SSD Upgrade

[Coxey]

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.

 

[NeverBackDown]

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

 

[Korreborg]

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+

 

[Davva2004]

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

 

[Coxey]

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.

 

[Gothmoth]

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.