[SOLVED] What would be an ideal (<$50) M.2 for my system

Michael_1000

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May 7, 2016
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Looking for a M.2 nvme drive (specifically want one of these screw-ins instead of a regular sata because my system airflow is kind of awful and I don't want another wire) to run alongside my HDD and do heavy duty read/writing (game installs and load screens, lib installations on my linux vm, possibly some video editing). Not necessary to get high capacity, just high speed. Been doing some research and I'm unable to find anything for $50. I remember a few months ago I was researching this and I found drives for 50$ with good "magazine" reviews but bad user reviews and decided not to pull the trigger until I could research some more, and now I regret not writing down the models.
Current build:
Mobo ASRock b250 pro4
CPU: i3-6100
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
RAM: Crucial 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
PSU: EVGA 600W 80+ Bronze
Also, I really need the M.2 to stay within the "power budget". I'm really squeezed in here. I used to have a 500W but I burned through 2 in a week so I upgraded to this 600W and I don't want to go over that, although this calculator says my recommended wattage should only be 435. OK, the point is I just don't want a 50 watt drive.
 
Solution
There are no 50w M.2 drives. None. You're looking at more like 6w or less for practically any M.2 drive under a full, active load.

What size drive are you looking for, because you're not going to find a sub-50 dollar M.2 drive that is capable of holding much data especially if you plan to store game and video files on it. You might find a 256GB drive for that price, but that is unreasonably small for a game/video drive for most people.

This is probably your best option for 50 bucks or less. Keep in mind, practically all electronics are substantially more than they were a year ago due to the Trump imposed import tariffs that all electronics coming from China, which is most electronics, are subject to.

PCPartPicker Part List...
There are no 50w M.2 drives. None. You're looking at more like 6w or less for practically any M.2 drive under a full, active load.

What size drive are you looking for, because you're not going to find a sub-50 dollar M.2 drive that is capable of holding much data especially if you plan to store game and video files on it. You might find a 256GB drive for that price, but that is unreasonably small for a game/video drive for most people.

This is probably your best option for 50 bucks or less. Keep in mind, practically all electronics are substantially more than they were a year ago due to the Trump imposed import tariffs that all electronics coming from China, which is most electronics, are subject to.

PCPartPicker Part List

Storage: Patriot Scorch 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $41.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-13 01:38 EST-0500


If you want something that's better quality, and larger, then I'd increase the budget and think about doing something like this, or even better would be something like the Samsung 970 Evo Plus or Seagate Firecuda. But those will be a little more expensive.


PCPartPicker Part List

Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($109.00 @ B&H)
Total: $109.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-13 01:40 EST-0500
 
Solution

Michael_1000

Reputable
May 7, 2016
7
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4,510
What size drive are you looking for, because you're not going to find a sub-50 dollar M.2 drive that is capable of holding much data especially if you plan to store game and video files on it. You might find a 256GB drive for that price, but that is unreasonably small for a game/video drive for most people.
PCPartPicker Part List

Storage: Patriot Scorch 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $41.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-13 01:38 EST-0500
256GB will be just fine for me as the few multiplayer games I frequently play will collectively be less than 100 GB, and I don't anticipate my hobby work in Linux to use more than the other 50 GB. I will be happy to keep my smaller games on the HDD. Thank you for the recommendation, I will probably go with this one as the reviews seem pretty good.