New SSD: SATA vs NVMe + 2.5" vs M.2

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Dimitris Koutsikounis

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Sep 16, 2014
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Hello there guys. The time has come to get a new SSD about 500gigs for Windows and 1-2 heavy games that I play regularly, and I am really indecisive about what model and what form factor should I opt for. >>>>Longevity is my top priority<<<<

a)Models. The following models that I am considering are the following.

1) MX500=== PRO: cheap (90eur) CON: 180 TBW
2) 860EVO=== PRO: 300 TBW CON: the most expensive (125eur)
3) Kingston A1000 === PRO best performer, as many TBW as EVO, good price (110eur), future proofing maybe??? CON: 20 gigs less,

b)If i should go for SATA, is it better to go for 2.5" or M.2? Are there any disadvantages? If I go for M.2, and if i get an 2.5" Secondary drive behind the MoBo, I can get rid of the 3.5" HDD cage in my Mastercase PRO3 and get some more airflow from the front intake, but I worry about the reliability of M.2 sata SSDs

Help is always appreciated, thanks in advance
 
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Eximo

Eximo

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If longevity is the goal, you might want to consider MLC SSDs rather than TLC. These would be your faster NVMe drives like the Samsung Pro. Quite a bit more expensive, but failure should be much harder.

If I had to pick from those, I would probably take the Samsung. After formatting, you might miss that 20GB with the Kingston.
Conversely you could look at a Crucial MX300, which will come in at 525GB and format to just about 500GB. Rather then the 460GB or so of a 480GB drive.

I do use a Kingston Hyper X daily, but that is an older MLC drive which should have decades of endurance. My main gaming rig does run a 1TB 960 Evo M.2 drive. Less important data, and the size should protect it from early failure.
 
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Prash_cool

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Go for the Samsung one. Its much better than the rest. It even gives you 5 years of warranty. I recently purchased a 1TB 860 Evo 2.5" Samsung SSD and its working great.
 
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Dimitris Koutsikounis

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Well it seems I am gonna be just fine with a SATA one. But the second question still remains. Does M.2 form factor have any disadvantages compared to 2.5"?

Also by longevity, I dont mean I wan tto keep it forever, but to last at least as long as it still relevant
 
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Eximo

Eximo

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Potentially less chips with greater capacity. M.2 drives can thermal throttle, whereas SATA drives tend to use the SATA case as a heatsink (the nicer ones anyway, some are just plastic) Most 2.5" SSDs are about 60%+ empty these days, so they may have the same number of chips as an M.2 drive.

With normal use, longevity during relevance shouldn't be an issue. Should be replaced before it reaches its durability limits. That doesn't mean it won't fail two days after you get it, just that it most likely won't. Backups are your friends.
 
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giomasmic

Jul 31, 2018
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giomasmic

Jul 31, 2018
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If an SSD exists NGFF (M.2), mSATA or SATA, it has identical performance, no matter the format
there are no performance / TBW differences between MZ-M6E500BW (mSATA), MZ-76E500BW (SATA), MZ-N6E500BW (NGFF)

MZ-76E500BW has encryption
MZ-76E500B does not have encryption

 
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giomasmic

Jul 31, 2018
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if well positioned on the motherboard, that is NOT under the video card, the SSD M.2 with the new controllers as Silicon Motion SM2262 has no problems of overheating and in any case there is the excellent S11 series of the Adata
that solves the problem
 
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giomasmic

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You may have overheating problems, in case you should use a heatsink or an already dissipated M.2 SSD. VGA can reach very high temperatures and overheat all the surrounding environment
 
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Dimitris Koutsikounis

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If this causes overheating, why would they even put the slot there? After some research I found that the A1000 wont throttle even on harsh tests, if I am not going to write very large files at full speed, will there still be issues? Reading state does not cause high temps, right?
 
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Eximo

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Usually the slot next to the CPU is hooked directly to it, not the PCH/Chipset. To avoid communication issues or having to use a lot of board space it makes sense to put it close by. Also why your GPU slot is also close to the CPU/CPU cooler, which isn't ideal. All about getting that latency down and interference kept to a minimum.

You can opt for another M.2 slot if you have one, but they would typically be hooked up through the PCH and access the CPU via DMI (usually a 4x pipeline to the CPU shared by all the SATA, Network, Audio, USB, etc)
 
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Dimitris Koutsikounis

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Well I actually think the best choice is the Kingston. It is the fastest and I feel really comfortable with its quality. I had a lot of Kingston/HyperX stuff and none of them ever failed me (except some HyperX Fury RAMs which came faulty and I got a replacement in no time)
In case I notice high temps, I am gonna get an M.2 to PCIE converter card.
 
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