Humour me... 'Fast' PCI-E 4.0 drives...

Removed User 345456 · 2 May 2023 at 07:44

Right so TLDR, building my first rig since a 2008 era q66 stepping 1st gen quad core... I've had mac's since but all are circa 2008-2012 retrofitted with sata3 ssd's... This will be my first 'modern' pc with a m.2...

I've got a B550m pci-e 4.0 m.2 motherboard...

Now I was going to splash out on either a 2 or 4tb 7300/6800mb/s 'fast' m.2 drive for it... This rig will ONLY be turned on for gaming, nothing else.

I thought sweet it'll boot super fast and loading times in games should be rather snappy - now I've recently heard this isn't the case?

Am I better off just getting a 3500mb/sec m.2 instead and saving myself a third or more off the price? The price doesn't bother me but I would be VERY angry if I literally don't gain anything and think I have when I could have just got a 'slower' m.2?

Any feedback is welcomed!

Ta!

Mcnumpty2323 · 2 May 2023 at 09:58

In everyday use
It's actually not easy to tell the difference
From a 2.5 sata ssd at 500MBs
And a m2 at 7000MBs
As even on a 2.5 sata ssd access times are still so fast
For gaming a gen 4 might load a game a bit faster than gen 3
Would it be orders of magnitude difference
I doubt it
Though I don't play many games my main use for my m2 drives
Is moving data around which is where they really shine
Copying to /from multiple m2 drives is severely fast
I have 5 x m2 some gen 3 some gen 4
Boot times are basically the same from either
As far as I can tell

Removed User 345456 · 2 May 2023 at 12:21

Nice one mate, that's disappointing but I spose it is what it is. I'd hoped loading times when paired with 32gb ram and fast modern hardware would be a lot faster.

bob9oc · 2 May 2023 at 12:33

It isnt the generational leap the mechanical drives to ssd once was.

I have recently reorganised my PC to get rid of the old SSD and mechanical hard drives. I had the OS on an older 1tb M2 that benchmarks at 2000MBs and installed a new 2tb that benches at 7000 MBs and did a fresh install with the 2TB as the primary drive and the 1tb relegate to a secondary storage drive.

I cant really tell any difference in day to day usage tbh, with things installed on the primary vs the secondary drive. it might be slightly quicker in loading, but i cant tell the difference enough to care about it.

Removed User 345456 · 2 May 2023 at 12:37

That's a shame then!
At least I know I'm not missing out on anything with pci-e 5.0 then and current new next gen stuff ha

Mcnumpty2323 · 2 May 2023 at 13:21

direct storage is the one thing that games might
make benefit of say 7000 over 3000MBs
but of course you need all games to support it
and probably a good level gpu
is it worth the extra cost of a gen4 m2 that i dont know
as for pcie 5 drives so far they look to run very hot
and require beefy heatsinks even a tiny fan on some

Removed User 345456 · 2 May 2023 at 15:33

Mcnumpty2323 said:
direct storage is the one thing that games might
make benefit of say 7000 over 3000MBs
but of course you need all games to support it
and probably a good level gpu
is it worth the extra cost of a gen4 m2 that i dont know
as for pcie 5 drives so far they look to run very hot
and require beefy heatsinks even a tiny fan on some

I reckon I'll just pay the extra third and get the 7000ish mb/s drive then, no biggie.

Mcnumpty2323 · 2 May 2023 at 15:39

keef247 said:
I reckon I'll just pay the extra third and get the 7000ish mb/s drive then, no biggie.

Wouldn't surprise me
If there's YouTube videos about direct storage on pc
And probably comparisons between gen 3 and gen 4 drives there

Removed User 345456 · 2 May 2023 at 15:42

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Wouldn't surprise me
If there's YouTube videos about direct storage on pc
And probably comparisons between gen 3 and gen 4 drives there

True,
I just like to get real peoples opinions not sponsored scene scumbags haha.
So thanks for your input mate

Mcnumpty2323 · 2 May 2023 at 16:01

i doubt the difference is very much between them tbh
but if cost isnt an issue
i would probably just get gen4
as games will probably get bigger and have more data
in loading screens etc
plus if you ever add a second drive (assuming motherboard supports it)
copying files between them is noticeably faster than gen3

Removed User 345456 · 2 May 2023 at 16:14

Mcnumpty2323 said:
i doubt the difference is very much between them tbh
but if cost isnt an issue
i would probably just get gen4
as games will probably get bigger and have more data
in loading screens etc
plus if you ever add a second drive (assuming motherboard supports it)
copying files between them is noticeably faster than gen3

Yeah, I may as well, I bought a gen 4 mobo after all

In for a penny in for a pound lol

mattyfez · 2 May 2023 at 19:05

Doesn't make naff all diffference day to day.

I recently put 2 WD black gen 4 Nvme drives in as I needed more staorage, but I run a mixture of SATA and M.2 drive, mainly as they were a pretty good deal.

I know it's Linus, but I have to say my experience supports his results.

Does a Faster SSD Matter for Gamers?? - $h!t Manufacturers Say

Find a Micro Center near you: https://rebrand.ly/s9j16ctMaingear Vector Laptop: https://rebrand.ly/353vpgsMaingear Vector Laptop (Amazon): https://rebrand.ly...

www.youtube.com

Removed User 345456 · 2 May 2023 at 19:07

It's crazy when you think about it based on the speed listed it 'could use' but the reality is different it would seem when gaming sigh

mattyfez · 2 May 2023 at 19:24

keef247 said:
It's crazy when you think about it based on the speed listed it 'could use' but the reality is different it would seem when gaming sigh

Faster drives will come into thier own if you copying big chunks of data between drives 24/7. Not so much in home office or home gaming use.

That said, Nvme drives are reasonanly well priced at the moment, so I'd Probably go for a decent gen 4 drive as a system drive... but as secondary media drives, I wouldn't worry about it, save some money. I've still got a SATA SSD in my main PC as a game drive, and my secondary PC is only running on older SATA SSDs.

Removed User 345456 · 2 May 2023 at 19:26

mattyfez said:
Faster drives will come into thier own if you copying big chunks of data between drives 24/7. Not so much in home office or home gaming use.

That said, Nvme drives are reasonanly well priced at the moment, so I'd Probably go for a decent gen 4 drive as a system drive... but as secondary media drives, I wouldn't worry about it, save some money. I've still got a SATA SSD in my main PC as a game drive, and my secondary PC is only running on older SATA SSDs.

This literally is only going to be used for gaming. I have macs for everything else mate. So it'll just be the one m.2 drive

Hotwired · 2 May 2023 at 19:34

keef247 said:
It's crazy when you think about it based on the speed listed it 'could use' but the reality is different it would seem when gaming sigh

It's unthinkable to go back to using a HDD for games

But once you have a SSD (any SSD) it's such a waste of gaming money to spend money upgrading to a SSD that is faster at moving huge files.

If anyone is gaming oriented the money for storage should go to a bigger SSD.

Removed User 345456 · 2 May 2023 at 22:10

Hotwired said:
It's unthinkable to go back to using a HDD for games

But once you have a SSD (any SSD) it's such a waste of gaming money to spend money upgrading to a SSD that is faster at moving huge files.

If anyone is gaming oriented the money for storage should go to a bigger SSD.

Yeah I do wince when I see people still using a hdd for steam libraries!

Troezar · 3 May 2023 at 12:44

Just bought two SN770. 1TB for the OS and a 2TB for games. Should be more than enough for a gaming only machine.

Removed User 345456 · 3 May 2023 at 21:59

I think I've found a solution, thanks for everyones input

BananaDunka · 9 May 2023 at 19:42

I have a 3500MB/s gen 3 1TB, 7000MB/s gen 4 2TB, 7000MB/s gen 4 8TB and a SATA 8TB, so 550MB/s.

Between them for normal use inc gaming, there's little to tell them apart if you blindfolded someone and told them which seems faster to load etc.

90% of games I have played barely breach 250MB/s read speeds when a game is loading, and in the few games that state a minimum req of a PCIe SSD, I have seen around 1500MB/s read speed give or take (Dead Space remake), which is still well below gen 3 specs.

You also don't need Direct Storage to leverage PCIe bandwidth, as evidenced by games like Dead Space remake which load the moment you click the mouse button to your save location in the game, with no further "loading" throughout the rest of the game.

Windows does not boot any faster either, and applications might load slightly faster on the faster gens due to the slight bump in random 4k reads, but again without measuring, it would all feel the same.