it were me, I would go down the NVME route.

When you refer to bottlenecking, what are you wondering what the bottleneck will be, and in what applications?

The latest NVME - especially Samsung EVO - have better cooling than older NVME, so I can't image it would be a problem assuming you don't already have a temperature problem. Just have a set up with good air flow and you should be fine, worst case you can always add a small heatsink.

 

[cesmode]

Thanks for the reply. Still learning about this stuff.

So, Im looking at my motherboard, if I ordered a samsung 970 evo 500gb, would it go into the slot that has the long heat sink in order to utilize the PCIe interface? I would use this for gaming. I would want the near instant load times on loading screens and game bootup. I do not do any video editing or large file transfers.

If I went this route, I might get a small SATA SSD for boot/os.

And the bottlenecking I was wondering about was with my i5-8400 processor.

Thoughts?

 

[dudeman509]

4 cores w/ HT -> 6 cores w/o HT is a bit of a sideways move.

It will be a decent gaming machine, but I think I'd aim for an 8th or 9th gen i7 or a Ryzen 7.

Or just put a SSD in the existing system - my 3770k is still a great gaming machine. I do wish it had a bit more CPU power when heavily multitasking.

 

[alceryes]

In most scenarios NVMe drive heatsinks aren't necessary. If it's in a cramped case with no airflow AND you will be constantly hammering the drive, then a small heatsink on the controller portion ONLY may help extend the life of the drive a bit but you'll most likely replace it before then anyway. I just built a new rig with the WD Black 500GB NVMe drive without a heatsink and I plan on using this rig for at least 3-4 years before any components get replaced.

Yes, going from SATA to NVMe is worth it.
To muddy the waters a bit, remember that M.2 is just the physical interface. There are some motherboard M.2 interfaces that use the SATA bus and some that use the PCIe (NVMe) bus. Be sure not to pick up a SATA M.2 drive for your NVMe M.2 slot. 😉

 

[cesmode]

In most scenarios NVMe drive heatsinks aren't necessary. If it's in a cramped case with no airflow AND you will be constantly hammering the drive, then a small heatsink on the controller portion ONLY may help extend the life of the drive a bit but you'll most likely replace it before then anyway. I just built a new rig with the WD Black 500GB NVMe drive without a heatsink and I plan on using this rig for at least 3-4 years before any components get replaced.

Yes, going from SATA to NVMe is worth it.
To muddy the waters a bit, remember that M.2 is just the physical interface. There are some motherboard M.2 interfaces that use the SATA bus and some that use the PCIe (NVMe) bus. Be sure not to pick up a SATA M.2 drive for your NVMe M.2 slot. 😉

Yah thats also my confusion...Unsure where on my mbo I should put the true nvme m.2 ...is it the slot with the built in heatsink? Asus z390a.

 

[PC Tailor]

Your motherboard won't have an M2 heat sink with it. The M2 is simply a small slot on your motherboard.
Both of your M2 slots support PCIe interface. So you'll simply get an NVME M2 SSD to plug into these.

 

[cesmode]

Your motherboard won't have an M2 heat sink with it. The M2 is simply a small slot on your motherboard.
Both of your M2 slots support PCIe interface. So you'll simply get an NVME M2 SSD to plug into these.

Isnt the long silver piece in the bottom right a heatsink or at lease a termal cover for m.2? You can unscrew it, remove the tape underneath, and place it on top of m.2

So..if I were to get samsung evo 970 250 gig and 500 gig, and put them into either of the two slots, I'll get equally the fastest PCIe speeds regardless which chip is where, and assuming I make the proper bios changes?

 

[PC Tailor]

Ah right I didn't even notice that. My mistake, yes you're right. You can always use that too. But again, if you ahve sufficient airflow, it shouldn't generally be a problem. But if you have the heatsink, then why not use it.

If you're using NVME, it should use lanes provided by the chipset, not the GPU, so it won't make a difference is my understanding. I believe your M2_1 is the only one which will use SATA interface if using a SATA SSD.

Not sure how that motherboard shares the bandwidth between the 2 slots though. But I believe they will both operate x4 normally.

 

[alceryes]

I believe your M2_1 is the only one which will use SATA interface if using a SATA SSD.

Yes, one of the slots will support SATA as well as NVMe. Other than saving a few bucks, there's no reason to go SATA M.2 though.

 

[cesmode]

Ah right I didn't even notice that. My mistake, yes you're right. You can always use that too. But again, if you ahve sufficient airflow, it shouldn't generally be a problem. But if you have the heatsink, then why not use it.

If you're using NVME, it should use lanes provided by the chipset, not the GPU, so it won't make a difference is my understanding. I believe your M2_1 is the only one which will use SATA interface if using a SATA SSD.

Not sure how that motherboard shares the bandwidth between the 2 slots though. But I believe they will both operate x4 normally.

They do share bandwidth, I would just need to disable sata (or enable nvme, cant remember) in bios. Just want to make sure that regardless where I put the nvme chips (because one will be for boot, the other games), it'll be using the same PCIe speeds.

And then if I do this, my last concern is will this bottleneck or suck bandwidth from my gtx 1060 since my storage drives and boot drives would be using PCIe?

 

[cesmode]

Yes, one of the slots will support SATA as well as NVMe. Other than saving a few bucks, there's no reason to go SATA M.2 though.

I know, this is why I am even considering it. I just want to make sure I get the right products and set it up correctly.

 

[alceryes]

They do share bandwidth, I would just need to disable sata (or enable nvme, cant remember) in bios. Just want to make sure that regardless where I put the nvme chips (because one will be for boot, the other games), it'll be using the same PCIe speeds.

And then if I do this, my last concern is will this bottleneck or suck bandwidth from my gtx 1060 since my storage drives and boot drives would be using PCIe?

Good question.
I'm seeing some conflicting info on the effects of using 2 NVMe drives. It would probably be best to get on with Asus support for that particular board and see what they say.

(and please come back here to post the results of your chat to help others)