So what's up with those M2 SSD slots ?

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Folks,

So my new MOBO has one of those M2 drive slots - what's the deal with them - should I utilize it - any difference from SATA SSD - any logic as to how to utilize - should I use it to host the OS or P3D ?

Thanks...

Regards,

Scott

[martin-w 3,235]

They are faster...

When I say faster, I don't mean they will blow your mind, they are very fast in benchmarks, but in day to day use it wont blow your mind. Faster all the same though. The most noticeable jump in speed is from mechanical hard drives to SATA SSD.

You want the OS on that drive, so boot up and shut down is faster and Windows operation. Also your priority software, like the sim. 

I have a 500 GB 960 Evo and a 1 terabyte 850 Evo. 

So it depends on your budget. If you are very tight for money I would say stick to SSD. If your budget is decent, then yes, worth it. 

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by martin-w

[jlund 380]

I bought a M2 for P3D, as it should decrease loading times of the sim, and scenery in flight, but I'm quite dissapointed with it. I do have a lot of AI traffic and that will slow down loading time, but still it takes aprox. 4.30 min from I click on the P3D button on the Desktop, till i*m on the screen where I can choose plane, airport etc, and then about another min. or so till I'm ready on the runway. So I think using it for the OS etc. Win 10 might be a better use for it, allthough my Windows on a ssd drive starts up in aprox 20-30 sec. and I have time to wait for that.

Edited November 3, 2018 by jlund

[Greggy_D 935]

I installed P3D on a Samsung M.2 NVME drive and didn't see one lick of difference in loading time vs a SATA III SSD.

[yellowjack 28]

I recently installed an M2 card to store my P3D partition. I was hoping that the "getting ready" prep time would be reduced. However, in practise there is no worthwhile difference between SSD and M2. I am thinking seriously about reverting back to the SSD which has an advantage (for me art least) because I have an piece of kit that can clone SSDs so I can have secondary copies of SSDs ready to go if I should stuff FSX or P3D up by my "Playing around" with the software and files. An option that is much more friendly and faster than using Acronis to recover from backups.

[RamonB 449]

For M.2 Drives, the "speed increase" (data throughput) will vary depending on the M2 connection & type.

For more info, See this article Overview of M.2 SSDs. and this Data Transfer Rates Compared (RAM vs PCIe vs SATA vs USB vs More!).
Don't forget to read about the PCI-E lane complications. (Specially if you have powerful  Video Cards).

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by RamonB
Typo

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for all the great input - hmm - seems it may come down to buying the drive mainly to free up a SATA port... I already have (3) SSD's - (2) 256GB - (1) 512GB bought at different times in the past...Maybe it's time to remove the smaller ones ?

Regards,

Scott

[shivers9 1,174]

13 minutes ago, scottb613 said:

Hi Folks,

Thanks for all the great input - hmm - seems it may come down to buying the drive mainly to free up a SATA port... I already have (3) SSD's - (2) 256GB - (1) 512GB bought at different times in the past...Maybe it's time to remove the smaller ones ?

Regards,

Scott

I am just getting my new 8086K build up and running. Not sure the M2s will be much faster but I sure love getting away with out all the cables clogging up air flow. Left out the CD/DVD also.

[scottb613 1,188]

8 minutes ago, shivers9 said:

I am just getting my new 8086K build up and running. Not sure the M2s will be much faster but I sure love getting away with out all the cables clogging up air flow. Left out the CD/DVD also.

Hi Sam,

Yeah - for the few times I need it - I have an external DVD I can use - first build without a disc player for me...

Regards,
Scott

[martin-w 3,235]

30 minutes ago, scottb613 said:

Hi Sam,

Yeah - for the few times I need it - I have an external DVD I can use - first build without a disc player for me...

Regards,
Scott

 

Third for me. You wont miss it. I have an external too, external Blue Ray. Quite cheap, Philips I think it is. 

[MrSpeaker 122]

I have a 2tb m2. I keep everything on the same drive now. I use to always keep the OS and my flight sim on different drives. But since switching to p3d and ssd,s I don't know if there is much benefit to doing that. It's pretty much just a dedicated flight rig anyways. So it's pretty clean. 

[ahsmatt7 1,199]

I've read that unless you are using the PCI-E bus, you arent going to see much difference in speed. 

I use my m.2 nvme drive for p3d and w10. It boots up in about 12 seconds or so. 

I've noticed that the terrain exp tweak set to 10 increases loading times quite a bit.

[Bob Scott 7,720]

20 hours ago, MrSpeaker said:

I have a 2tb m2. I keep everything on the same drive now. I use to always keep the OS and my flight sim on different drives. But since switching to p3d and ssd,s I don't know if there is much benefit to doing that. It's pretty much just a dedicated flight rig anyways. So it's pretty clean. 

I thought about going that way with my new build, but I decided to keep Win 10 on a separate 256GB SATA III drive because it makes backing up the OS partition (including a verification pass) a 10-min job, and I back up the boot drive often (weekly) because of the problems I've had with Win 10 automatic updates boogering up my finely-tuned system.  If I kept everything on a single drive, the backup process would take over an hour longer.

I reluctantly ponied up the extra $$ for a retail copy of Win 10 Pro for this build...hopefully the update delay features in the Pro version will eliminate the constant threat of Microsoft surreptitiously injecting an unproven and dysfunctional update into my system without my consent, and maybe one day I'll put everything up on one SSD (on a monthly vice weekly backup schedule).

Regards