PCIE or SSD or M.2

MrKill

Honorable
Oct 31, 2012
19
0
10,510
I recently found that my hard drive is slowly taking a crap and it is the only old thing in my new machine. What I was wondering is what is my best route for a new hard drive. I mostly just play some League of Legends and a couple other games like Civ 6. My motherboard is a Gaming K7 of the AMD variety. Thanks for all the imput
 
Solution
For Steam games, you can have them on either or both drives. And move individual games back and forth as desired.

Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder
q24sFfe.png


To move an already installed game
Games library
Right click the game
Properties
Local Files
Move Install Folder

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


For a system of that use, a regular SATA SSD would work just fine.
A PCIe drive is just extra money for no real performance benefit.

How much are you planning to spend on this change?
You'll almost certainly need both an SSD (or whatever type), AND a large HDD.
 

MrKill

Honorable
Oct 31, 2012
19
0
10,510


 

MrKill

Honorable
Oct 31, 2012
19
0
10,510
Well I want to spend a lil bit. I just dont think that i really need a PCIE SSD. Now just a sata SSD or i have a m.2 spot as well i was thinking of using but that would be just for the OS most likely
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


"m.2" is simply the physical connection.
It can be either SATA protocol or PCIe protocol.

The m.2 slot in that board will accept either a PCIe OR a SATA based drive.
A PCIe based drive would be more expensive for the same size.

A 250GB or 500GB m.2 drive, plus a larger 1 or 2TB HDD.
 

MrKill

Honorable
Oct 31, 2012
19
0
10,510


 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator

MrKill

Honorable
Oct 31, 2012
19
0
10,510


 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Not dumb at all, because the current batch of drive types is rather confusing.

Bottom line...in some use cases, the NVMe type drives can be significantly 'faster' than SATA drives.
Even when both/either are "m.2". Again, the "m.2 is just the physical connection type.

A SATA m.2 drive like the Crucial I linked above works at the same speed as a regular 2.5" SATA drive. A Samsung 850 EVO, for instance.
Just that its in a different package.

However...your intended use case of the OS and a couple of games...you would not see any real performance benefit for spending that extra $$ for the same size drive.
 

MrKill

Honorable
Oct 31, 2012
19
0
10,510


 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


A single 250GB drive is NOT enough for a gaming system.
You do need something else.

This all depends on your budget.
How much do you plan on spending on this?
 

MrKill

Honorable
Oct 31, 2012
19
0
10,510


 

MrKill

Honorable
Oct 31, 2012
19
0
10,510
Well not to terribly much I do have a big steam library so my real question was then i should be ok with just that M.2 drive and then a regular sata HD (big storage and cheap price)
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Exactly.
That is a very, very common configuration.


Unrelated question...
Why are your quote replies just the quote, with none of your new text or questions?
 

MrKill

Honorable
Oct 31, 2012
19
0
10,510


 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
For Steam games, you can have them on either or both drives. And move individual games back and forth as desired.

Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder
q24sFfe.png


To move an already installed game
Games library
Right click the game
Properties
Local Files
Move Install Folder
 
Solution

MrKill

Honorable
Oct 31, 2012
19
0
10,510