Noticeable difference in NVMe speeds?

MatteRB26 · 25 Aug 2020 at 13:24

How noticeable is the difference of NVMe drives in reality?

I'm looking at a new 1TB NVMe as I need the extra storage, but could do with the extra "oomph" than SATA. Seeing numbers range from 1500/1500 to 4000/4000ish it's an absolute minefield!

I mostly do gaming but also programming, game modding and game dev so I'd quite like the increased speeds, but how noticeable is it really?

MatteRB26 · 26 Aug 2020 at 13:30

Thanks for all the replies! While gaming is the primary use of my PC, I do also use it for programming with large solutions which can be quite IO heavy at times - especially with building and compiling.

I suppose it comes down to the difference in price really. I'd considered a WD Blue 1TB M.2 SATA for the form factor, my motherboard has 2 M.2 slots - and I'm already using 3 SATA ports out of 6, and I'm pretty sure using one of the M.2 disables two of the SATA ports?

MatteRB26 · 26 Aug 2020 at 13:44

SonicSW20 said:
Check your owners manual, depending on the board some other IO may not be available, for example using the M.2's may make one of the PCIe slots unavailable or limit its speed for example due to the amount of PCIe lanes available.

Just re-read the docs.

* SATA1 port will be unavailable when installing SATA M.2 SSD in M2_2 slot.
* PCI_E6 slot will be unavailable when installing PCIe M.2 SSD in M2_2 slot

PCI_E6 is the second X16 slot which I'm not bothered about. It doesn't say anything about blocking lanes or slots when using the M2_1 slot which is PCIE only (M2_2 is PCIE or Sata)

MatteRB26 · 26 Aug 2020 at 13:48

Journey said:
There is no reason to not get an NVMe M.2 drive now if buying a new SSD as there is a tiny difference in cost. A good quality 2TB model is sub £200, it is worth considering replacing some of your slower SATA SSD's (if you have them) on your MSI X470 Gaming Plus

£200 is quite a lot for me to spend on components right now, I'd be going 1TB at most for now I think. I've got a Samsung Evo 850 500gb which has Windows, Cod and wow on. (Cod is using literally more than half...) and two regular mechanical drives.

I'd probably move Windows to the NVMe and a couple of demanding games then try and save the rest for IO intensive workloads.

MatteRB26 · 29 Aug 2020 at 09:29

Shante said:
I was going to go for 1TB Nvme gaming storage but then decided to get 2TB SSD Sata instead

Given the responders I've gotten here and elsewhere this is where I may be leaning too.

MatteRB26 · 29 Aug 2020 at 09:40

Journey said:
Well if you are going to buy SATA don't overspend on something like a Samsung drive, just get a cheap Crucial 2TB, no point in paying £20-30 more for the same thing, that would end up getting you within a whisker of the price of the NVMe drive.

Yeah, I'm keeping an eye out for any good used deals, ideally I don't want to spend any more than £80 so I'm clinging on. I've seen a few 1tb NVMe drives go for around that mark. Just crossing fingers!

MatteRB26 · 29 Aug 2020 at 10:01

Journey said:
Well brand new SATA 1TB drives can be had for ~£75, and NAND prices are still falling so SSD will continue to drop the longer you wait.

I've not really seen 1tb SATA below £90 - maybe looking in the wrong places. The crucial drives are about £96.

MatteRB26 · 30 Aug 2020 at 08:30

Grim5 said:
Updated for August 2020

NVME drives are coming into their own now - in several games the NVME can load nearly twice as fast as a SATAIII SSD

Argh, the benefit of the difference being marginal still was that I could justify buying a SATA drive much easier!