Recommendations for SSD PCIe 4.0

Smithy18 · 12 Oct 2020 at 18:19

Evening,

I currently have a 250GB kingston SSD installed which i have windows 10 installed on. I have another storage device which is a 2TB Seagate Barracuda Sata Drive, i use this for all of my files and games. I have a MSI B550 Mag mortar MB which can accept 2 M.2 SSD drives.

I'm thinking about purchasing another SSD drive, this time with PCIe4 as my board supports it. Am i really much better off by installing my games on an SSD drive rather than using my Sata Drive? What's the best way of going about it ?

If i purchase another SSD should i install windows on one SSD and then games on the other SSD, then use the Sata drive for downloads and files etc?

Shaolin Chicken · 12 Oct 2020 at 18:49

Smithy18 said:
If i purchase another SSD should i install windows on one SSD and then games on the other SSD, then use the Sata drive for downloads and files etc?

This is what I would do.

EsaT · 13 Oct 2020 at 17:24

You're better of installing all modern games to SSD.
Besides faster loading time also hiccups from mid map/gameplay loads are minimized.

And if use is gaming you're best buying more capacity for the price to actually fit those games on SSDs instead of spinning rust than paying PCIe v4 hype.
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-no-longer-fits-on-a-250gb-ssd/

In current games there's very little difference between any kind SSDs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COofLeqk_tM&t=436s

Smithy18 · 13 Oct 2020 at 23:51

Would i be wasting my money if i bought a Samsung 980 Pro 512GB for gaming and a 256gb version to install my operating system on ? My MB supports PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs

JohnStewart · 14 Oct 2020 at 08:30

Review of various drives here: Not much difference between sata/NVME and PCIe 4.0 drives when it comes to gaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COofLeqk_tM

IvanDobskey · 14 Oct 2020 at 09:58

I just ordered a sabrent rocket 1tb gen4 nvme in a sale for 127.

erill1971 · 14 Oct 2020 at 15:04

That's a good price, I have two coming on Friday.

IvanDobskey · 16 Oct 2020 at 09:29

Hopefully it'll turn up today. Not had an nvme drive before, my ssd's have all been standard sata ones.

erill1971 · 16 Oct 2020 at 09:34

Going to move my windows install from my 970 evo to the sabrant nvme and use the 970 evo with windows 10 (storage spaces tiering) joined to my 4tb spinner for games.

Rom · 16 Oct 2020 at 21:37

Ive picked up a Sabrent 2TB for £230, cheaper than I could buy the 2TB gen 3. Time will tell if it was a deal or not

Troezar · 17 Oct 2020 at 06:29

I'm waiting for the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus. Looks like that maxed out PCIE 4.0 with their new E18 controller. Competition for Samsung.

PeegeeTips · 17 Oct 2020 at 14:06

or the adata gammix s70

Smithy18 · 20 Oct 2020 at 11:55

I bought a 256GB Samsung 980 pro for windows and a Seagate firecuda 512GB for a couple of games. I've installed them with a fresh copy of windows and can confirm that coming from my kingston SSD they are a lot faster. Boot times are very quick, under 10 seconds. My games now open and load quite a bit faster than i've been used to. All in all i am very happy, the update was done for around £200.

mickyflinn · 20 Oct 2020 at 12:03

Smithy18 said:
I bought a 256GB Samsung 980 pro for windows and a Seagate firecuda 512GB for a couple of games. I've installed them with a fresh copy of windows and can confirm that coming from my kingston SSD they are a lot faster. Boot times are very quick, under 10 seconds. My games now open and load quite a bit faster than i've been used to. All in all i am very happy, the update was done for around £200.

Seems expensive, 1tb m2 and a 1tb ssd for slightly less with minimal performance difference.

Smithy18 · 20 Oct 2020 at 18:56

Yeah it wasn’t the cheapest option. The m.2 980 pro was about £80 and the m.2 firecuda was about £120. I’m happy tho as it’s made quite a difference.

Grim5 · 21 Oct 2020 at 10:42

samsung 980 pro

Smithy18 · 24 Oct 2020 at 09:20

So after a week of use the firecuda 520 has failed and no longer works. The drive isn’t recognised by the bios or windows, seagate software also doesn’t pick up this drive. Based on this I’ve boxed it up and sent it back and replaced with a 1TB Samsung 980 as the other 980 I bought for windows is very fast and faultless.

darael · 24 Oct 2020 at 09:33

At least Seagate haven't lost their touch with reliability. Their SSDs sound just as reliable as their hard drives! :eek:

Joxeon · 24 Oct 2020 at 09:56

Smithy18 said:
I bought a 256GB Samsung 980 pro for windows and a Seagate firecuda 512GB for a couple of games. I've installed them with a fresh copy of windows and can confirm that coming from my kingston SSD they are a lot faster. Boot times are very quick, under 10 seconds. My games now open and load quite a bit faster than i've been used to. All in all i am very happy, the update was done for around £200.

Smithy18 said:
So after a week of use the firecuda 520 has failed and no longer works. The drive isn’t recognised by the bios or windows, seagate software also doesn’t pick up this drive. Based on this I’ve boxed it up and sent it back and replaced with a 1TB Samsung 980 as the other 980 I bought for windows is very fast and faultless.

Seems like a waste of cash considering you have 2 PCIe gen 4.0 drives on a B550 which means one will be running at PCIe gen 3.0 speed so you could have saved a load of cash and brought a 1tb gen 3.0 or got 2tb for the same price with no difference to performance since one of your gen 4.0 drives will be running at gen 3.0 speed anyway.

Shaolin Chicken · 24 Oct 2020 at 13:03

Joxeon said:
Seems like a waste of cash considering you have 2 PCIe gen 4.0 drives on a B550 which means one will be running at PCIe gen 3.0 speed so you could have saved a load of cash and brought a 1tb gen 3.0 or got 2tb for the same price with no difference to performance since one of your gen 4.0 drives will be running at gen 3.0 speed anyway.

Good point.