recommendations for a M.2 SSD for Alienware 15 R3?

[Slam]

I'm taking a chance on a Dell Outlet scratch and dent Alienware 15 R3. It has a 1TB 7200rpm hd drive but no ssd.

Any recommendations for a 256GB M.2 SSD?
(I'm assuming either SATA or PCIe SSDs are compatible, the Alienware website gives build options for both types). Is there a noticeable difference with PCIe if using for pretty much the OS and antivirus only? (games will be on hdd).

 

[Alexrose1uk]

PCI-E is very fast, absolute best IOPS you can get right now from a single drive basically without going crazy.
Samsung 960 is very capable, consumer/value champion, albeit still pricey. (just don't bother with the 250GB unless its a very good price, if you check the reviews you'll note its neutered compared to the 500GB/1TB)

If you want an older drive but still very capable, the WD Black NVME is available more economically (circa £160-170 for the 512GB model). The SATA SSDs are slower, but available at higher GB:£

I wouldn't say NVME is massively different for your average usage, but it does have a performance benefit across the board albeit small. The sequential data write/reads can be astronomical too.

 

[marco.da.man]

samsung 960 does seem the popular one, or there's the crucial mx300 275gb m.2 at a good price point