M2 Drive For Gigabyte Gaming 7 Z170x

Drewfus · 1 Jul 2021 at 13:59

Hello,

Im looking to buy an M.2 PCIe NVMe drive for my PC but after reviewing the compatible M.2 drives from the Qualified Vendors List all the availbe drives seem to be discontinued. I have very little knowledge on M.2 drives and im hoping to find a drive with backwards compatibility for my mb.

Any input would be greatly appreciated !

Thanks, Drewfus

Tetras · 1 Jul 2021 at 14:16

The website of your board says it supports a NVME SSD running PCI-E 3.0 x4, up to 2280 size. So, something like a WD SN550, Samsung 980 (non-Pro), Intel 660p.

By the way, it looks like one of the PCI-E slots shares bandwidth with an M.2 slot (not sure which one).

mickyflinn · 1 Jul 2021 at 14:20

This is good value .

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0c-hd-56l-wd.html

EsaT · 1 Jul 2021 at 17:08

WD Blue SN550 for budget.
WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £89.99

If money situation isn't tight, Seagate Firecuda 510 is good full speed PCIe v3 drive with very high TBW endurance for only £10 more.
Seagate Firecuda 510 1TB SSD PCIe NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (ZP1000GM3A011)= £99.95

After those next level would be Phison E16 based 5GB/s drives.
But you lack PCIe v4 at it would work at slower PCIe v3 speed.
TeamGroup T-Force Cardea Zero Z440 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive= £158.99

Tetras said:
So, something like a WD SN550, Samsung 980 (non-Pro), Intel 660p.

980 Pro is only Samsung not brand overpriced.
Despite of similar naming for fraudulent purposes non-pro 980 has nothing to do with 980 Pro lacking both PCIe v4 and even DRAM cache.
(should have been 975 at most)

And Intel 660p is overpriced for QLC Flash crap tech, whose native sequential write speed takes curb stomping from 10 years old HDD.
TLC based WD Blue SN550 is better chosie thna all those QLC drives, whose prices don't reflect use of crappy tech.