SSD, M.2, NVME questions

[Eel O'Brian]

So after nine years I got a new gaming PC over the holiday sales. Came with a 240gb SSD Boot Drive and a regular 1TB HDD. I like the speed of the SSD (by the time I fully settle into my chair windows is already loaded, haha), but 240gb is pretty small so I want to upgrade. The motherboard has a slot for a M.2/NVMe drive. Are these worth it over a regular SSD? Is the increase in speed substantial enough to justify the increased price over regular SSD? I've read they have heating issues, so I'd have to buy a heat sink. I'll probably want to use it as the boot drive, so should I even bother with cloning or do a fresh windows install? Or, should I just go the easiest route and toss another larger regular SSD in there for games/files, keep the 240gb as the boot drive, and skip the NVMe altogether?

[Human Snorenado]

In short, yes but only if you get one that has an x2 or x3 or x4 speed upgrade. It will tell you the up/down speed, the regular speed of an ssd is 520ish I wanna say? So look for something faster. I'll get you links later when I get back from being out.

If it were me I'd probably just get a regular 1 tb ssd and use the 240 as your boot drive

[Akala]

^^ agree would probably just get one of the 500GB/1TB standard samsung or sandisk deals going around now than pay any premium.

[benjipwns]

Agree with the above, price doesn't seem worth it outside of specialist cases, let them take another few stabs at them like happened to regular SSD's.

[Human Snorenado]

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100011693%20601193224%20600414919%20600414920%20600640786&Order=PRICE

Compare those prices to what you'd get for a comparable storage size in a regular ssd. I have a 500gb M.2 x2 speed ssd in the computer I built about a year ago, and honestly I don't feel like it really boots up THAT much faster than the regular ssd that my OS was on in my last pc.

[Eel O'Brian]

Yeah, probably just going with a regular SSD expansion. Thank you!

[nachobro]

while i love my nvme and it does load at lightspeed, it was only worth it cause i got it at a steep discount. for full price you are better off with just a small ssd for os/programs only, another ssd for storage/games, and an optional hdd for music/pics/videos

[Brehvolution]

Eel missed you man. Hope all is well.

[Eel O'Brian]

Things are okay, hope all is well with you, too!

[thisismyusername]

Harddrive is fine for a majority of titles unless you're THAT anal about "muh load times" or the game (Battlefield) has some sort of "advantage" where the load-times let you get something (like vehicles) faster than other non-SSD folks.

[nachobro]

SSD is nice to have for MMOs

[Human Snorenado]

Harddrive is fine for a majority of titles unless you're THAT anal about "muh load times" or the game (Battlefield) has some sort of "advantage" where the load-times let you get something (like vehicles) faster than other non-SSD folks.

[Brehvolution]

Spindle drives will always be ass compared to SSD.