M.2 drive for new board

[MLyons]

So i recently upgrades my system to an Asus prime x470-Pro and a 2700X and I need a new SSD as I wan't to get a clean install of windows without nuking my current version. I haven't kept up with M.2 drives so I'm unsure of what type of drive will work on my new board as a boot drive. I'm also not sure if the extra speed from the drive is worth giving up over extra space I'd get for my money getting a normal SSD. Any advice?

[Hoonigan]

If you want absolute speed, get an NVMe M.2, but if capacity is more important; go SATA.

If you're looking for NVMe, I can personally suggest an XPG SX8200 drive; for the price, the performance is absolutely top-notch.
Or, if you want some of the extra features you get from a Samsung drive, such as turbo write and increased TBW, the 960 EVO should come down in price a fair chunk soon.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

As with anything what is your budget?? I have found capacity is more the limitation with SSDs,and outright speed is really only important for specific applications,so what is your usage for the system??

[Xlucine]

NVMe makes no difference to real-world use, unless you have another NVMe drive with its own connection to move the data to. It looks great in benchmarks, but doesn't make any noticeable difference in real-world applications:

Some NVMe drives loading battlefield 3, courtesy of Toms Hardware: https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/samsu...w-34313-2.html

And some SATA SSDs - note the ~1s difference over 2 mins of loading. From https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/cruci...w-34129-2.html


Finally, some spinning rust for comparison (https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/seaga...w-34250-2.html). TH has other traces used in their benchmarks in those reviews as well, and they show a similar story - there's practically no difference for consumers between NVMe and SATA3, but they're both a massive improvement on a HDD. Given the large markup on NVMe drives, there's much better things to be spending money on. At best you'd see an improvement with large files getting loaded into RAM, as that's the only sink with enough bandwidth to drain NVMe at the full speed, but for most people that's pretty rare and a SATA SSD (whether M.2 or 2.5") won't be too far behind

[MLyons]

Budget is around 125 and I'll be using it for Gaming, coding and rarely some VMs

[Hoonigan]

Budget is around 125 and I'll be using it for Gaming, coding and rarely some VMs

£125 would almost get you a 480GB NVMe XPG SX8200.

CCL Computers

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Budget is around 125 and I'll be using it for Gaming, coding and rarely some VMs

The Adata one mentioned looks a good bet,but however remember prices are starting to drop on SSDs. 1TB ones are now starting at around £200ish,and you can get a 500GB MX500 for £90 now:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT5...ords=750gb+ssd

Edit!!

You could this ADATA lower end M2 SSD for a boot drive:

https://www.cclonline.com/product/24...Drive/SSD0676/
https://www.cclonline.com/product/24...Drive/SSD0677/

Its PCI-E 2.0X but should be plenty fast. Scaryjim has one IIRC.

Then have the MX500 as a separate drive for games,etc and use the boot drive just for OS stuff,and you will spend similar money compared to a single drive but get more storage.

Second Edit!!

So did ERU,and they did a quick test:

https://forums.hexus.net/review-my-b...ml#post3944915