SSD for OS only?

wkingsnorth · 19 Aug 2015 at 20:15

I'm in the middle of an (almost) full system overhaul, and I'm looking to get an SSD just for the OS, and then put everything else on various other drives. I'm looking at upgrading to skylake, so I should be able to get M.2 and enough PCI-E slots for whichever drive I select.

So, what would be best for the OS? I've been a bit out of the loop but I remember a while ago that sometimes the fastest drives weren't necessarily the fastest for startup etc. when the OS was installed (although these differences may have been marginal...)

Thanks

koolpc · 19 Aug 2015 at 20:27

Take your pick really. Check out some of the reviews on the OcUK shop pages.

Crucial MX100 i have and its awesome!

ED209 · 19 Aug 2015 at 20:28

do you have a budget at all?

if I was you I would go for the 250GB 850 evo as these are not badly priced, I have 2 of them, one for OS and the other for games and I haven't had any issues since I brought them. you may get away with a 120GB for the OS drive but I like to make sure ive got room if\when needed which is why I've got a 250GB OS SSD as I cant see 120GB lasting me long or always having to clear space on it

I haven't used a PCI-E SSD or M.2 one but as a purely OS drive I don't think you will benefit more from a sata 3 SSD and save the extra

lude1962 · 20 Aug 2015 at 08:28

4K IOP's is king, higher the better, though just to confuse us mortals manufacturers seem to quote different IOP's , then quote read write speeds up to...
Any thing by sandisk crucial intel or samsung is ok

Greebo · 20 Aug 2015 at 09:21

samsung 951 NVME if you are doing a new build and using the m2 slot.

I wouldnt bother with normal SSD anymore.

EXxx · 20 Aug 2015 at 09:49

depends what you use your pc for.
either way a move from hdd to ssd (if you have the OS on that) will be a upgrade you feel.
If you're a casual user/gamer just take your pick, it doesn't really matter really, crucial, samsung, intel, they all have all you need, just think future a little(in respect to size) because you won't upgrade very soon.
If you want to go big data changes/processing I would go with the largest samsung PRO you can buy. Why? Because PRO's have a huge endurance.

wkingsnorth · 20 Aug 2015 at 10:14

I already have two SSDs - an M4 and a Vertex 4 (I think, can't quite check at the moment and it's been a while). Budget is... Large enough that we don't need to worry too much about the drive cost

Deathjester · 21 Aug 2015 at 17:02

I have an 840 pro as my OS drive on my main pc, and a SM951 PCIe (non NVMe) as the OS drive in my other pc.

The only issue with the SM951 is that some motherboards don't support it to install as an OS drive; I had issues without the correct BIOS settings on my Maximus VII Impact.

fs123 · 21 Aug 2015 at 20:29

I upgraded from a Kingston 120Gb 300V (very badly rated) to a Samsung 850 Evo 250Gb. Hardly noticed a difference in general use apart from maybe slightly faster boot times. I know the Samsung is rated very highly but in real world usage most people would not be able to tell the difference.

My point being don't pay a lot extra for some slight theoretical performance numbers and go for the cheapest from Sandisk,Crucial, Samsung or whatever.

Duke · 22 Aug 2015 at 06:11

Any normal ssd would be fine for just the OS. It's only really the tiny seek times compared to mechanical disks that you'll need, no point in massive IOPS and transfer rates, save that for data/games drives.