SSD + HDD vs HDD, difference between an SSD and an M.2?

kindangrysliceofpie · Dec 1, 2018

Hey everyone! I’m ordering parts pretty soon for a build, and i remember hearing that if you pair an SSD with a HDD boot times will be faster. What is the difference between a SSD (for boot times), an M.2, and a HDD?

What I know:
A HDD is a spinning disk with a read/write arm to transfer data
an SSD is not a spinning disk with a read/write arm to transfer data
An M.2 is a chip that acts as an SSD but fits somewhere in the motherboard (I think?)

What do I have wrong, and what should i choose??

Thanks!

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/VryjKB

Gam3r01 · Dec 1, 2018

NVME SSDs are, for discussion, just faster SSDs. They run on a different interface (the M.2 form factor, that add in card to the motherboard).
While they have very impressive specs on paper, they are not realistically all that much faster than a typical SSD for general use.
Boot times on an HDD are slow, an SSD is far faster, but an NVME SSD is marginally faster than that.

If you are just going to be gaming etc, just get a standard SATA SSD. Prices have come down a lot too.

derekullo · Dec 1, 2018

Think of it like this

A hard drive is like a Smart ForTwo, it will get you to work on time with not much time to spare and people may laugh at you.
https://www.smart-power-design.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/side-skirts-smart-fortwo-450-smart-power-design.jpg

An SSD using the sata interface is like a V8 Ford Mustang, it will get you to work on time with lots of time to spare and you look presentable.
https://images.hgmsites.net/med/the-2013-shelby-gt500-at-the-goodwood-festival-of-speed_100394452_m.jpg

An NVME SSD is like a Saleen S7 from the movie Bruce Almighty.
https://youtu.be/iP_d-tWQTJ4?t=38

Unfortunately all those "cars" don't move out of the way in real life, which limits the amount of speed gained compared to a normal SSD.

If you look at the charts
https://img.purch.com/r/711x457/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmJlc3RvZm1pY3JvLmNvbS9GL0svNzY2NDk2L29yaWdpbmFsL2ltYWdlMDA2LnBuZw
https://img.purch.com/r/711x457/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmJlc3RvZm1pY3JvLmNvbS9OL0gvNzQ2MDQ1L29yaWdpbmFsL2ltYWdlMDA1LnBuZw==

You can see that all that speed doesn't come instantly, think of QD or Queue Depth is revving the engine.

It isn't till a Queue Depth of 16 that maximum speed is achieved.

And if you only have to load 500 megabytes its the same as revving to 7000 rpms to drive to the corner store.

Both the SSD and the NVME will get there at about the same time due to there isn't much data to load / distance to cover.

The real game changer in this is a certain kind of m.2 NVME drive that uses Intel Optane 3D XPoint Memory

https://img.purch.com/r/711x457/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmJlc3RvZm1pY3JvLmNvbS9KL08vNzY5MjM2L29yaWdpbmFsL2ltYWdlMDA2LnBuZw

As you can see the speed peaks at a queue depth of 2-4, and the maximum speed is at 200,000 IOPs.

Going back to the car analogy this is the equivalent of a rocket sled.
https://youtu.be/MF1trVf-6rw?t=170

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SSD + HDD vs HDD, difference between an SSD and an M.2?

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