NVME or Solid State for gaming?

[Ice Rich]

Hi all,

My SATA HDD is failing and I want to replace it, i've been out of the loop for ages but gather NVME is now the best option - is it suitable for gaming as well as storage?
I notice the interface is different, doesn't seem to have any cables. I think i aleady have an NVME for OS - I know if depends on motherboard, but presumably most boards allow for more then one NVME?

Thanks

 

[Ice Rich]

Thank you all, advice noted and I am pleased I asked as I just had a look at my mobo specs and it seems it only has 1 x NVME slot which will be in use for the OS. So a PCIe adapter might be required.

Storage
1 x M.2 SSD (1 x Auto Switch)
1 x 2.5" HDD
2 x 3.5" HDD

I'll double check this by opening up case shortly.

 

[Ice Rich]

it's one of those MSI gaming pre made systems and I don't actually know the model of the motherboard (I will check shortly). This is the one:

https://www.msi.com/Desktop/Infinite-9th/Specification

 

[Ice Rich]

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[Ice Rich]

With multiple nvme drives
You really need to read your user manual too
Need to know your pcie lanes arrangement
Graphics card can get dropped to x8
And some sata ports disabled as an example

Where more than 1 nvme drives shine for me personally anyway
Is copying files Between them
Then they really blow away 2.5 sata ssds

Another disadvantage of m2/nvme
If you have multiple of them
There's no easy way to disable them
Not in bios like sata
And usually they're physically awkward to get to
Won't affect many people I guess
But I have 5x nvme
And being able to disable some when I need to
Would be a godsend
The first pc case with hot swap nvme drives
Will get my cash lol

Got it , thank you. When I first seen the interface of these NVME drives (i've been out of the loop for so long) , I thought they could be used almost like a USB pen drive which would be a real perk. I now realise that's not how it is (I can see why as any linking cables would be a bottle neck). As you say, if a case could introduce this feature somehow that would be great. And thanks too, noted the throttling issues and will have a read of any issues that can occur.

Yes, that's a 9th gen motherboard so early M.2 thus you only have one M.2 drive. Either you buy a large M.2 drive - 4 TB drives are available from £300 - or you get a SATA drive. Don't bother with Gen 5 drives - your slot may even be Gen 3.

Got it , thank you

My 8th gen Z370 motherboard takes two nvme/M.2 drives, I have a 500GB 970 evo & a 1TB 980 pro installed in it

So he maybe lucky

How did you manage to get 2 on an earlier edition ?!
Joking aside, I really rate these MSI pre-made systems, I think the build quality is great and I like that vertical graphics card thing (I don't know if that's now the standard or an MSI thing). Where does the NVME sit on yours? As much as I like that vertical thing I don't want to start dismantling things to get under it

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B360M-BAZOOKA/Specification

Your motherboard only has one M.2 slot. I would get the biggest drive you can afford. If you need more later on, add them using a PCIe adapter.

Ahh that's a shame but thanks for checking. I'll have a think and see what the space is link under my graphics card (i upgraded the supplied card with a 3060ti) and also not sure at the moment if using the lower slot would force grfx card into x8 mode.

only one m.2 slot that is pcie 3.0
personally would get one large nvme ssd to replace the current and you can toss the other sata ssds away
there are not many reasons that you need to partition ssds, and definitely none that are performance related (back in the day with spinning hdd...yes...but that was like two decades ago, you dinosaur )
unless you have terabytes of games or frequently reinstall windows (for the majority of users, why?) it's not really worth partitioning/splitting

Thank you, noted and will have a think Annoyingly the status for my gaming drive is reporting as 'replacement recommended' in the MSI app thing so I need to do something soon.

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[Ice Rich]

Thanks will do so this morning

 

[Ice Rich]

Thanks all

Yes I'm certain you're right , MSI 'infinite' division must release a custom bios for it. The board is a B360M BAZOOKA. I'm tempted to upgrade with a direct bios release but it is running ok and has these RGB light things on front of case that I wouldn't be surprised if that's also working from the custom bios.

Thanks McNumpty , I have used a HDD app (crystal and also SSD-Z) and both reporting ok regarding health. So you were right in not trusting the MSI thing.

I have 3 drives, 1 NVME for OS, 1 Seagate for Games , 1 Patriot for video/storage.

SSD-Z is reporting that there are a lot more 'features' on the Patriot ('Trim') so i'm almost certain that is SSD. The Seagate doesn't have SSD mentioned anywhere so I think it must be mechanical and connected via SATA2. Which would explain why textures take a while to fully appear when I first start Baldurs Gate 3.

I know ideally I need to open it up and have a proper look, will do so asap.