Decided to buy an SSD, Terminology is confusing

dakrazeedude

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Mar 8, 2013
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Hello,
I've recently decided to buy an SSD, but despite diving into it I just don't understand the various terms and differences between them, and I was hoping for some help clarifying the following:
First, how big is the difference between SATA III, M.2 (which is a form factor or type of SSD's?) and PCIE (Nvme, is it the same thing?)
Second, do PCIE (and M.2?) drives affect GPU performance?
And lastly, is there any issue with using SSD's as a boot drive? I've heard about it causing problem.
I am planning on using the drive as a boot drive and for running my most intensive games.
Thank you in advance!

My specs:
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VI GENE
CPU: Core i5 4670K @4.4 Ghz
GPU: MSI R9 390

 
Solution
SATA III And pcie/nvme is the interface used to connect your computer to the SSD. The latest nvme drives have a much faster connection, but it is not supported by older hardware. I think your motherboard doesn't fully support an nvme drive as a boot drive, but it can be connected to be used as a secondary drive.

M.2 is a form factor. Your motherboard does have a m.2 slot with the mPCIe combo slot, running on pcie 2.0. Since your motherboard will not run nvme I think your best bet will be a 'regular' sata SSD, since the m.2 slot will be limited to pcie 2.0. Also using the slot will disable a sata port.

Your SSD will not influence GPU performance. You will want to set your boot drive to SSD, as it enormously speeds up windows boot time...
well in case of your board there is one thing you need not to worry is M.2 Connections your board doesn't have one.
https://www.google.com/shopping/product/133270495210344283/specs?q=ASUS+Maximus+VI+GENE+specs&ie=&oe=&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwil_eDdt-LRAhXl3YMKHfC2ANYQuC8IhAE

they are all various ways of connecting the drive to your system, I suggest SATA because it is buck for dollar cheaper then a PCI one and uses the HDD pathways instead of additional PCI pathways. yes PCIE is slight faster, yes it may I guess in theory affect your GPU, but doubtful nothing you would ever notice with your expert eyes while playing a game.

M.2 is basically new path to SaTa, and proof itwhen using a M.2 device it knock out a Sata connections out.
 

General_Cool

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1. PCIE is most commonly used as a GPU slot. M.2 is used for extremely fast SSDs. SATA III is for run of the mill HDs and SSDs.
2. No.
3. SSDs are usually used as boot drives due to fast start up speeds. I've never heard of problems.
 

mcconkeymike

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Ok, well to keep this simple, your motherboard doesn't have an M.2 slot so the easiest way to do this is for you to get a 2.5 inch SATA III SSD such as a Samsung 850 EVO. The EVO is one of the fastest, most reliable, consumer SSDs available. It is a little more expensive than some others, but they are freaking nice. SSDs do not affect GPU performance, all they do is remove some of the bottleneck of info moving through your system since the read/write times of SSDs is WAY faster than a traditional hard drive. As for setting up an SSD for your operating system, that is the recommended use. If it has been a while since you've done a reinstall of your operating system, then I would do a fresh install onto the SSD as opposed to cloning from your old hard drive onto the SSD. Another thing that I do is once you've installed your OS onto the SSD, turn off the paging file on the SSD and set it up on the traditional hard drive. That helps keep excessive read/writes off of your SSD.
 

dakrazeedude

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Mar 8, 2013
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Thanks for the fast response.
As for the M.2, my motherboard does have some solution to it - an adapter that connects to the mPCIE slot, which as far as I know acts just like an M.2.
While I know PCIE SSDS are more expensive, there is a rather small premium where I live between a decent SATA III SSD and a PCIE one, so if performance is much better I may go there. M.2 pricing sits between them.
to sum up - how much of a difference is it between those 3?
 

Ralston18

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Start by doing some reading - here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/t/storage/

There are a variety of online articles about m.2 - seems to be a bit problematic.

And some of the terminology is just "marketing speak" versus any real technical advantage or improvement. Most likely with specifications established in very ideal testing environments.

For the most part you should have no problem installing and using a SSD. Many people, myself included, boot from a SSD.

Gaming performance should be fine - just be sure that all of your components meet the hardware requirements of your "intensive games".

Remember that drivers and configuration are important as well.



 
SATA III And pcie/nvme is the interface used to connect your computer to the SSD. The latest nvme drives have a much faster connection, but it is not supported by older hardware. I think your motherboard doesn't fully support an nvme drive as a boot drive, but it can be connected to be used as a secondary drive.

M.2 is a form factor. Your motherboard does have a m.2 slot with the mPCIe combo slot, running on pcie 2.0. Since your motherboard will not run nvme I think your best bet will be a 'regular' sata SSD, since the m.2 slot will be limited to pcie 2.0. Also using the slot will disable a sata port.

Your SSD will not influence GPU performance. You will want to set your boot drive to SSD, as it enormously speeds up windows boot time and its performance.

In short, get a sata III SSD for your pc, and clone your current harddrive to it to set it as a boot drive.
 
Solution
example of price differences

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($169.49 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung 960 Evo 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($249.99 @ B&H)

Example of performance write/read
EVO 950 : Ultra-fast Sequential Read/Write Performance: Up to 2,500MB/s and 1,500MB/s Respectively. Random Read/Write IOPS Performance : Up to 300K and 110K Respectively*
EVO 850: Incredible Sequential Read/Write Performance : Up to 540MB/s and 520MB/s Respectively, and Random Read/Write IOPS Performance : Up to 97K and 88K Respectively

not a lot goggle cannot find theses day quickly :)