M.2 suggestions

[CodeMonkey23]

Hi all.
Looking to upgrade my boot/gaming drive and need some m.2 advice/opinions please.
Currently i have a 256gb Samsung 840 evo as my boot drive and a 500gb Samsung 870 evo as my gaming drive. I'm running a 11700k and a MSI z590 motherboard so i can take advantage of gen4 speeds. I've been looking at a 1tb Samsung 990 pro at £75 however im wondering if the extra performance is worth it. Another drive that caught my eye is a 2tb Corsair MP600 PRO NH at £83.

It would be used as a boot drive, a plex server(media on other drives), software development(apps for learning and personal improvement) and for gaming.

So opinions please, with a preferred budget of around £80 and a max of £100 what drive would you buy? One of the above or something else? All opinions welcome

Thanks in advance

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Corsair looks decent for the price and uses TLC NAND and has a DRAM cache:
https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-spec...-nh-2-tb.d1160

[[GSV]Trig]

I've got the MP600, cracking drive.
I came from Gen3 drives, Sammy 970Evo+'s, one 500gb as a boot drive and a 1tb as a storage/game install drive, and just ended up with a 2tb MP600.
Cant really tell any difference between the gen 3 and 4 so if you can get a decent deal on a drive, I wouldn't be overly concerned about the difference.

[Iota]

Hso i can take advantage of gen4 speeds

But do you need to?

Cant really tell any difference between the gen 3 and 4 so if you can get a decent deal on a drive, I wouldn't be overly concerned about the difference.

Especially considering Gen 5 drives are now becoming more widely available. I'd personally opt for the 2tb Corsair MP600 drive considering the pricing, the only other I would consider is the 2tb 970 EVO+ which is the same pricing but "slower" (I run with the 970 EVO+ drives currently as they have been rock solid).

[CodeMonkey23]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I was thinking that the 990 is a bit overboard for my purposes. The corsair drive seems to get good reviews, only downside is I won't be able to use Samsung Magician with it. A very small price to pay considering the capacity, performance and price of the drive

[Saracen999]

The Corsair does look good. Just note that red banner across the top of the Powerup data page, and be suitably careful when picking a supplier -

Multiple hardware versions found.

Performance could vary due to unannounced flash/controller changes.

[AGTDenton]

Personally I'd keep your existing 500GB drive and make that into the boot drive. Then get a 2TB drive for the extra storage. I've not looked at your board, but would suggest if you go Gen 4 to also consider the thermals. The faster you go the hotter it will be. Some boards have a heatsink already and others don't.

Then with your 256GB drive turn it into an external drive for small backups or as a Ventoy Boot disc

[[GSV]Trig]

only downside is I won't be able to use Samsung Magician with it.

What specifically do you NEED Magician for though?
I used it when I was running Sammy drives, and still do on other machines that run Sammy's.

If you go down the Corsair route, their drives are factory overprovisioned, you can do f/w updates in the SSD Toolbox and so on, its not as 'good looking' as magician is but does the same sorts of things..