M.2 SSD definitely worth it?

Hey guys... trying to finalise an order for a new machine but a little stuck deciding between these drives:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Crucial BX200 240GB SSD SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (CT240BX200SSD1)= £55.99
• 1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU)= £67.99
• 1 x Samsung PM951 256GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive (MZVLV256HCHP-00000)= £65.99

I know it seems so obvious, but the M.2 drive - this will be the first time I have that as an options but I'm unsure whether they are definitely worth it or not... the read speed is clearly better on the M.2 drive there, but the write speed is worse.

Drive will be the main OS + program drive (but not many games really - those will mostly be on a separate 1TB mechanical, though I may link them onto this drive with SteamMover on an ad-hoc basis)

I got an M.2 drive when I switched to X99 as I needed a bigger drive anyway, using a 512gb 950 pro but tbh standard SSD's feel just as quick for the majority of tasks, there probably are scenarios where the huge speed differences do help though.

Normal SSD does feel just as fast.

Also I noticed the other night theres like two NVME 951 SSDs for each capacity, one fast and one not so fast,

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...state-drive-mzvlv256hchp-00000-hd-221-sa.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...state-drive-mzvpv256hdgl-00000-hd-213-sa.html

I'm so glad it's not just me who is slightly confused by this!!! Maybe I'll just stick to what I know and grab a regular drive (a Samsung EVO or something) if the difference isn't too noticeable

I also heard somewhere that on certain boards having an M.2 drive in takes up PCIe bandwidth and forces some one of the GPU slots to only run at a slower speed... Not sure how true that is though

I couldnt really tell the difference.

Hard to tell the difference unless transferring large files.

Forget the Crucial BX series as it is a budget range SSD and get the Samsung EVO. On some motherboards the M2 slot, when used, disables a couple of the SATA ports.

Have a SM951 256GB in my Asus ROG laptop, performs identically to my 850 EVO on my desktop PC.

Save your money until these M.2 drives come down in price, or until applications/windows can actually utilize their speed.

Interesting. I've been watching SSD and M2 prices come down and in a year or so when I can get a good brand 2TB for less than £200 I'll be ditching my HDD forever.

M2 does seem like the future. I do like the idea of losing 4 cables from the case (HDD power/sata, SSD power/sata) and really tidying it up! Not currently worth the expense though.

Thanks for all the responses In the end I did go with the Samsung EVO (also in the weekly deals saving a whole £1!!! )

May revisit the idea of an M.2 drive in the future, but for now I think this will be fine

flowrider99 said:

Forget the Crucial BX series as it is a budget range SSD and get the Samsung EVO. On some motherboards the M2 slot, when used, disables a couple of the SATA ports.

Click to expand...

The BX100 was really nice. It's a real shame the BX200 is so much worse as a lot of people we just assume the newer model to be better.

M.2 is just another format for breaking out SATA/PCIe lanes. PCIe SSDs on M.2 are a hell of a lot faster (on paper) than SATA of any description, but your machine has to support it. If it doesn't, either is M.2 SATA or regular SATA is fine

In practice, it's unlikely you'll notice the difference between SATA and PCIe SSDs, unless you shunt huge files about all day