Should i get M.2 drives? (+Any other build tips you have)

[joshfine2003]

so i'm getting a new rig soon, quite the big upgrade in fact (see new build below). Anyways, i was suggested by a family friend that i buy 3 m.2 drives and stripe them. Looking into it this seemed a little pricey but he suggested it would drastically improve fps performance as my current hard drive (a seagate 2tb hybrid) would apparently bottleneck my performance. I need someone to tell me if they would be worth it but also if you have any suggestions for my new PC please pass them on.

CPU: Intel i7-8700k
CPU Cooler: Scythe FUMA
GPU: MSI RTX 2080 gaming x trio
Motherboard: ASUS Z370-A II (Intel 8th Gen)
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I would use this NVME for the OS and 860 EVO's for your other storage needs.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 250 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($77.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $77.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-10 22:00 EST-0500

 

[geofelt]

I think your friend gave you bad advice.
I do not think that motherboard can use more than 2 m.2 drives.
Past that, raid-0 is generally a lousy idea.
Synthetic benchmarks show well but in actual use raid-0 may actually be slower.

m.2 is a size/packaging format, about the size of a stick of gum.
It comes in two flavors, sata or pcie.
The sequential ability of pcie is some 4x faster than sata.

My suggestion is to buy a single Samsung 970 evo of the largest capacity you can manage and put all your actives games on it.

A fast ssd drive will not improve your fps but it may improve level load times and checkpoint times.

For best performance on a hard drive consider adding a 32gb optane m.2 drive which can act as a cache to a hard drive.

 

[USAFRet]

so i'm getting a new rig soon, quite the big upgrade in fact (see new build below). Anyways, i was suggested by a family friend that i buy 3 m.2 drives and stripe them. Looking into it this seemed a little pricey but he suggested it would drastically improve fps performance as my current hard drive (a seagate 2tb hybrid) would apparently bottleneck my performance. I need someone to tell me if they would be worth it but also if you have any suggestions for my new PC please pass them on.

Don't do that.

RAID 0 (stripe)? Not even a little bit.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-950-pro-256gb-raid-report,4449.html


Individual drives.
1x Samsung 970 EVO, 250 or 500GB, for the OS and applications.
1 or 2 other SATA III SSD's for other things.

 

[joshfine2003]

I think your friend gave you bad advice.
I do not think that motherboard can use more than 2 m.2 drives.
Past that, raid-0 is generally a lousy idea.
Synthetic benchmarks show well but in actual use raid-0 may actually be slower.

m.2 is a size/packaging format, about the size of a stick of gum.
It comes in two flavors, sata or pcie.
The sequential ability of pcie is some 4x faster than sata.

My suggestion is to buy a single Samsung 970 evo of the largest capacity you can manage and put all your actives games on it.

A fast ssd drive will not improve your fps but it may improve level load times and checkpoint times.

For best performance on a hard drive consider adding a 32gb optane m.2 drive which can act as a cache to a hard drive.

sorry forgot to mention if i were to get the m.2 drives i would also choose another motherboard but thanks for the advice