What hard drives do i need?

[Mallers]

Hi all! Ive read the sticky notes but I'm still a little confused. Im planning a big upgrade, prob early next year. Mobo, CPU, Power supply, RAM and hard drives (will run out of funds, so not the GPU yet). But im still not sure RE hard drives. I have HDD at the moment, windows on a 256gb hdd and steam for games on a 6TB hdd.
If i want to see an appreciable uptick in loading times for say Warhammer 3, which is woefully slow to load games and load pre/post battles, should i be looking at M.2 or NVME? Is one better than the other?

As an example (and i know by the time i buy something better may be along!) im looking at something like this for a mobo:

Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero EVA Limited Edition - Intel Z690 LGA 1700 DDR5 ATX Motherboard

Order Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero EVA Limited Edition - Intel Z690 LGA 1700 DDR5 ATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

The specs RE drives say this:

Total supports 5 x M.2 slots and 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports Intel® 12th Gen Processors M.2_1 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280/22110 - Intel® 12th Gen processors support PCIe 4.0 x4 mode Hyper M.2_1 slot (Key M) via ROG Hyper M.2 card, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 - Intel® 12th Gen processors support PCIe 5.0 x4 mode Intel® Z690 Chipset M.2_2 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280 (supports PCIe 3.0 x4 mode) M.2_3 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280 (supports PCIe 4.0 x4 & SATA modes) Hyper M.2_1 & slot (Key M) via ROG Hyper M.2 card, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 (suppports PCIe 4.0 x4 mode) Hyper M.2_2 slot (Key M) via ROG Hyper M.2 card, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 (suppports PCIe 4.0 x4 mode) 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports

Does this mean it can take at least 2 M.2 drives (i will reuse the HDD as extra back ups, but ill want windows and games on new ones); and as NVME isnt mentioned, it wont take those?

Edit: looks like these attach direct to the mobo rather than by a cable, so does that mean you need to ensure the case will accommodate either type?

thanks!

 

[Tetras]

M.2 slots are just a format for the drive, they can be either SATA or PCI-Express (which uses NVME).

Like you said, M.2 slots don't use cables and since they're so small, there's no space in the case to worry about. The only concern is thermal issues.

Hard disk drives are really only used for archive storage in most gaming PCs now, but you can still play older games on a hard disk.

Speed benefits in loading times are usually apparent if you have the game on an SSD, but even a SATA based SSD is usually much faster for loading than a hard disk.

PCI-Express 3.0 or 4.0 based M.2 drives are technically much faster than SATA based SSDs, but the difference in loading times is usually minimal, so I wouldn't worry too much.

By the way, I suspect the 256 'hdd' you have as a boot drive, is actually an SSD?

 

[Mallers]

M.2 slots are just a format for the drive, they can be either SATA or PCI-Express (which uses NVME).

Like you said, M.2 slots don't use cables and since they're so small, there's no space in the case to worry about. The only concern is thermal issues.

Hard disk drives are really only used for archive storage in most gaming PCs now, but you can still play older games on a hard disk.

Speed benefits in loading times are usually apparent if you have the game on an SSD, but even a SATA based SSD is usually much faster for loading than a hard disk.

PCI-Express 3.0 or 4.0 based M.2 drives are technically much faster than SATA based SSDs, but the difference in loading times is usually minimal, so I wouldn't worry too much.

By the way, I suspect the 256 'hdd' you have as a boot drive, is actually an SSD?

Thats well spotted! And embarrassing (for me). I last updated my machine when 980ti was top/near top of the range, i dont recall specifying an ssd, ive assumed whenever i think about my drives that it wasnt, but now i check it is. Properties tell me its a samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB. I must have been thinking straight at that point!

 

[Snapshot]

M.2 drives fit flush with the motherboard and, on top-end boards like the one you're looking at, are covered by built-in heatsinks. If you look at the photo of the board I think M.2_1 will be under the bit of metal with angled green stripes and M.2_2 & _3 will be under the piece with HERO in the corner.

The 'Key M' generally means NVME and 'Key B' is SATA only which I suspect is now effectively dead as any remaining M.2 SATA drives also support Key M.