Storage option

Hi Guys,

I have just a quick question on M.2 Drive.
In the config, can I just select one M.2 drive (1TB) for storage? or are there any compatible issues and require one drive for OS and one for storage?

Thanks!

Originally posted by bprat22 You don't need two drives. OS doesn't need its own drive.

Thank you bprat22!

Originally posted by gdead65 any advantages/drawbacks using a M2 vs a regular Solid state drive?

I was reading on these M.2's and wanted a good performance/price ratio one. Going with Samsung 960 EVO 1TB

but experts in forum can help answer your question.

Originally posted by gdead65 any advantages/drawbacks using a M2 vs a regular Solid state drive?

Drawbacks:
#1. Price.
#2. Generally, M.2's are a waste of money for your average desktop user.

Depending on what you're going to be doing, you may or may not see any improvement over a SATA SSD. If you're going to be frequently running a lot of programs that require large amounts of reading from and writing to the drive, and/or doing a lot of file transfers, then an M.2 drive would be the way to go. However, just a few things to keep in mind:

-If transferring data to/from a slower drive, the data rate transfer will still be dictated by the slower drive. However, the M.2 drive will still be able to perform other reads/writes without being bogged down like other mechanical drives or SATA SSDs, which translates into greater multi-tasking capability.

-You will see little or no difference in regards to speed when dealing with smaller files/reads/writes, etc., in comparison to SATA SSDs.

-If I remember correctly, transferring something like 10,000+ files that are 2-5 Mb in size can take longer compared to 50-100 files that are 500-600 Mb in size, which is dependent on how the drive is set up.(Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall reading about how these drives can take longer to transfer a large volume of small files versus a small volume of large files)

Most of us would never ever use the full capabilities of an M.2's data transfer speed, but on the occasions when we do need something more than what a SATA SSD can provide, it is nice to have for sure. I would find it useful for running multiple game/non-OS program updates, backups, etc., while being able to perform other tasks without the drive bottlenecking. I'm one of those individuals that despises having my programs dictate to me when I have to update, so if and when I have to do updates, I prefer getting them all done and out of the way as quickly as possible or having them run in the background while being able to do something else on the system.

It all comes down to the individual in regards to whether or not it would be worth the extra money.
Its like asking if you should get a 300 Mbps or a 20 Mbps internet connection. They're both going to transfer data from almost all websites/servers at the same speed: the relevant question then becomes "how much bandwidth are you going to utilize simultaneously on a regular basis?"