Benefits of having M.2

Minibiker

Minibiker

Minibiker

Soldato
Joined
27 Mar 2016
Posts
7,565
Location
Bristolian living in Swindon
Hi all

I have been looking at adding another SSD to my build I currently only have a 60GB SSD for my OS... I've been looking into M.2 and just want to know what the benefits are for having one of these instead of SATA SSD's...

I've heard they are quicker, If this is correct what makes them quicker transferring data..

Thanks
 
They don't use the SATA specification, they plug straight into the pcie bus.

That's why they are faster.
 
Minibiker said:
Legend thank you :) Next task, find the right one for the job :cool:
Click to expand...
Don't forget the rather critical point that hasn't been mentioned: M.2 is simply a physical interface, and SSDs which use it come in both NVMe (accessing the PCIe bus directly) and SATA flavours. The latter will be no faster than a regular SSD plugged into a motherboard SATA port.

Whether it would ever be noticeable in day-to-day usage depends on what you're doing with it I suppose...
 
CaptainCrash said:
Don't forget the rather critical point that hasn't been mentioned: M.2 is simply a physical interface, and SSDs which use it come in both NVMe (accessing the PCIe bus directly) and SATA flavours. The latter will be no faster than a regular SSD plugged into a motherboard SATA port.

Whether it would ever be noticeable in day-to-day usage depends on what you're doing with it I suppose...
Click to expand...

I've only ever used my SSD's for my OS nothing else as all gaming stuff goes on Hard Drive... Maybe I should just stick with what I got
 
Honestly if you're not going to be writing/reading off an M.2 NVME constantly, i see no point of it.
Cause really, they're more expensive but in "normal" tasks, booting, firing up a game or general browsing, a SATA SSD is good enough.
 
If you were buying a new PC today then you'd maybe want to buy an M.2 NVME drive for it, simply because you can. It's a nice to have feature but for games I would be looking at a 2.5" 500GB SATA SSD like the Samsung Evo 850

A lot of tech reviewers adore M.2 NVME because they can leave them seated in their test beds and not have cables and drives trawling around their open rigs. Content creators like them too for their exceptionally high speeds.

If you can afford one and want one then go ahead but for storing your favourite games then a regular SSD is the best option.
 
Minibiker said:
Why Is this as I've been told by others that its best to store games on HDD
Click to expand...
If you have a huge library of games then buying an SSD or a couple of SSDs big enough to store them all will be very expensive.

But if you are like me and usually just play maybe 4 or 5 games for a bit and then move on to new games then I put those regular games on my SSD for the fast loading times.

You actually will notice the difference in putting games on the SSD
 
TallPaul1878 said:
If you have a huge library of games then buying an SSD or a couple of SSDs big enough to store them all will be very expensive.

But if you are like me and usually just play maybe 4 or 5 games for a bit and then move on to new games then I put those regular games on my SSD for the fast loading times.

You actually will notice the difference in putting games on the SSD
Click to expand...

Oh right I didn't know that.. I only play about the same amount of games as you do... Mostly simulator games... What's an ideal size SSD to put these games on
 
My setup is:

120GB M2 for OS
960GB SSD for games (bought this before prices went silly)
4TB for storage.
 
Minibiker said:
Oh right I didn't know that.. I only play about the same amount of games as you do... Mostly simulator games... What's an ideal size SSD to put these games on
Click to expand...
You can pick up a 500GB for about £140

If that's too expensive then a 250GB is about £80

A 250GB drive should easily be enough for about 5 large games. Some games are less than 10GB, others can be 40-50GB

I have noticed big improvements in loading times, particularly in Battlefield 1. That doesn't translate to an in-game advantage but it makes the overall experience so much more enjoyable.
 
Last edited:
TallPaul1878 said:
You can pick up a 500GB for about £140

If that's too expensive then a 250GB is about £80

A 250GB drive should easily be enough for about 5 large games. Some games are less than 10GB, others can be 40-50GB

I have noticed big improvements in loading times, particularly in Battlefield 1. That doesn't translate to an in-game advantage but it makes the overall experience so much more enjoyable.
Click to expand...

Would you recommend a M.2 or just a standard Samsung Evo SSD... I'll replace my 60GB one I have now
 
Minibiker said:
Would you recommend a M.2 or just a standard Samsung Evo SSD... I'll replace my 60GB one I have now
Click to expand...
For storage of your games then a Samsung Evo SSD is perfect. There are other brands too but Samsung seems to be the favoured one at the moment.

I will be plonking an M.2 drive in my next build but really only for the wow factor. I will still be storing all of my games on a regular SSD.
 
I have a 250Gb M.2 for my OS and a 1Tb WD Green for my games/programs, seems to work fine but if I was to replace the 1Tb mech disk I'd definately get a SSD.

For the record I have a 2Tb NAS for my storage.

I only got the M.2 because it was cheap on the MM and my motherboard supported it (also 2 less cables in my case), I haven't noticed any real world difference between my M.2 and a SATA ssd.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom