Spec me a cheap but decent M2 drive..

MeatLoaf · 10 Jun 2020 at 23:50

Its only for a Windows install. I have a 500Gb normal SSD which ill put games on and a couple of 2Tb drives for storage.

My motherboard is an Asus Strix B350F Gaming.

Will any M2 drive work as ive noticed some have a single notch and some have 2 notches.

Is this one any good?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-g...-solid-state-drive-wds240g2g0b-hd-558-wd.html

or this one for an extra fiver

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/tosh...-3.0-x4-nvme-solid-state-drive-hd-04j-ts.html

bremen1874 · 11 Jun 2020 at 01:29

M.2 is the form factor.

M.2 drives can or SATA or NVMe (PCIe). The SATA versions are no faster than the 2.5" SATA drives.

You've picked one of each. What type are you wanting (presumably NVMe, but worth checking)?

MeatLoaf · 11 Jun 2020 at 01:33

Ah ok, not sure. Im assuming the NVM will be faster assuming it will work in my motherboard?

bremen1874 · 11 Jun 2020 at 02:02

NVMe is the faster interface and your board can accommodate it.

In benchmarks, NVMe is much faster. In actual use, it isn't that noticeable for most things.

I haven't really looked at the cheaper end of the NVMe SSD market, so don't really know what to recommend.

sja360 · 11 Jun 2020 at 02:37

Usual consensus is to spend the extra £5 on nvme, as it's usually 3-4x the speed of the M2 sata. As said your unlikely to notice the difference. Only question I'd have is are nvme just as reliable as M2 sata? Also there is usually additional heat from nvme.

Energize · 11 Jun 2020 at 06:13

Just make sure you buy a TLC drive or better as the QLC drives can become dreadfully slow. Especially the smaller ones with write speeds dropping by 75% once the SLC cache is used up.