I could use some pro advice for SSD setup in a new machine

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JoeDaCabbie

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Feb 7, 2015
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I'm in the process of selecting components for a new PC build, and I'm falling behind understanding the new SSD tech and the best way to use them. Some pro advice would be appreciated.

So, this system will primarily be used for gaming and mod-making for games and I want efficient modelling/rendering. The mobo I'm looking at is the ASUS ROG Strix X99 which supports SATA III and has a m2.2280 slot and a u.2 PCI 3.0 x4 NVM-e slot. I have two 1Tb 5400rpm HDDS I'm planning to set up in RAID 1 for media, junk files, rarely used programs, etc. RAM is 32 GB of DDR4 3333 memory. The m.2 looks internal while the u.2 is external, and they share bandwidth so I'd rather use one or the other but not both.

Tentatively I was thinking about a 128 GB drive for the OS and a 512 GB drive for the games and video software, a 4GB RAMdisk for caches and Temp files, and the RAID.

Would it be more efficient to use the m.2 slot for the app drive (or u.2 if that's a better choice but I prefer internal to external to be honest) and put the OS drive on the SATA bus, or vice versa?

If I'm completely wrong in this setup concept feel free to say so; like I said I'm still trying to get a handle on this kind of thing. Thanx in advance for your time!
 
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The m2 slot can handle a faster drive than SATA. Most people usually put the os and programs on the fastest drive, but that's just preference. If you need crazy fast read/write speed for your usage, it may make sense to use the m2 slot for your data.

The fastest consumer drive is probably the Samsung 950 pro, which comes in an m2 format. It is around twice as fast as the best SATA drives, but for most things, it's so fast that and end user won't be able to notice the difference.

If it were me, I would avoid having three different levels of drive performance (m2, sata SSD, and RAID). If you need the performance, I would invest in the largest 950 pro you can afford and skip the SATA SSD. If you don't need the absolute best performance...
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Calculagator

Calculagator

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Nov 18, 2014
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The m2 slot can handle a faster drive than SATA. Most people usually put the os and programs on the fastest drive, but that's just preference. If you need crazy fast read/write speed for your usage, it may make sense to use the m2 slot for your data.

The fastest consumer drive is probably the Samsung 950 pro, which comes in an m2 format. It is around twice as fast as the best SATA drives, but for most things, it's so fast that and end user won't be able to notice the difference.

If it were me, I would avoid having three different levels of drive performance (m2, sata SSD, and RAID). If you need the performance, I would invest in the largest 950 pro you can afford and skip the SATA SSD. If you don't need the absolute best performance, Get an 850 pro or 850 EVO SATA drive: they are still very fast.
 
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JoeDaCabbie

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Feb 7, 2015
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That makes sense to me, thank you. I'd already selected the 850 EVO as the Sata drive, but forgoing two means I can bump up to the 512 GB 950 model (wow, the speed!) I guess that makes OS activity slowing down the drive a silly fear, yes? So mote it be, and thank you again!
 
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