M.2 or SSD?

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Nigel H-J
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M.2 or SSD?

Post by Nigel H-J »

Presently I have a 1TB SSD with 532GB free and a M.2 500GB for running windows with 394GB Free on it, my 2nd disk is just a 1TB HDD with 671GB free used for storage and Steam games.

For some reason I feel a bit reluctant to use the Windows M.2 for MS2020 or even the existing SSD preferring to use either another 1TB SSD or a new 1TB M.2 as space will be greatly reduced when adding aircraft and sceneries in MS2020.

I am undecided whether to go 1 TB M.2 or SSD? Any advice would be appreciated.

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Nigel.
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Vc Ten
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Re: M.2 or SSD?

Post by Vc Ten »

Can you fit 3 m2 drives in your machine Nigel? I can only have 2. Having said that I can fit one to a pci slot Not sure how it would compare speed wise. M2 drives are much faster than ssd, as you know. I think you would see an improvement speed wise by running msfs on m2 Can't you clear the non windows m2 and install on that. I run on a 1Tb m2 and I still have bags of space on it
Not a good idea to run msfs on you windows drive.
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Re: M.2 or SSD?

Post by Steve M »

If you install MSFS 2020 on your system drive you can use MSFS Add-ons linker which is freeware available on flightsim.to
This allows you to move add on aircraft and acenery to any drive you like and adds them to MSFS automatically using a dynamic link. This will ensure you don't over fill the system drive. You need to install them in the MSFS community folder first then migrate them to your chosen folder.
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Nigel H-J
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Re: M.2 or SSD?

Post by Nigel H-J »

Hi Dale and Steve, still working on which is best, I think the M.2 is possibly the preferred route. I have been in contact with a local computer engineer in the next village to mine so now just waiting for him to contact me. It is a long time since I used to add graphic cards memory etc and with my present system I think it would be easier for some-one from an IT Background to do the job for me rather than risking making a mistake.

My system is now just over three years old and the motherboard is a 3XS ASUS STRIX Z390-F Gaming. Although I do clean out the computer every six months that is now as far as I will go admittedly it means paying a bit more but then at least the work is guaranteed.

Will let you know.

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Nigel.
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Re: M.2 or SSD?

Post by TSR2 »

Hi Nigel, I have both 2xM.2 Gen 4 drives and 2x SATA SSD’s in my machine which is an Intel 11 series processor. Its not a proper Gen 4 PCI interface on the 11 series boards, its sometimes referred to as 3.5 rather than 4.

There is very little load on the drive while using the SIM. In fact when I moved from my 1TB SATA SSD to the 1TB M.2 Gen 4 (3.5) there was zero performance difference in the sim.

The other thing to remember is that if your board is 3 years old, it will be M.2 Gen 3, so even less of an improvement over the SATA SSD. Its just quite a bit more expensive for no obvious performance improvement.
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Nigel H-J
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Re: M.2 or SSD?

Post by Nigel H-J »

Ben, very many thanks that is extremely helpful. So to refresh my memory and get this right when I speak to the computer chap I need to go for the SATA SSD instead.

in that case may very well go for a 2TB SATA SSD instead.

Many thanks Ben.

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Nigel.
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Re: M.2 or SSD?

Post by Vc Ten »

Screenshot_20220803-202341.jpg
Screenshot_20220803-202341.jpg (80.56 KiB) Viewed 700 times
Two, 2Tb drives from ebuyer The m2 nvme is miles faster, both read and write. As Ben shows though, the Sata drive is still fast enough not to bottleneck msfs
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Re: M.2 or SSD?

Post by TSR2 »

The PCIe x4 NVMe drives don’t play well in older PCIe x3 Motherboards in that the run significantly slower than a PCIe x3 drive, so if you’re going for the M.2 type, try and find an older PCIe 3 NVMe like the Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe™ M.2.

If you are going SATA avoid the Samsung QVO as these are there budget range. Go for the Samsung EVO. (No need to go for the EVO Pro though).

I find the Samsung support and software much better than any of the other tbh. The WD drive is great, but the software for monitoring it and updating it is a bit clunky.

Actually, there doesn’t seem to be a huge difference in price between the M.2 and the SATA drives I mentioned above.
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Nigel H-J
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Re: M.2 or SSD?

Post by Nigel H-J »

Hi Ben and Dale, very many thanks for your help, I have decided to go for the Samsung Evo ITB, reason being I don't actually think that I will ever need any more storage space for MS2020, even if I do after a couple of years I can add another disc as have plenty of room in the case to accommodate them. Another reason is cost, the engineer will probably be around £45 to fit (I think that is the standard charge before parts) even though it slides into the cradle and then add the cable but rather have some-one do it for me rather than risk doing it myself.

Just like to thank you for your help and advice, you've all been most helpful.

Regards
Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

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Nigel H-J
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Re: M.2 or SSD?

Post by Nigel H-J »

Just a quickie, had a SSD put in as only one M.2 fitting, went to a chap in a village not far from Lincoln, really nice guy and price very good at £90.

Now have the engineer from Virgin tomorrow morning then take Babs to Spec Savers and hopefully when I get back will have time to download MS2020.

Again, many thanks for all your help.

Regards
Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

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