Top Compatible SSD for ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0

[cglightsey]

My hard drive recently passed away, and I'm looking for a new SSD to replace it. I don't completely understand how the older PCIe interfaces will affect my options (will PCIe 3.0 be incompatible? Or just bottlenecked? If bottlenecked, then to what extent? etc.).
My PC is primarily for gaming, and I preferably want something mid-range with 1TB storage.
Thanks

 

[VJ_Gamer]

Check the below link for SSD according to your budget and preference

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/?compatible_with=asus-motherboard-m5a97ler20

Also check the below links for some benchmarks on the SSD for your motherboard.

http://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Asus-M5A97-LE-R20/1236

Upgrade options:

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/ASUS/m5a97-le-r2*0

Peace.

 

[CountMike]

Why PCIe ?? There's SATA3 on that MB so any ordinary SATA SSD would do and be many times faster than HDD.

 

[tambeshakunt]

Yes any SATA III SSD should be compatible.

 

[eyupo92]

Your motherboard has PCIe 2.0 lanes each with 5 Gbps capacity. And it has 1 x16 slot and 1 x4 slot.

Now assuming you have your GPU on x16 slot and x4 is empty, this means you have 4 x 5 Gbps= 20 Gbps / 8 = 2500 MB/s bandwidth available for NVMe disk connected to your motherboard, so anything upto Samsung 950 Pro should be OK, anything above that will have unused bandwidth.

But, does your motherboard even support NVMe disks and if yes, des it support booting into NVMe disks?

Even if it supports, 1 TB NVMe disks are expensive. I suggest you go the SATA 6 Gbps route.

If money is of no object buy Samsung 850 Pro, it is the best you can buy and use. And its endurance is beyond everything. It is really professional quality.

If you have less money, then Samsung 850 Evo is the correct choice. It is the measuring stick for SATA SSDs.

If still less money, then Sandisk Ultra II 960 GB. But not any others.

Currently no other SSDs can come close to these.

According to latest reviews, New Sandisk/WD 3D SSD s and Crucial BX300 seem to be coming close to 850 Evo capabilities, but whether they are actually that good remains to be seen.

If money is tight, think of combining a smaller size SSD with a Seagate Barracuda Compute HDD ( not older Baracuda's , just Compute series ) or Firecuda SSHD. I have 1 TB Barracuda Compute and it has a write speed of 200 MB/s, it is a great HDD series.

 

[CountMike]

That MB can't BOOT from SSDs in PCIe, only of SATA. There's no use trying anything else.

 

[VJ_Gamer]

Yes. SATA III SSD would be a good choice.

Peace.