Upgrading from SATA SSD to M.2

ShellShock · 29 Dec 2021 at 10:46

I currently have a Samsung 1 TB SSD 840 EVO SATA, which I use as my Windows 10 drive and for data (games etc).

Some of the games lag a bit on disk I/O (saves etc), so I was wondering about getting a faster (2 TB) drive, but I don't know much about M.2. My motherboard is a Gigabyte Z370-HD3, and it has 2 free PCI Express x16 slots, running at x4 (PCI Express 3.0 standard). I believe I can use an M.2 drive in one of those slots, with a suitable adapter, e.g., https://www.overclockers.co.uk/akasa-m.2-ssd-to-pcie-adapter-card-cc-008-ak.html. Is that right?

Would I see much of a performance improvement for disk accesses?

Finally, how easy would it be to clone my existing SSD (the O/S drive) to the new drive? I think Samsung have cloning software for download, but WD don't?

Thanks

Mcnumpty2323 · 29 Dec 2021 at 13:03

A z370 motherboard should have a m2 slot
My old z270 had 2 of them
Shouldn't need an adapter card

Not sure you will see much disk access difference
SSD access is already very fast
I still have a Samsung 830 and 840 and can't really tell
When using those over my m2 drives
If your games are on your windows drive it could be
Any reason you are seeing the lag

Cloning is pretty straightforward
I use macrium reflect as it doesn't limit you
IE it won't say you must have drives made by certain manufacturers

ShellShock · 29 Dec 2021 at 14:59

You're right! My motherboard does have an M2 slot: "1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SATA and PCIe x4/x2 SSD support)". Thanks for the great advice.

EsaT · 30 Dec 2021 at 15:58

With that drive being one of those crappy tiny and weak transistor planar NAND TLC drives, it wouldn't be any wonder if all around performance has degraded.
Without bubblegum and duct tape patched firmware monitoring and refreshing data (like in volatile memory) it wasn't even capable to maintaining read performance of static data for long times.
(cell level "bit rot" caused error correction to work overtime)

Anyway with that expensive parts there, you should have already upgraded to NVMe.
That's also going to be requirement for faster loading of coming DirectStorage games.

WD Blue SN550 would be good starting point.
WD Black SN750 would be the cheapest full PCIe v3 speed drive at the moment.
WD Blue SN550 2TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS200T2B0C)= £149.99
WD Black SN750 2TB M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0C)= £199.99

Mcnumpty2323 · 30 Dec 2021 at 17:15

yet mines still running fine
after all these years
and 25,525 power on hours

still shows 94% good in crystal diskmark
if your windows install has been on there ages
thats just as likely to be the cause of any issue

but yes if getting a new or second drive
if costs roughly equivalent
then no harm in getting a m2 instead of sata
though would check your motherboard manual
to verify installing a m2 doesnt disable any sata ports
reduce gpu speed etc
probably wont but i dont remember the pcie lanes for z370

darael · 31 Dec 2021 at 13:51

Mcnumpty2323 said:
yet mines still running fine
after all these years
and 25,525 power on hours
still shows 94% good in crystal diskmark
if your windows install has been on there ages
thats just as likely to be the cause of any issue

Don't go jinxing yourself. I had an 840 EVO drop dead in 2020. Not even a warning to give me a chance to backup the data on the drive, the machine had hung in the BIOS screen and wouldn't boot from the SSD. I later learnt that the Samsung 840 EVO was just badly designed.

That machine now has a Samsung 860 Pro installed. When I buy my next SSD, I will moving from the 970 EVO Plus to whatever Pro is available - which is 980 Pro at time of posting.

Mcnumpty2323 · 31 Dec 2021 at 14:48

darael said:
Don't go jinxing yourself. I had an 840 EVO drop dead in 2020. Not even a warning to give me a chance to backup the data on the drive, the machine had hung in the BIOS screen and wouldn't boot from the SSD. I later learnt that the Samsung 840 EVO was just badly designed.

That machine now has a Samsung 860 Pro installed. When I buy my next SSD, I will moving from the 970 EVO Plus to whatever Pro is available - which is 980 Pro at time of posting.

Yeah be sods law
You no sooner say it and it goes kaput :cry:

Though I have backups
And backups of my backups

And backups of those :cry:

Pretty paranoid about having backups
And not just one of them either

shuffle · 5 Apr 2022 at 18:56

Hi all. Just seen this thread, looking for advice April 22 - I'm about to get a M2 Nvme drive, I dont use the PC for games but its got a intel 3850 i5 in it and id like it to run as fast as possible. Currently I'm running the OS off a sata ssd.
A couple of questions - which drive would you recommend, I'm looking at 500gb non gaming SSD, secondly is it easy to clone Windows 11 from my ssd to the new M2 ssd? - & would Acronis software be a good clone solution? Is it as problem free as it sounds , just need to set boot priority after etc ? Thanks in advance !

Snapshot · 6 Apr 2022 at 07:59

WD Blue is the usual recommendation and the newer SN570 might be worth considering over the outgoing SN550.
The current version of Acronis seems to be hated by many users as it's moved to a subscription model and bundled unwanted cyber-security stuff. I'm sticking with 2019. Macrium Reflect is the usual recommendation here (and where disgruntled Acronis users are going). You can then use it for your backups when you have your new drive installed.

Having said that, you're not really going to see much difference between an NVME drive and a decent SATA III one unless you're moving large amounts of data around.

shuffle · 6 Apr 2022 at 08:01

Thank you snapshot . I was leaning towards the wd sn570 I’ll order it today .. thank you

Minstadave · 6 Apr 2022 at 08:22

darael said:
Don't go jinxing yourself. I had an 840 EVO drop dead in 2020. Not even a warning to give me a chance to backup the data on the drive, the machine had hung in the BIOS screen and wouldn't boot from the SSD. I later learnt that the Samsung 840 EVO was just badly designed.

That machine now has a Samsung 860 Pro installed. When I buy my next SSD, I will moving from the 970 EVO Plus to whatever Pro is available - which is 980 Pro at time of posting.

The Samsung Pro range is TLC now too so really isn't up to scratch with the older 2 bit MLC Pro drives.