New Haswell-E build... Need your advice on the best drive! SSD/M.2

Atari · Sep 15, 2014

Hi Gents!,

I'm really excited! I'm building a new computer to replace my aging Q9450. I need your help though. What SSD should I get? I read that M.2 is not worth the cost so i'm just going SSD III all the way.

I use my PC mainly for work. Maya/Max rendering/animation, Photoshop/premiere as well. I do game a bunch when I get a chance.

What SSD do you guys recommend? That is I hope reliable first and speed second. I think that's the smarter way to go. I was going for a 512gb version unless you guys say otherwise.

The SSD would be where the OS/programs live.

I'll have a standard 1TB drive as well. Probably a WD Black? This drive will hold my work files and games.

Thanks a ton guys.

Also: Was looking at maybe a samsung 850 pro 512gb, but It's almost the same cost as the Plextor M.2. I'm not sure which would be the more reliable drive choice.

ninjacore · Sep 16, 2014

I the 850 Pro is pretty cool (new tech), but I don't think the performance benefits are worth the extra $150 over the 840 EVO.

One benefit is 150TB, 10 year warranty with the 850 over the 100TB, 3 year with the EVO, but Samsung is just so reliable across the board, that I don't think it'll matter.

I'm not too familiar with M.2. Would you be sharing bandwidth with your GPUs?

Atari · Sep 17, 2014

ninjacore said:
I the 850 Pro is pretty cool (new tech), but I don't think the performance benefits are worth the extra $150 over the 840 EVO.

One benefit is 150TB, 10 year warranty with the 850 over the 100TB, 3 year with the EVO, but Samsung is just so reliable across the board, that I don't think it'll matter.

I'm not too familiar with M.2. Would you be sharing bandwidth with your GPUs?

Thanks for writing Ninja! Yeah I'm thinking I'm kind of going a bit crazy with my build. I need to trim down some expenses, but still get a good storage solution. I'm like totally stuck on this. The 850 pro is painfully expensive. I mean $400.00 for a hard drive. I'm starting to think of just going for a samsung M.2 256gb instead maybe. it's only $250.00 extremely fast and just pair it for a normal 1tb hdd.

So, OS/Apps on the M.2 (should be under 250gb easily) Although I know you need extra room on these drives?
1TB hdd - Games/ Work files.

Maybe that's not a good way. :/ I'm not sure what to do. Got to make a decision soon though.

ninjacore · Sep 17, 2014

As you can see from my sig

)) 250gb is plenty of space for me. I have 2-3 games on one of those PCs w 80-90GB free and 5-6 games on the other w 30 free. I don't notice any speed difference between the two.

The m2 or 850 pro will of course be a bit faster. I just doubt it's worth $200. That's the difference between a 280 and 290x and you'd see that difference much more evidently.

The 840 evo is a great drive and I think it still has legs.

Atari · Sep 17, 2014

ninjacore said:
As you can see from my sig )) 250gb is plenty of space for me. I have 2-3 games on one of those PCs w 80-90GB free and 5-6 games on the other w 30 free. I don't notice any speed difference between the two.

The m2 or 850 pro will of course be a bit faster. I just doubt it's worth $200. That's the difference between a 280 and 290x and you'd see that difference much more evidently.

The 840 evo is a great drive and I think it still has legs.

Don't you need to have more than 25% of your drive with free space or you start losing speed and it starts to struggle.? Man i need to read up on this stuff.

ninjacore · Sep 17, 2014

I have no doubt that claim exists out there somewhere. All I can say is both of mine feel about the same despite the fact that one only has ~10% free space.

I've owned a few different SSDs over the past few years (Crucial M4, Samsung 830, hyperx 3k, OCZ 460, OCZ 150?). The 840 EVO has significnatly faster "benchmark" speeds than any of them and, more importantly, "feels" faster as well. The next fastest that I've personally used would probably be the M4 and I feel like boot times are 2-3 seconds faster (maybe 5-10 seconds total?) with the EVO.

The difference between the EVO and the Plextor or 850 may be somewhere in that same range, but it's not worth that much money in my opinion. If it were 10-20% more, sure, go for it. Not 100% more, though.

What's the rest of your system looking like?

Atari · Sep 17, 2014

Thanks a ton for the advice here! So far the build is:

MSI x99 sli plus
5820k
32gb ddr4 g.skill memory
Nvidia - 970 or 980
750w power supply
1tb WD black HDD
And the SSD we're talking about here

ninjacore · Sep 17, 2014

Lookin' good

On one hand, you're system's gonna be top notch, so it would seem a bit odd not to grab the latest/greatest SSD. On the other hand, however, I just don't think there is going to be $200 worth of performance difference in the faster drive. You'll be happy either way, I'm sure :thup:

ATMINSIDE · Sep 18, 2014

Grab an 840 EVO and call it a day.

gsrcrxsi · Sep 19, 2014

I bought a Crucial M550 256GB M.2 drive for my Ultrabook. $165 shipped on amazon. no complaints

ATTO
550MB/s read
500MB/s write

Brando · Sep 21, 2014

you'll wish you got the 512gb. gives you breathing room.

gsrcrxsi · Sep 21, 2014

me? or the OP? i'm using <10% of the available space lol.

Brando · Sep 21, 2014

anyone that buys 256 instead of 512. i have a few games on my drive which take lots of space and ended up having to delete things to keep the space down. 512 is just more comfy but everyone is different.

gsrcrxsi · Sep 21, 2014

well everyone has different storage needs.

i could run a 64GB drive and be perfectly content. personally I like a small OS drive + large storage drive where possible, for times when the OS needs to be reinstalled. faster to replace ~20-30GB OS install than 200-500GB full system.

and similarly, someone with ~400GB worth of games could call you foolish for purchasing the 512GB instead of the 1TB drive. then 1TB vs 2x1TB, the argument never ends.

Brando · Sep 21, 2014

true, everyone has different needs. i don't HAVE to have games installed on the ssd but i always try to keep it simple. anything that runs (programs, games, os) goes on the main drive so they go fast. storage stuff like music and downloads don't really matter so they go on the 1tb spinner. if i get a virus or windows gets corrupted by a bad oc i use it as an excuse to reset everything and start fresh. sometimes i do find out there were plenty of things i could have lived without. 512gm is still nice.

New Haswell-E build... Need your advice on the best drive! SSD/M.2

Atari

Member

ninjacore

Member

Atari

Member

ninjacore

Member

Atari

Member

ninjacore

Member

Atari

Member

ninjacore

Member

ATMINSIDE

Sim Racing Aficionado Co-Owner

gsrcrxsi

Member

Brando

Member

gsrcrxsi

Member

Brando

Member

gsrcrxsi

Member

Brando

Member

Similar threads