SSD Upgrade

Coxey

New member
It's been quite some time since I've shopped in the storage market and with an SSD recently giving up the ghost on me I'm looking around for a new one.
I'm a little bewildered by all the form factors and struggling to find a "tl;dr" on the differences (if it can even be summed up that simply)

I'm rocking a MSI-B350 "Gaming Pro Carbon" w/ a spare M.2 Slot - of which I'm wondered if this is where I should be focusing.

Primary use for the drive (as i'll be moving around my data after I buy whatever I decide on) would be a generic gaming drive perhaps a few apps here or there.

Ideal size: minimum 256GB. Sweet spot 512GB. Overkill but if there's a bargain (which I doubt) I'll consider 1TB
Form factor: I've no clue what's "the best" or most cost effective for gaming but I've got 1 spare SATA port, 1 M.2 slot and 1 PCI-E x16.
Budget: Ideally £120-225. Absolute top end £250ish give or take a few quid.

Any more questions to help you help me just fire away!

Thanks in advance.
 
I usually stick to Samsung/Crucial/Intel/Kingston as my top brands for SSDs.
However I've had good experiences with Adata and Corsair.

You probably won't find a NVMe drive in that price range that is super fast, so you may just get a Sata3 speed drive in a M.2 factor. Honestly just stick to the top brands and find a drive that's in the budget:)
 
What do you use the PC for?

If its just a casual PC for gaming and so on, you won't notice the NVME.
In games is MAX 2 sek in loading time.
So i would get a 1TB normal SSD. 500GB isn't that much in 2017.
More and more games go 50GB+
 
What do you use the PC for?

If its just a casual PC for gaming and so on, you won't notice the NVME.
In games is MAX 2 sek in loading time.
I use the system for quite a lot of things, but this drives purpose will essentially be 98% dedicated to gaming. (if I had to put a percent on it)
I'm not trying to obtain the maximum lightning speeds out there but I do want it to be as nippy as can be (within price margin). Some of the games I play have repetitive loading screens, so it those 2 seconds may add up over a few gaming sessions ;)

I'd definitely go for the M.2 drive, even if it's no faster than a SATA3 you get a cleaner looking rig as you don't need a power or data cable.

Any of these will do you...

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...#f=122080&S=480000,10000000&sort=price&page=1

Thanks I'll check it out, and yeah I thought as I have the slot available I might as well look into filling it up!


Thanks for the help so far, I'm going to look through my options tomorrow with the recommendations and try get a short list and I'll let you know what I've got in mind.
 
What do you use the PC for?

If its just a casual PC for gaming and so on, you won't notice the NVME.


have to agree with that.

for me it´s 3-4 apps (i am not a big gamer) that can really make use of my samsung 960 nvme SSD.

everything else i would not really notice if i run it from a 850 EVO or the 960.

I'm rocking a MSI-B350 "Gaming Pro Carbon" w/ a spare M.2 Slot - of which I'm wondered if this is where I should be focusing.
but keep in mind that using the M.2 slot will most likely disable two SATA ports on your B350 mainboard!
in case your mainboard has 6 SATA ports.

if it only has 4 SATA ports than there might be no rerouting of PCI lanes.

if your mainboard do have 6 SATA ports and does not disable two SATA ports when using M.2, it will grab the PCI lanes from other stuff (i would bet on that).

so check the manual.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top