NVME Storage Drives

floppybootstomp

floppybootstomp

sugar 'n spikes
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I'm using a motherboard with a Z370 chipset with the Win 10 OS on a Samsung 250Gb M.2 SSD drive. I recently stated that M.2 drives were the fastest available but our Barbaric member pointed out I was erroneous in my assumption and corrected me by saying NVME drives were in fact the fastest.

So I immediately went out and bought a bar of coal tar soap and carefully washed the egg from my face.

More pertinently, I decided I'd like to upgrade to an NVME drive, using one that was also a little larger. Some searching led me to find an OEM Intel 512Gb NVME drive selling for the reasonable price of £120.00.

Before I ordered one though I thought I best check compatibility and it turns out that it is possible but only through a rather complicated process that can only be done with a fresh install of Windows 10. Furthermore the BIOS would need some specialist drivers from Intel to suit this SSD type. Several articles and hardware sites all pointed out and agreed that migration of an existing Win 10 OS from an existing installation is not possible.

So that's that idea shelved then. I don't actually need any more hard disk space on the OS drive and it would only have given me a slight increase in speed so I suppose you could say I've saved 120 quid.

I'll be leaving the purchase of an NVME storage device until I change to at least a Z390 chipset then though by the time that comes around it's likely both storage media and chipsets may have undergone further upgrades.

If this folding stuff continues to burn a hole in my pocket I may upgrade from my current 3Tb Games hard disk to a Western Digital Black 4Tb Hard Disk for games storage as my current 3Tb disk is almost full up. The WD Black 4Tb is currently just under £170 on Amazon.
 
I don't think you'd notice a huge speed improvement, as your system is already pretty fast - so I think it's some £ saved :).

I'm pleasantly surprised at how much the cost of NVME drives has come down - ~£120 is good going (some are even as low as £100 for 500GB).

What's the rest of the specs on your main system nowadays?
 
In my original post I did mention at the end I was considering the purchase of a 4Tb HDD (mechanical) for my computer games. There isn't an economically viable SSD drive of that size available atm.

I looked at the WD Black 6Tb drive as well and it's still an option, priced at around £230. I have specified the WD Black as it has a five year warranty which suggests it would be reliable.

I really think a 14Tb HDD might be a little OTT for what I need right now ;)

Ian, last year I changed my main system around considerably, selling off my old system and building one based around a 7th Gen Intel i5 as I thought my old system was over-specified for what I needed but more pertinently I was offered a very good price for the old one.

So, currently:

Main machine:

Bitfenix Comrade Black case
Intel 3.6Ghz i5 CPU Coffee Lake 6 Core
Noctua LGA115x CPU Cooler
MSI Z370-A Pro (MS-7B48) (U3E1) Motherboard
Corsair 16Gb 1066Mhz DDR4 RAM (2 x 8Gb in dual mode)
MSI Nvidia GTX 1060 6Gb Graphics card
Samsung M.2 250Gb SSD (Windows 10)
Seagate 2Tb HDD (Data)
Seagate 3Tb HDD (Games)
Pioneer BD-209D Bluray BD-RW
Corsair 620W Modular PSU
Asus Xonar DGX PCIe Sound Card

Secondary (bedroom) machine:

Asus P8 Z68-V Pro Motherboard (Socket LGA1155) Rev 1.xx
16Gb (2 x 8Gb) DDR3 Kingston HyperX Blue Memory 802Mhz (1600)
Intel i7 2600K 3.4Ghz Sandy Bridge 4 Core CPU
Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooler
Corsair TX650W PSU
Pioneer BD-209D Bluray BD-RW
Asus Xonar DGX PCIe Sound Card
MSI Nvidia GTX1050 2Gb Graphics card
2 x Startech SATA Disk Caddys for HDD swap
Crucial 250Gb CT250MX500 SSD in Startech SATA Enclosure (Win 7 Ultimate Pro)
Kingston 240Gb SSD in Startech SATA Enclosure (Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon 64 Bit)
3 x 2Tb HDD’s: Samsung, Seagate & Hitachi
Merc Alpha Black Desktop Case

Also have a couple of 500Gb HDD's that I can swap in and out of caddy for trying other Linux Distros for this machine.

I also have an old AMD Socket A machine in a multimedia case with Win 98 loaded, purely for a few old games that only work on Win 98.
 
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Data in a Flash, Part I: the Evolution of Disk Storage and an Introduction to NVMe
NVMe drives have paved the way for computing at stellar speeds, but the technology didn't suddenly appear overnight. It was through an evolutionary process that we now rely on the very performant SSD for our primary storage tier.

Solid State Drives (SSDs) have taken the computer industry by storm in recent years. The technology is impressive with its high-speed capabilities. It promises low-latency access to sometimes critical data while increasing overall performance, at least when compared to what is now becoming the legacy Hard Disk Drive (HDD). With each passing year, SSD market shares continue to climb, replacing the HDD in many sectors. The effects of this are seen in personal, mobile and server computing.
Click to expand...

I was going to start a new thread for this very interesting article but thought it would shoehorn in here neatly. Enjoy. :cool:
 
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