Question Storage speed difference

So I am curious what is the difference between M.2 SSD regular SSD and HDD loading times in games how much faster is windows with all of them etc. basically is the speed difference worth the extra money?

because I am thinking about getting just an M.2 SSD but want to see if the difference is honestly worth forking over the extra money or should I just go the standard SSD TB with a bigger HDD if you are wondering which one the Intel 660p Series M.2 2280 2TB
 

USAFRet

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Common misconception.
M.2 is simply the form factor...the package it comes in.
There are m.2 SATA drives, and m.2 NVMe drives.

Both vastly faster than a spinning HDD.

The m.2 SATA III drives are exactly the same as a SATA III 2.5" drive. Just in a different package and plugin.

The m.2 NVMe drive, like a Samsung 970, is what you're thinking of as 'faster'.

The Intel 660p is on the slower end of the NVMe scale, but faster than a SATA III drive.
If and only if you can get one at pretty much the same price/size as a SATA III drive, then go for it.
 
Common misconception.
M.2 is simply the form factor...the package it comes in.
There are m.2 SATA drives, and m.2 NVMe drives.

Both vastly faster than a spinning HDD.

The m.2 SATA III drives are exactly the same as a SATA III 2.5" drive. Just in a different package and plugin.

The m.2 NVMe drive, like a Samsung 970, is what you're thinking of as 'faster'.

The Intel 660p is on the slower end of the NVMe scale, but faster than a SATA III drive.
If and only if you can get one at pretty much the same price/size as a SATA III drive, then go for it.
I see so is an SSD the like "middle ground"?
 
Game loading and OS booting times will be about the same for good spec SATA SSD and M.2 Formfactor NVMe based drives. Have observed this myself. It's only certain applications within Windows that the true speed benefits of NVMe can be utilized. For just booting, browsing, and gaming, you would at most see a minor difference.
 

seanwebster

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Aug 30, 2018
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I see so is an SSD the like "middle ground"?
You mean specifically SATA SSD? Not just SSD. SSD is solid state drive and applies to any non-mechanical drive using NAND or similar memory technology. You need to specify the SSD type or model at the least.

The intel 660p is a PCIe (interface) NVMe (communication protocol) M.2 2280 (form factor) SSD. It’s faster than a SATA 6Gb/s (interface) AHCI (protocol) SSD (SATA SSDs come in M.2 and 2.5” form factors), but slower than the high-end NVMe SSDs which come in both M.2 and AIC form factors. The 660p also has awful base write performance after the SLC cache fills.
 
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DMAN999

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I have:
1 - Samsung 850 SATA III SSD
2 - MX500 500 GB SATA III SSDs (one is in my HTPC)
1 - MX500 500 GB m.2 SATA III SSD (idles at 40-42C and maxes out around 60c)
1 - MX500 1 TB SATA III SSD
(and 3 HDDs)

The 500 GB SSDs all perform almost exactly the same and the 1 TB MX500 performs slightly better than all the other SSDs.

So obviously I like and would definitely recommend a Crucial MX500 SSD.
The m.2 SATA SSD runs hotter (idles at 40-42C and maxes out around 60c) but I have not seen it get hot enough to throttle it.
 
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DMAN999

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The EVO is very good, it just costs more than the Crucial MX500 which IMO is just as good as the Samsung EVO.
My MX500's all perform almost exactly the same as the EVO in benchmarks (they are actually slightly faster) so there is NO real world difference and they all have a 5 year warranty.
 
The EVO is very good, it just costs more than the Crucial MX500 which IMO is just as good as the Samsung EVO.
My MX500's all perform almost exactly the same as the EVO in benchmarks (they are actually slightly faster) so there is NO real world difference and they all both have a 5 year warranty.
So what does the warranty cover? like what if it happens to stop working?
 

DMAN999

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From here:
https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/company-warranty
LIMITED THREE YEAR OR LIMITED FIVE YEAR WARRANTY – CRUCIAL® SSDs

Micron Consumer Products Group (Micron CPG) warrants to the original end customer (you) that its Crucial-branded solid state drive products are free from defects in material and workmanship affecting form, fit and function. For SSD products sold on or before August 28, 2017, any claim must be made within three (3) years from the original date of purchase, and Micron CPG shall have no liability thereafter. For SSD products sold after August 28, 2017, any claim must be made within three (3) years or within five (5) years, depending on applicable warranty period for the SSD product purchased, from the original date of purchase or before writing the maximum total bytes written (TBW) as published in the product datasheet and as measured in the product’s SMART data, whichever comes first. Micron CPG shall have no liability thereafter. If there are multiple versions of a product datasheet and the TBW measurement changes between versions, the warranty shall default to the version that was valid at time of purchase. Any claim alleging that any product fails to conform to the foregoing warranty may be made only by the end customer who originally purchased such product and only while such customer owns such product. Micron CPG, at its option, will repair, replace, or provide an in-store credit or refund of either the original purchase price or fair market value, whichever is lower, of any product that is determined by Micron CPG to be defective during the warranty period.
 

USAFRet

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So what does the warranty cover? like what if it happens to stop working?

You run whatever tests they require. If all agree, send it back and they send you another one.

I recently had to do that with a SanDisk 960GB. 33 days past the 3 year warranty, it died suddenly. As in Power off, 10 minutes later power up...dead drive.

Why/how did it de? Don't know,mostly don't care. It's dead. Showed zero indication of any fault, right up until the time it was no longer accessible.

My daily backup routine let me recover 100% of the 605GB on it, as it was at 4AM that morning.


33 days past the 3 year warranty, they sent me a new one anyway. Better and slightly larger.
 
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