Switching NVME drives, any difference in real world speed?

[Reppyboyo]

Hi all,

Im thinking of optimising the storage in my ITX rig, going from:

1x Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB
1x Corsair MP510 480GB
2x SATA SSD's (500gb and 1tb)

To replacing the lot with 2x WD SN550 1TB NVME drives.
Will help keep wiring to a minimum and keep a clean look etc.
Will I notice any performance difference between the SN550's and my current NVME drives in general use and gaming?
I dont really transfer large files across networks so thats not something to consider.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Rroff]

I barely notice the difference between a fast SATA SSD and performance NVME drives in a lot of things - OS booting and some games are about 5-10% faster so between decent NVME drives I doubt you'd notice anything.

 

[Dg834man]

I second Rroff

I dont really transfer large files across networks so thats not something to consider.

You've already said your not needing the main advantage they have, will look nice and clean which is important to you.

 

[EsaT]

If changing drives just to get rid of small ones get 2TB drive to save slot for possible future addition.

 

[Journey]

Just get a single 2TB drive while prices are reasonable, then you have a spare M.2 slot, or you could use one of your older M.2 drives in there.

 

[Alister Ross]

I have a similar question, currently have:

1 x 1TB SATA 2.5” SSD (for OS and a couple of games)
1 x 4TB SATA 3.5” HDD (For office work/files and remaining games)

When I built my new rig in March this year I didn’t realise NVME drives existed - so currently looking to purchase one for my system.

What size would you recommend for OS and several games (Warzone, Cyberpunk etc)? Would 1TB be suitable or should I bite the bullet and go 2TB?

 

[EsaT]

I have a similar question, currently have:

1 x 1TB SATA 2.5” SSD (for OS and a couple of games)
1 x 4TB SATA 3.5” HDD (For office work/files and remaining games)

When I built my new rig in March this year I didn’t realise NVME drives existed - so currently looking to purchase one for my system.

What size would you recommend for OS and several games (Warzone, Cyberpunk etc)? Would 1TB be suitable or should I bite the bullet and go 2TB?

With limited number of M.2 slots 1TB is definitely sensible minimum size.
Prices of those start from below £100 for WD Blue SN550.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0c-hd-56l-wd.html
Full speed PCIe v3 drives cost some more:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/teamgroup-mp34-1tb-nvme-pcie-m.2-solid-state-drive-hd-00b-tg.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds100t3x0c-hd-55v-wd.html

PCIe v4 drives again cost quite low more, except for Phison E16 based 5GB/s drives which can be found for more reasonable prices.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...cie-gen4-m.2-solid-state-drive-hd-007-tg.html
Though it depends on CPU+board if your PC supports PCIe v4.

In 2TB size WD Blue SN550 costs £190.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds200t2b0c-hd-57n-wd.html
Higher up PCIe v3 drives cost clearly more and in fact many of them cost nearly as much as 2TB Phison E16 drives.

 

[ED209]

I went from a Samsung 850 to an NVME 970 1TB drive.

To be honest apart from benchmarks you dont notice the difference but i went for this so I could remove the sata power cable to my modular psu and the sata cables

 

[Joxeon]

I have a similar question, currently have:

1 x 1TB SATA 2.5” SSD (for OS and a couple of games)
1 x 4TB SATA 3.5” HDD (For office work/files and remaining games)

When I built my new rig in March this year I didn’t realise NVME drives existed - so currently looking to purchase one for my system.

What size would you recommend for OS and several games (Warzone, Cyberpunk etc)? Would 1TB be suitable or should I bite the bullet and go 2TB?

I wouldn't get anything less than 1tb and if your board only has one nvme slot then 2tb would be preferred.

 

[Zeebedy]

I went from a Samsung 850 to an NVME 970 1TB drive.

To be honest apart from benchmarks you dont notice the difference but i went for this so I could remove the sata power cable to my modular psu and the sata cables

same here, removes that little bit of extra clutter.

I have a 500gb Nvme for os / apps and use a 2tb Nvme for games etc..

 

[ED209]

same here, removes that little bit of extra clutter.

I have a 500gb Nvme for os / apps and use a 2tb Nvme for games etc..

Nice, makes cable management a lot easier.

I just have the 1TB NVME drive but do have another slot for a second if needed

 

[newbieclocker]

I've noticed no performance difference with my nvme drive with windows on it. Some games might benefit though, I feel like star citizen is faster for me

 

[EsaT]

I've noticed no performance difference with my nvme drive with windows on it. Some games might benefit though, I feel like star citizen is faster for me

Very few games are coded to be capable to benefiting from high transfer rates in loading times.
Most of them simply spend so much time in data decompression/initializing game engine etc.
Hence differences are mostly in split second/handfull of percents one way or another range like in TechPowerUp's SSD reviews.

But some games aren't bottlenecked by that and give percentually very big loading time differences:
https://www.realhardwarereviews.com/silicon-power-us70-1tb-review/11/
Though 24 core Threadripper shredding through any multithreading work could explain part of the results.

 

[Alister Ross]

With limited number of M.2 slots 1TB is definitely sensible minimum size.
Prices of those start from below £100 for WD Blue SN550.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0c-hd-56l-wd.html
Full speed PCIe v3 drives cost some more:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/teamgroup-mp34-1tb-nvme-pcie-m.2-solid-state-drive-hd-00b-tg.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds100t3x0c-hd-55v-wd.html

PCIe v4 drives again cost quite low more, except for Phison E16 based 5GB/s drives which can be found for more reasonable prices.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...cie-gen4-m.2-solid-state-drive-hd-007-tg.html
Though it depends on CPU+board if your PC supports PCIe v4.

In 2TB size WD Blue SN550 costs £190.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds200t2b0c-hd-57n-wd.html
Higher up PCIe v3 drives cost clearly more and in fact many of them cost nearly as much as 2TB Phison E16 drives.

I wouldn't get anything less than 1tb and if your board only has one nvme slot then 2tb would be preferred.

Thanks for the help guys, I think I'll go with the 2TB. My mobo currently has one slot only (MSI MAG B460M). This will be upgraded soon to a better board soon, and was very much an emergency part when my original Mobo gave up on me in March.

How hot do the drives get? Do I need to keep the heat sink over the boards?

 

[EsaT]

How hot do the drives get? Do I need to keep the heat sink over the boards?

In normal gaming use there's little use for heatsinks, because drive activity doesn't last many seconds.
Or in case of long loading time bottleneck is elsewhere and NVMe mostly idles waiting for data requests.

 

[pp111]

It depends how your system is implemented. If you have Prefetch and Superfetch disabled, then going from sata to nvme makes a big difference. But with them enabled then you are using super fast caches and of course it makes almost no noticeable difference at all.