# SSD M2 for B350 Chipset? (Compatibility / Recommendation)



## Cvrk (Oct 31, 2021)

What I want:

Recommend me what ssd to buy for heavy-duty _gaming_. Speed for me is not that important, because I've noticed that loading time is fine even on my old SSD. 
Utilization: GAMING. Non-stop installing and uninstalling and playing games.
What I want is longevity and resistance to wear and tear.
Affordable price, put yourself in my shoes, something that you will buy for yourself
1TB of space 
M2 type. Because I have the slot positioned behind the graphics card, and I think it gives better results for gaming(not sure). Probably won't use the shield may cause overheating I have ONLY 1 slot left on my motherboard. 4 total currently utilizing 2HDD+1SDD (3 slots occupied)
If you are against M2 (tell me why) so recommend something else. There is no wrong answer - please give me your advice.  

Motherboard: MSI B350 GAMING PRO CARBON (link supported SSD's)

What I am looking at:
ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro
Seagate BarraCuda Q5 (not on the supported list)
Samsung 970 EVO Plus  (only the Evo Plus is not on the supported list -cant find the regular one in shop)

Maybe the Samsung 870 EVO, 1TB, 2.5", SATA III if M2 slot is a bad option in terms of overheating


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## Cvrk (Nov 1, 2021)

I know you guys from the gaming threads, I hope you don't mind I summoned you. Need some advice. 
@Vayra86 @rtwjunkie @Sithaer @robot zombie @Jill Christine Valentine @Calmmo @SN2716057 @Splinterdog @Frick @lexluthermiester @GreiverBlade @P4-630 @ne6togadno


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## Toothless (Nov 1, 2021)

Lol, chill with the tags. Not everyone needs to be pulled into a thread.

Just because it's not on the supported list doesn't mean it won't work. I've used like five or six different NVME brands and they all work. It's a drive, come on now.

Look at sales, look at reviews. That's your best bet.


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## Vayra86 (Nov 1, 2021)

Any SSD will work just fine, this is not like the QVL for RAM or anything. Get the best option for your budget/size requirement. The age of shite controllers is past us, but QLC is not the best bet for anything but long term storage/infrequently used drives that mostly want capacity over performance. Its not really an advantage for anything really, unless its your wallet in some way, but QLC also isn't that much cheaper just yet.

I'd categorize your use case as an OS-drive. Lots of read/write/activity and large chunks of data.

Basically, get the lowest $/GB drive that is still an MLC or TLC drive from a reputable brand. Crucial, Samsung, etc. Its really that simple.

As for expecting 'results for gaming'... fairy tales. Any SATA SSD is more than fast enough to deliver for gaming. M2 has zero advantages, you just have no enclosure (more fragile SSD) and more heat - near your GPU to boot.


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## Mussels (Nov 1, 2021)

Aww i didnt get tagged.
It's easy, you want a good PCI-E 3.0 SSD.

Samsung 970 series, SN750 from WD


Unless you do crazy amounts of writing, or keep storage drives as hand me downs for your other systems (cough, me) and use them forever, any midranger is good. It's only the super cheap ones that have issues, and only with writes.

Pick your top 3 choices from a seller you use, and we can argue the fine details with you


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## Cvrk (Nov 1, 2021)

Ohhh nooo @Mussels i forgot about you 
This is my list:
WD Black SN750 NVMe because of the review 
ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro (also because of the review) But I don't understand what they mean_"At around 650GB of data, performance drops again, fluctuating between 300MB/s and 600MB/s as the remaining TLC capacity limit is approached and data in the SLC cache is flushed and converted to TLC storage. The SX8200 Pro’s 640TB of rated write endurance is nothing special and the way performance drops off with really large amounts of data isn’t impressive."_

@Vayra86 you make a strong point with the heat. But since I already have 3 slots utilized won't it be too much to have it full to the max. I mean when it comes to SATA utilization?


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## P4-630 (Nov 1, 2021)

I use a couple of 860 1TB evos and a 850 pro 512GB for my games.
Few games are installed on my 500GB 970 evo OS drive.

I'd take the 1TB 860 evo or 870 evo.

Or buy an M.2 Nvme , install your OS on it and create another partition(or not) for games.


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## Sithaer (Nov 1, 2021)

I have a 1TB Kingston A2000 since 2021 spring or so, also exclusively used for games I'm often/actively playing and nothing else.
All of my game launchers are installed on it.

I have a B350 mobo too, the one listed under my specs.

Reason for buying this specific model was the price in my country at the time, it was pretty much the best deal and it already came with the updated firmware so no perfomance loss out of the box._ 'easy to update anyway with Kingston's software if needed'_
That and based on TPU's review I pulled the trigger on it, no issues so far.
I do have a heatsink on it but eh, that was fairly unnecessary and only did it cause I liked the design + got it for cheap from Aliexpress. 

Truth to be told I would be fine even with a sata 2,5" SSD but the price difference was so little that I picked the -1 less cable option with M.2 + second 2.5" slot in my case is kinda crap to reach with my PSU placement.


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## Tetras (Nov 1, 2021)

Cvrk said:


> What I want:
> 
> Recommend me what ssd to buy for heavy-duty _gaming_. Speed for me is not that important, because I've noticed that loading time is fine even on my old SSD.
> Utilization: GAMING. Non-stop installing and uninstalling and playing games.
> ...



Unless you're doing A LOT of installing and uninstalling, wear and tear really isn't an issue for game drives, since they're far more read heavy than write. That said, if you really care about it then I'd avoid QLC, since even Seagate themselves give that drive a lesser warranty (years and TBW) than their TLC drive.

You also get more writes (per year) on a larger drive than a smaller one, so if you're installing and uninstalling all the time, I'd just buy bigger.

Future console ports may (or may not) require DirectStorage, in which case a SATA drive will be excluded since the API is only for PCI-E M.2.


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## Mussels (Nov 1, 2021)

Cvrk said:


> Ohhh nooo @Mussels i forgot about you
> This is my list:
> WD Black SN750 NVMe because of the review
> ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro (also because of the review) But I don't understand what they mean_"At around 650GB of data, performance drops again, fluctuating between 300MB/s and 600MB/s as the remaining TLC capacity limit is approached and data in the SLC cache is flushed and converted to TLC storage. The SX8200 Pro’s 640TB of rated write endurance is nothing special and the way performance drops off with really large amounts of data isn’t impressive."_
> ...


Adata is worth avoiding, that SSD has had like 5 or 6 secret revisions with large performance changes since launch






NVME when it slows down, reaches SATA levels
SATA when it slows down... is slowed down SATA. If you have the slot, get an NVME.

I'll agree to aim for a TLC flash based drive, if you really think you'll abuse the writes.

The 970 PRO that i have is a top tier gen 3.0 x4 MLC drive, with just two layers - it's probably gunna outlive me


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## Toothless (Nov 1, 2021)

Mussels said:


> Adata is worth avoiding, that SSD has had like 5 or 6 secret revisions with large performance changes since launch
> 
> View attachment 223283
> 
> ...


Can confirm for 970 lineup endurance. Mine is over 360TBW and chooching along.


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## Cvrk (Nov 2, 2021)

Thank you @Tetras  for opening my eyes, I forgot about the DirectStorage situation. 

Thank you @Mussels 
_"NVME when it slows down, reaches SATA levels
SATA when it slows down... is slowed down SATA. If you have the slot, get an NVME"_. this makes sense. 

I can only afford to buy the 970 EVO. Not the pro. 


Tests show a temperature of the M2 ssd reaching 70 degrees Celsius (158 Fahrenheit) on my motherboard. 
The slot is behind my graphics card. 

@Sithaer what temps do you have on your ssd m2? Where is the slot positioned on your mobo?


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## P4-630 (Nov 2, 2021)

Cvrk said:


> Tests show a temperature of the M2 ssd reaching 70 degrees Celsius (158 Fahrenheit) on my motherboard.
> The slot is behind my graphics card.



There are separate heatsinks available, also maybe you can get a fan placed somewhere so it gets a bit cooled.

I use a 970 evo without heatsink , for my OS and also have some games on it, you aren't full blown witing allday everyday on your nvme it gets just over 50 or so, but below 60 when gaming(reading).


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## Sithaer (Nov 2, 2021)

Cvrk said:


> @Sithaer what temps do you have on your ssd m2? Where is the slot positioned on your mobo?



I have the slot between the GPU and the CPU cooler and since my case has only bottom intake fans its not getting the best airflow. _'At least my 1070 is not a hothead'_
Like this, click for full screen image:


Temps I'm not sure if I can trust the built in sensor _'probably not'_ but both Kingston software and HWInfo reports the same.
During summer I've seen at most 42-45 Celsius after playing a game for 1+ hour, and currently its under 40 after running Crystaldisk performance bench.


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## Cvrk (Nov 2, 2021)

you have excellent temps, and that slot is positioned very well. 
what was MSI thinking when they put mine under the graphicscard? 

@P4-630 i have a Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900, so similar to yours except mine is Hightower. temps are amazing and soo quiet! but, no I won't install any other fans. maybe just hope for the best.


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## P4-630 (Nov 2, 2021)

Cvrk said:


> I think it gives better results for gaming(not sure).



Generally only the loading times are somewhat faster than a regular sata SSD.
However I have at least one game that runs better on nvme, GTA V. (not sure about other games)

If you get the 970 evo plus 1TB, I recommend to install the OS on it as well.

If you don't install the OS on it you could also go for a bit cheaper 860/870 evo 1TB which is fine for 99% of the games.


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## Cvrk (Nov 2, 2021)

Honestly, I think i will skip the Samsung's. I need the money, and I don't think they make this much of a difference. My top contenders are 
Crucial Mx500 
Kingston A2000 (very good price)
WD Black SN750 (close to the Samsung price) - maybe with a BlackFriday discount. The reason why I am doing my homework early. 

As for the OSS. no. There 2 reasons. Maybe 3
- I need all the space I can get + I will install Premiere Pro on it, to improve editing performance 
- I have the OSS running on my HyperX Vengece. The loading times are perfect...with a huge problem. 

I have 2 HDD's. One of them goes into this hibernate state, or something. Out of 10 boots 8 of them I will have to wait for the HDD to load. So I will wait like 3-4 minutes for the HDD to start this stalling all my apps from starting. Even tho apps like Razor Synapse etc are on the SSD. 

During regular usage, during the day, the same HDD will enter hibernate and will only wake up if I open something on it. 

I don't think this is the fault with the HDD. I swapped the channels. Changed cables etc. This is a motherboard/bios issue.
I did all the power-managed settings in WIndows 10, same behavior.

 No one was able to help me so far. I can't do anything about this damn HDD stalling issue. Other than this my OSS from a cold start, can boot in less than 1 minute.


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## Tetras (Nov 2, 2021)

Cvrk said:


> you have excellent temps, and that slot is positioned very well.
> what was MSI thinking when they put mine under the graphicscard?
> 
> @P4-630 i have a Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900, so similar to yours except mine is Hightower. temps are amazing and soo quiet! but, no I won't install any other fans. maybe just hope for the best.



There seems to be a lot of conflicting thinking about that slot, sometimes the under GPU slot is actually cooler, but other times they throttle SSDs like crazy. I guess it could depend on overall airflow and the design of the graphics card's cooler. Newer SSDs without DRAM often run cooler than older ones, which could be another factor.


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## Toothless (Nov 2, 2021)

Well, one fix for the drive temps would be to use a NVME to PCI adapter, and adding a heatsink to it. This would go into your second PCIx16 slot.

As for NVMEs, I nabbed a uh.. Klevv Cras C720, which is SLC or so they say. Not a bad drive so far, but worth waiting for a sale.


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## Vayra86 (Nov 2, 2021)

Cvrk said:


> Ohhh nooo @Mussels i forgot about you
> This is my list:
> WD Black SN750 NVMe because of the review
> ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro (also because of the review) But I don't understand what they mean_"At around 650GB of data, performance drops again, fluctuating between 300MB/s and 600MB/s as the remaining TLC capacity limit is approached and data in the SLC cache is flushed and converted to TLC storage. The SX8200 Pro’s 640TB of rated write endurance is nothing special and the way performance drops off with really large amounts of data isn’t impressive."_
> ...



SATA has bandwidth for each slot so I wouldn't worry and you're not gaming and pulling data over your other drives at the same time, usually, either. Some boards have hotswappable SATA slots. Might want to consider that, and maybe there are a couple legacy slots (usually colored differently).

And yes, if you can get an MX500 at a half decent price, go.

About NVME. If the price gap isn't too big, sure. But the advantage is non existant in most if not all gaming use cases. Games that load slow, will load slow and usually not because of being unable to get storage access fast enough.


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## Mussels (Nov 3, 2021)

Cvrk said:


> Honestly, I think i will skip the Samsung's. I need the money, and I don't think they make this much of a difference. My top contenders are
> Crucial Mx500
> Kingston A2000 (very good price)
> WD Black SN750 (close to the Samsung price) - maybe with a BlackFriday discount. The reason why I am doing my homework early.
> ...


The SN750 is genuinely a top contender, its equal to the samsungs but 64 layer vs 72/96 so endurance is in theory, better.
The Kingston A2000 is cheaper and has some performance limits because of that, but TPU reviewed it highly (after a firmware update)

SN750 is about 1GB/s faster, which may not mean much in the real world but it's also not a small difference.


This chart from TPU's SN850 review is missing the SN750, but shows a good comparison for a chunk of popular SSD's


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## Wooden Law - Black (Nov 3, 2021)

Mussels said:


> The SN750 is genuinely a top contender, its equal to the samsungs but 64 layer vs 72/96 so endurance is in theory, better.


No. Samsung's flash due to its architecture is better as endurance than Kioxia's flash (the SN750 has Kioxia BiCS3/BiCS4).


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## Tetras (Nov 3, 2021)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> No. Samsung's flash due to its architecture is better as endurance than Kioxia's flash (the SN750 has Kioxia BiCS3/BiCS4).



Why is that?


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## Mussels (Nov 3, 2021)

Tetras said:


> Why is that?


Thats why i said "in theory" - less layers is good. Samsung just have a lot of experience in that field and work well with their controllers and DRAM memory to even the playing field (or outright come ahead as the winner)

The worst samsung is still well above average


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## Solid State Soul ( SSS ) (Nov 3, 2021)

Any good pcie gen 3 will work, I would recommend the new Kioxia Exceria 1tb, TPU just reviewed it recently and it's an amazing value at 85$, with great performance, Dram cach, and no thermal throttling


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## Wooden Law - Black (Nov 3, 2021)

Tetras said:


> Why is that?


Samsung's flash uses replacement gate (RG) on TCAT while Kioxia's flash uses BiCS based on charge trap flash (CTF), also, Samsung has the best etching.


Mussels said:


> less layers is good.


Uhm, depends on what you mean. Less layers doesn't mean better endurance, usually it means worse speed (64L 533-667 MT/s, 96L 800 MT/s, 128L 1200 MT/s, 176L 1600 MT/s). For the endurance it depends on the model of flash, in some cases flash with the same number of layers has a different endurance (look at Micron B27A and B27B - 2000 vs 3000 PEC).


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## Tetras (Nov 3, 2021)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> Samsung's flash uses replacement gate (RG) on TCAT while Kioxia's flash uses BiCS based on charge trap flash (CTF), also, Samsung has the best etching.
> 
> Uhm, depends on what you mean. Less layers doesn't mean better endurance, usually it means worse speed (64L 533-667 MT/s, 96L 800 MT/s, 128L 1200 MT/s, 176L 1600 MT/s). For the endurance it depends on the model of flash, in some cases flash with the same number of layers has a different endurance (look at Micron B27A and B27B - 2000 vs 3000 PEC).



I read that more layers often need a lower voltage, because of newer manufacturing process, which is easier on the flash (more endurance and less error prone) than higher voltage, is that true?


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## Wooden Law - Black (Nov 3, 2021)

Tetras said:


> I read that more layers often need a lower voltage, because of newer manufacturing process, which is easier on the flash (more endurance and less error prone) than higher voltage, is that true?


Yes, the higher the flash, the more efficient it is. For example 48L was 3.3V, 64L 2.5V and 96L 1.2V.


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## Sithaer (Nov 3, 2021)

Solid State Soul ( SSS ) said:


> Any good pcie gen 3 will work, I would recommend the new Kioxia Exceria 1tb, TPU just reviewed it recently and it's an amazing value at 85$, with great performance, Dram cach, and no thermal throttling



In my country _'Right next to OP' _it cost more than Kingston A2000, thermal throttling should not be an issue if its just a gaming/launcher/install drive like mine and what the OP wants mainly.

In general I agree that any half decent gen 3 NVMe will do just fine for such a drive/need.


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## Wooden Law - Black (Nov 3, 2021)

Solid State Soul ( SSS ) said:


> no thermal throttling


"no thermal throttling"? It reached 104 degrees on the controller (and after 70-75 degrees starts the thermal throttling)...


Spoiler


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## P4-630 (Nov 3, 2021)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> "no thermal throttling"? It reached 104 degrees on the controller (and after 70-75 degrees starts the thermal throttling)...
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...





> We recorded a thermal image of the running SSD as it was completing the write test. The hottest part reached 104°C when the drive's own thermal measurements reported around 72°C—quite optimistic. The good thing is that having so much thermal headroom means the drive will not thermally throttle even when heavily loaded.



It didn't throttle


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## Wooden Law - Black (Nov 3, 2021)

P4-630 said:


> It didn't throttle
> 
> View attachment 223558


Monitor S.M.A.R.T.'s temperature is not the same as thermal image through FLIR. The latter is more accurate, and it's clear that the SSD throttled.


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## P4-630 (Nov 3, 2021)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> Monitor S.M.A.R.T.'s temperature is not the same as thermal image through FLIR. The latter is more accurate, and it's clear that the SSD throttled.



Show us where it throttled in the review...


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## Wooden Law - Black (Nov 3, 2021)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> "no thermal throttling"? It reached 104 degrees on the controller (and after 70-75 degrees starts the thermal throttling)...


“104 degrees”.


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## Toothless (Nov 3, 2021)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> “104 degrees”.


Doesn't mean it throttled. I had a laptop hit 107c and didn't throttle. You're literally saying "because x happen, y HAS to happen" when the data is right there, proving otherwise.


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## Maxx (Nov 3, 2021)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> "no thermal throttling"? It reached 104 degrees on the controller (and after 70-75 degrees starts the thermal throttling)...
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


Sensors and reported temperatures are composite which is calculated not "in the traditional sense" but rather as a way to inform the host or user before the SSD reaches a thermal limit. The actual controller (ASIC) may have a thermal limit of 115C (the Exercia's controller is Cortex-R5 with a critical/maximum temperature of 125C). The NVMe spec can throttle e.g. with power states based on composite temperature and moreover manufacturers will also do this, for example Samsung's drives should throttle over 70C with a second warning state at 81-82C and critical at 85C. Looking at Intel's white paper we can see there is an attempt to throttle past a WCTEMP (warning composite temperature threshold) of 70C and it shows how the Tcomp (composite temperature) is calculated.


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 3, 2021)

Samsung Pro/Evo, Cruxial MX are top.


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## Cvrk (Nov 4, 2021)

Sithaer said:


> In my country _'Right next to OP' _it cost more than Kingston A2000,


The Crucial MX 500 is with 10$ more expensive than the Kioxia EXCERIA M.2 1TB PCI Express 3.1a TLC NVMe
I'm hesitant to purchase the Kioxia 

I do think I'm gonna give the M2 slot a chance. To play it safe I could get sata and position the ssd in the back of the case (it has a slot there). But in theory, not calculating throttle, it should have better performance. Since I have the slot, why not use it. 

Some of you talk about loading speeds. Don't care about that. It never bothered me that playing something my level would have loaded like 2 seconds slower than my co-op friend running a ssd.

My main reason is frames stability. I played Godfall. More than an AMD demo than a game...but that thing needed an ssd to hold steady frames. 
From lets say 110 FPS it will drop to 70fps and go back in a split second. That split second are freezes on the screen. 
From my own experience the ssd reduces those frames fluctuations. 

Valhalla and even more Cyberpunk have fewer fluctuations on a ssd. I tested the games, as I have played and finished both of them. 
I want the ssd for stability not loading times.


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## Sithaer (Nov 4, 2021)

Cvrk said:


> The Crucial MX 500 is with 10$ more expensive than the Kioxia EXCERIA M.2 1TB PCI Express 3.1a TLC NVMe
> I'm hesitant to purchase the Kioxia
> 
> I do think I'm gonna give the M2 slot a chance. To play it safe I could get sata and position the ssd in the back of the case (it has a slot there). But in theory, not calculating throttle, it should have better performance. Since I have the slot, why not use it.
> ...



You cant really go wrong with Crucial imo, 10$ difference sounds reasonable if that brand makes you feel safer.
I might also buy a new  480GB 2.5" sata system drive SSD in the near future and I might also pick a Crucial MX500.

And yea I also prefer to have certain games on the SSD, games that tend to load stuff all the time in the background are better to be played on a SSD imo.

I don't think you need to worry about throttling the drive, gaming load is just simply not enough to throttle any half decent M.2 drive or at least I'm yet to see that.
If nothing else you can slap a ~5$ heatsink on it and call it a day.


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## Tetras (Nov 4, 2021)

Cvrk said:


> The Crucial MX 500 is with 10$ more expensive than the Kioxia EXCERIA M.2 1TB PCI Express 3.1a TLC NVMe
> I'm hesitant to purchase the Kioxia
> 
> I do think I'm gonna give the M2 slot a chance. To play it safe I could get sata and position the ssd in the back of the case (it has a slot there). But in theory, not calculating throttle, it should have better performance. Since I have the slot, why not use it.
> ...



Personally, I think that's the right move. Unless you know that you're only going to be playing older games, I'd be reluctant to buy SATA SSDs because of the new storage architecture in the consoles. I'm hoping that I'm wrong and future games are going to run fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't. My baseline now for a game drive (read) is approx 2000-2500 MB/s, which pretty much all NVME drives can do.


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## Cvrk (Nov 5, 2021)

Oh,no. I will be playing the newest available games. If it's gonna be released today, i'll preorder it and play it with 1 hour before release.  
The 21 minutes of gameplay for Elden Ring has just dropped 20 hours ago. And i like it. 

Don't know what else to say. Thank you for your help, and input. I have learned many things. @Tetras and @Black [Super Saiyan Rosé]  i think that you guys have opened my eyes a lot. 
I know what I need to buy. It's going to be M2 slot PCI cuz there is no money difference. My graphics card will blow hot air and burn the ssd. At least I will have steady frames. 

Worst case scenario, I will come back on this thread on BlakcFriday depending on what sales I find.....and ask for last-minute advice. Because I am needy and lonely.


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## Speedyblupi (Nov 5, 2021)

I'd buy an A2000. Its controller isn't great, but it's about the cheapest TLC SSD with DRAM cache you can buy, so tends to beat out similarly-priced DRAMless QLC SSDs like the SN550 and P2, and should have better endurance and retain its performance better as the drive fills up. It's definitely a budget option (a decent way behind top PCIe 3.0 SSDs like the 970 Evo, SN750 and P31) but very good for its price IMO.


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## Cvrk (Nov 5, 2021)

@Speedyblupi between the A200 and the WD SN750 is about 50$ - 40 EUR. Why i'm waiting for a discount maybe on Black Friday. I don't think in my country ssd's are discounted much. Usually phones and other electric stuff. SSD's are niche items that nobody cares about. 

I have the HyperX Vengeance which is basically a Kingston A200 more or less. So far it deliver very good performance and it's still in good health. I also think it's a great value. 
The review on PC gamer reads Western Digital's WD Black SN750 is a gaming SSD for the impatient and the performance obsessed  omg...i am neither of those people. So i think purchasing such a high-end ssd considering I have a mediocre system is overkill.


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## Tetras (Nov 5, 2021)

KC2500 is actually cheaper in my country than the A2000, don't know what the differences are though.


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## Cvrk (Nov 6, 2021)

Tetras said:


> KC2500 is actually cheaper in my country than the A2000, don't know what the differences are though.


same exact price as WD SN750 in my country
In this review for the Kingston's KC2500 SSD    I see low operating temperatures as a bonus. Nowhere in the review do they mention the  A2000. Don't really know how it compares to this. 

I just noticed the SN750 comes with a heatsink. So the manufacturer has intended for this item to be used with that heatsink. I am thinking the reviews when it comes to temperatures/throttling were benchmarked using that included heatsink.
That's problematic for me. I will have to remove it in order to make it fit under the graphics card. This will change the temperatures for sure and maybe the overall performance.

QUESTION: What does PCIe Gen 3 x4, NVMe 1.3 mean? most importantly what does _PCIe Gen 3 x4_ mean. What does the x4 stand for? @Tetras @Black [Super Saiyan Rosé]


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## Tetras (Nov 6, 2021)

For slots, it's how much bandwidth they have available, if you install a PCI-E 3 x4 M.2 in a PCI-Express 3.0 slot, then it will operate at full speed if it has 4 lanes. Some PCI-E slots and adapters will accept it, but not offer all the lanes required, this primarily limits the reads of the SSD, because writes are often rather slow anyway.

With PCI-E, the physical size of the slot (or even the connector on the device) and the lanes available are not always the same.


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## Wooden Law - Black (Nov 6, 2021)

Tetras said:


> KC2500 is actually cheaper in my country than the A2000, don't know what the differences are though.


Different controller (SM2262ENG for the KC2500 and SM2263EN for the A2000 - the SM2262ENG is better since the more channels and the higher clock of Cortex-R5 cores) and different flash (Kioxia 96 TLC for the KC2500 and Micron 96L TLC for the A2000 - Micron is better as endurance and performance), so also different performance. The KC2500 has higher performance, but the A2000 has better endurance.


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