# M.2 vs. 2.5" SSD



## Sasqui (Jul 14, 2017)

I'm retiring the rig in my signature and focusing on upgrading my 4790k rig.  Also getting out of watercooling.

The #1 upgrade I'm looking for is a 500Gb SSD.  I could go M.2, or a standard 2.5" SATA SSD.  What's the benefit of M.2?  This would be my OS/Program drive, along side with 1TB and 640GB traditional HDDs for data.


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## Octopuss (Jul 14, 2017)

M.2 is just a form factor. It doesn't have anything to do with the internals of the SSD.


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## Sasqui (Jul 14, 2017)

Octopuss said:


> M.2 is just a form factor. It doesn't have anything to do with the internals of the SSD.



No performance difference?  Does it talk to the SATA controller same as a SATA cabled drive?

Edit:  Apparently so, according to this article:  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2977...dup-tiny-drives-deliver-huge-performance.html


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## EarthDog (Jul 14, 2017)

There are SATA based M.2 (no different than 2.5" performance wise), and NVMe based M.2 (A LOT faster than SATA). They both fit in the M.2 slot. Depends on your budget and needs. Most would be plenty happy without NVMe.


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## jboydgolfer (Jul 14, 2017)

Just buy the 2.5 inch....although NVmE drives are Capable of significantly faster  write and read speed, you won't be able to take advantage of those capabilities without use of  tasks which are heavily dependent on high-speed's & can utilize extremely high speeds. 9 out of 10 times , a benchmark is the only place you're going to see your extra money being put to use. So it's up to you if you use a program that will utilize that speed then it may be worth it ,but windows isnt going to benefit anymore  from a NVME drive then it would from a 2.5".  Unless of course in the recent months or to Microsoft has implemented some change that I'm unaware of


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## Rehmanpa (Jul 14, 2017)

M.2 is a lot faster. Also usually has a smaller warranty. I bought a 1tb 850 evo over the 500gv 960 evo. Boots and performs well enough for me and it has a longer warranty. I suspect this drive will last me a good long time


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## P4-630 (Jul 14, 2017)

Doesn't a M.2 run hotter than a "regular" SSD?


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## Rehmanpa (Jul 14, 2017)

P4-630 said:


> Doesn't a M.2 run hotter than a "regular" SSD?


Eh. Any fan will be enough or even a heatsink. They overheat when placed between gpus in sli from what I've read.


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## Sasqui (Jul 14, 2017)

$149 for this 512Gb:  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=9SIA2F83Z94840

Though, I would like a 2.5" for flexibility in using in something like a hot swap drive bay.


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## EarthDog (Jul 14, 2017)

Rehmanpa said:


> M.2 is a lot faster. Also usually has a smaller warranty. I bought a 1tb 850 evo over the 500gv 960 evo. Boots and performs well enough for me and it has a longer warranty. I suspect this drive will last me a good long time





P4-630 said:


> Doesn't a M.2 run hotter than a "regular" SSD?


NVMe based ones do......again you guys are confusing form factor for they type of SSD it is. NVMe is a lot faster and gets warmer. I don't recall normal SATA based m.2 drives having this issue.


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## Static~Charge (Jul 14, 2017)

P4-630 said:


> Doesn't a M.2 run hotter than a "regular" SSD?



Yes. Just make sure that you get some airflow across the motherboard. The other components on the motherboard will thank you for that, too.


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## P4-630 (Jul 14, 2017)

EarthDog said:


> I don't recall normal SATA based m.2 drives having this issue.





Static~Charge said:


> Yes. Just make sure that you get some airflow across the motherboard.



So what is it now!?


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## Static~Charge (Jul 14, 2017)

Warm/hot components + still air = Unhappy electronics. A little breeze goes a long way.


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## P4-630 (Jul 14, 2017)

Static~Charge said:


> Warm/hot components + still air = Unhappy electronics. A little breeze goes a long way.



My SSD sits at the back of my motherboard and there's no airflow, it runs pretty cool, even on warmer days,
are you saying that even Sata based M.2's are running hotter than regular SSD's, yes or no? Thats all I'd like to know.

Since I may buy one in the near future as well.



Sasqui said:


> I'm retiring the rig in my signature and focusing on upgrading my 4790k rig.  Also getting out of watercooling.
> 
> The #1 upgrade I'm looking for is a 500Gb SSD.  I could go M.2, or a standard 2.5" SATA SSD.  What's the benefit of M.2?  This would be my OS/Program drive, along side with 1TB and 640GB traditional HDDs for data.



@Sasqui you might want to check out Pete's sale as well: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/pete1burns-fs-thread.234480/


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## Static~Charge (Jul 15, 2017)

P4-630 said:


> My SSD sits at the back of my motherboard and there's no airflow, it runs pretty cool, even on warmer days, are you saying that even Sata based M.2's are running hotter than regular SSD's, yes or no? Thats all I'd like to know.
> 
> Since I may buy one in the near future as well.



I did a little Googling on the topic. Here is a 2014 video from Puget Systems that shows M.2 SATA SSD temperatures during benchmarking runs. Granted, that is some extreme drive usage, and the average person will never see temps like these.

Unless you need the drive bay space, I wouldn't bother trading a 2.5" SSD for an M.2 model. You won't see any boost in performance (they're both SATA) unless the M.2 drive has a much better controller than the 2.5" drive.


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## THE_EGG (Jul 15, 2017)

I recently changed to an NVMe Samsung 960 EVO for my OS drive and I've noticed a slight improvement in boot times and general responsiveness. Load times in Battlefield 1 & 4 seemed marginally faster though I haven't done any testing. The main benefit for me was the fact that the case I'm looking at changing into only has 1X 3.5" and 2X 2.5" bays so I needed to fully utilise my storage potential. I'd avoid the M.2 Intel 600p NVMe drive as your main OS drive as I've noticed the occasional hiccup and speed dip with it under heavy load. Also note that some motherboards may need a BIOS update to use some NVMe M.2 drives. My old X99-Deluxe couldn't recognise my 960 EVO in the BIOS but I could use it in Windows as secondary storage. 

So really if you have some spare money and need to save physical space for sure go for M.2 drives (preferably NVMe ones). Otherwise I'd probably recommend either saving a bit of cash going with a 2.5" option or going for a higher capacity 2.5" drive. For example here in Australia a 2.5" 500GB Samsung 850 EVO costs roughly the same as a M.2 NVMe 250GB Samsung 960 EVO. 

Hope this helps


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