What are my options for SSDs??

[Damage Inc]

ROG STRIX X570-F gaming mobo

I would like a reasonably cheap large SSD (2TB) for my games that I play a lot (I play a lot, not many genres of games I don't bother with!), Don't like to constantly re download games I've deleted, older smaller games are on a couple of old SATA HDDs, I have a 1TB NVMe SSD, but is already getting clogged. I also fancy trying out Red Dead Redemption 2 which by all accounts is a Large game....Cyberpunk 2077 is on my wishlist at some point, I want ETS2 and ATS on a faster drive (loading takes a while now the maps are getting rather large). So I was looking at options and quickly got a bit inundated with info.

So I can get a SATA SSD and it'll be faster than a HDD also on SATA, I think I saw something about SSDs that use PCIe, which is the same slot as graphics cards so not sure if read that right. And lastly there's NVMe...if I can have more than 2 (must dig out the manual).

I presume the SATA will be cheapest and slowest, PCIe will be in the middle and another NVMe the most expensive and fastest. Gawd I used to be in IT but it's been 16 years since I left all that and things have changed a tad!! LOL

Any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[robt100]

First off, your motherboard DOES support two M.2 drives.
But...
You really wont notice a real world difference between an M.2 and SATA SSD when it comes to gaming. As far as I know, the PCIe and M.2 drives will probably be about the same speed as they both use the PCIe interface. But Like I said, it wouldn't make a noticeable difference over an SATA drive. I know its personal preference, but after experiences with other brands I only go with Samsung SSDs, a 2TB QVO drive is probably best bang for buck from them, but you can definitely get cheaper drives from other manafacturers, but someone else will have to recommend those!

 

[Damage Inc]

First off, your motherboard DOES support two M.2 drives.
But...
You really wont notice a real world difference between an M.2 and SATA SSD when it comes to gaming. As far as I know, the PCIe and M.2 drives will probably be about the same speed as they both use the PCIe interface. But Like I said, it wouldn't make a noticeable difference over an SATA drive. I know its personal preference, but after experiences with other brands I only go with Samsung SSDs, a 2TB QVO drive is probably best bang for buck from them, but you can definitely get cheaper drives from other manafacturers, but someone else will have to recommend those!

Many thanks for the info! So speed wise SATA SSDs are fast enough? What's the best review site for info...back in the day I used Toms Hardware.

 

[brc19]

Anandtech and Techspot have SSD reviews.
Western Digital Black SN750 is a good NVMe drive. Samsung for SATA SSDs.

 

[Durge Driven]

I agree the difference from a WD SSD ( very cheap) to my Evo pro M2 ( I have as primary drive on both towers ) is barely anything
You will find once the cache is full it is full and slow down happens no matter the drive
I just built a tower for my sister, I used a a WD 128GB green costs $35 and it boots to OS faster then both my towers lol

 

[robt100]

Many thanks for the info! So speed wise SATA SSDs are fast enough? What's the best review site for info...back in the day I used Toms Hardware.

SSD Satas are plenty fast enough. All my games run from a 2TB SSD and I dont have any issues with load times. Tom's hardware is still about, but not sure what its reputation is like nowadays. Best bit is tech channels on youtube, though SSD benchmarks aren't very common. Though I do seem to remember LinusTechTips and HardwareUnboxed doing a NVME vs SSD vs HDD test a while back.

 

[robt100]

I know, double post. but this video gives a good demonstration of what to expect...

 

[Durge Driven]

same model M2 and SSD are mostly the same price, advantage of M2 2 less leads needed in tower

One con I don't like is if you have both M2 and SSD the SSD will take first Disk 0 so if you
have your OS on a M2 it will be Disk 1 or Disk 2 /3 depending how many SSD used

This is a good reason to properly name all your partitions like C:|SYSTEM ...etc
So when doing fresh OS deleting the wrong partitions thinking that Disk0 is the primary/OS

My 2 cents on a budget even though the smaller the SSD the slower cache they get is to use any 128GB M2 as your OS permanently
separating it from everything else, I use Home and my OS are less then 30GB used I can't see any reason you need more for a sim tower so 60GB C:\ with 50% free space is more then enough

 

[Damage Inc]

cheers everyone, I have plenty of info to go on.

 

[AmazingReflex]

I went for a 1TB version of this:

SSD 660P 2.0TB M.2 80mm PCIe 3.0 Retail : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Buy

www.amazon.co.uk

I also got a 2TB version of this:

https://www.cclonline.com/product/295728/ASX8200PNP-2TT-C/Solid-State-Drives-SSDs-/ADATA-SX8200-Pro-2TB-m-2-NVMe-Solid-State-Drive/SSD1066/

Both are best price / performance. I think the Adata was about 10% quicker based on typical usage stats in reviews but drive speeds / performance is so variable based on what is happening at the time.

 

[Fennario]

I use a pair of 870 QVO 8TB for my image archive. Good drive, but performance degrades significantly once you fill up the cache doing large transfers. Speeds drop from around 500 mb/s to 150 mb/s after about 30-45 seconds of activity. That said, transfers of that size are rare for me and it is perfect for day-day use. Not worried about blowing through the write usage on the drive - mainly write once, read many. Would go with an EVO or PRO if doing lots of writes to the drive.

 

[Lloyd Johnston]

Watch out for Xbox games on windows - most I've tride:

FM7
FH4
Gears 5

All needed to be on the C dive to run.

Which sucked as I bought this (you need to check your USB port speed):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08HN37XC1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have oneUSB port that will allow me to use this at around 1050MB/s

I've got all my steam games on it works a treat.

ALSO - Xbox games used up a massive amount of space on my C drive so I had to go digging with a program called TreeSize to reclame about 160GB of used space that was just a set of Delivery Optimization Files.

Also I seem to have an install of FH4 that won't uninstall.

 

[Durge Driven]

I have FM7 on a 126GB partition
Is not a bad idea to do this
When I do a fresh OS I format that partition

Both my towers C:\ partition are only 62GB, 28GB for OS so 33-34GB free space

This means I can format C:\ every fresh drive without losing anything
I only see disadvantage any other way

 

[Pixelerate]

Samsung SSD 2TB $162

Samsung EDU/EPP Discount: 2TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" MLC V-Nand Internal SSD $162 + Free Shipping

Samsung.com offers Eligible Samsung Education / Employee Discount Customers: 2TB Samsung 870 QVO Series 2.5" MLC V-Nand Internal Solid State Drive (MZ-77Q2T0B/AM) on sale for $161.99 when you ...

slickdeals.net

 

[Fennario]

QVO drives have low write endurance and limited cache (transfer speed drops to 150 mb/s quickly). As such, they are good for WORM but not for "C" drives, lots of writes, large file transfers, etc. I use mine for image storage, music, videos, old games, etc.

 

[RasmusP]

Just dropping in the Crucial MX500.
For me, it's my go to SSD that I recommend to everyone.
The not-full-cheap Crucial SSDs are mostly the same speed like the Samsungs, but a bit cheaper.

I have:
MX300 750GB
MX500 1 TB
2x MX500 2TB

1x Samsung 850 250GB
1x Samsung 970 evo plus 1TB

My first SSD was a Crucial M4 128 GB and me nor one of my mates ever had any issues with their Crucials. Sadly they didn't offer the 10 year warranty etc of the 850 pro when I needed a super reliable system drive and also they didn't offer a good M2 SSD when I bought the 970 evo+.

 

[Durge Driven]

I have

3400G "everyday tower"
250GB Samsung 960 M2 ( 2 partitions 60GB + 175GB )
2 x 1TB Samsung 850 QVO ( 5 partitions)

5600X " sim tower"
500GB Samsung 970 Pro M2
500GB Samsung 970 M2
1 x 1TB Samsung 860

Amuses me I have more space for GPL. GTL, GTR2, PnG, rFactor then for all Steam sims bar iRacing
plus Wreckfest F1 Dirts etc

Mind you I keep 50% space on OSes and 25% for other partitions, seems a waste but in long run
faster caching etc.

 

[Damage Inc]

Forgot to add that I plumped for a 2tb Samsung 870 QVO. Working really good so far and knocked a load off loading times! cheers for the advice

 

[Pixelerate]

Forgot to add that I plumped for a 2tb Samsung 870 QVO. Working really good so far and knocked a load off loading times! cheers for the advice

Awesome! Even with the low write endurance it should probably outlast your pc lol.

 

[Damage Inc]

Awesome! Even with the low write endurance it should probably outlast your pc lol.

Really pleased so far, pretty much the best ratio of speed v cost. Only hard part was finding room in the case for a 4th extra drive!