Using an HDD with a m.2 SSD

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Reksi007

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Dec 6, 2014
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So my motherboard is an ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING. Currently i'm using the WD Blue 1 TB HDD.
So i would like to know if i can use both the HDD and the m.2 Samsung 960 EVO 250GB.

And i'd also like to hear your opinion on the 960 EVO. Is it awesome? Or are there alrernative options that would be better? And do you have to install anything or do something to make the m.2 work?

Thanks!
 
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Dunlop0078
Yes but you would ideally want your OS to be on the faster drive if you really want to take advantage of it.

I own the 960 evo 500gb. If you are just a gamer looking for faster load speeds I would not recommenced something like the 960 cheaper, larger SATA ssd or M.2 ssd would get you similar load times. The 960 is very fast in things like moving large files around or file transfers to another very fast drive, it will not be all that much faster at 4k reads than a good sata ssd and 4k reads is what is important for game load times.

Just make sure your mobo is set up to allow the 960 evo to use 4 pcie lanes in the bios. There is also a samsung NVME driver that is supposed to help performance but it is not necessary.
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Dunlop0078

Dunlop0078

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Feb 13, 2014
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Yes but you would ideally want your OS to be on the faster drive if you really want to take advantage of it.

I own the 960 evo 500gb. If you are just a gamer looking for faster load speeds I would not recommenced something like the 960 cheaper, larger SATA ssd or M.2 ssd would get you similar load times. The 960 is very fast in things like moving large files around or file transfers to another very fast drive, it will not be all that much faster at 4k reads than a good sata ssd and 4k reads is what is important for game load times.

Just make sure your mobo is set up to allow the 960 evo to use 4 pcie lanes in the bios. There is also a samsung NVME driver that is supposed to help performance but it is not necessary.
 
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Rdslw

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Aug 1, 2017
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*1:When the M.2 Socket 3 is operating in SATA mode, SATA port 1 will be disabled.
4 x SATA 6Gb/s connector(s)
so YES:
but I'm not sure its x4 speed.
check b4 you buy or it will be lock on ~800 MB/s.
960 is one of best disc you will have :) trust me. Just price kills me. I cannot waste such cash for SSD, hope it will go down someday.
 
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Reksi007

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So since right now i'll be using it mostly for gaming do you think a SATA SSD like the 850 EVO would be a better choise? Considering there's 35€ diffrence?
 
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Dunlop0078

Dunlop0078

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Yeah I would go for the 850 evo if i was doing mainly gaming for that price difference.
 
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9facebook6

Aug 7, 2018
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Hey there, someone over here is looking for the long run experience before taking the same decision. Please advise.

Thanks in advance.
 
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