Due to limited finances when I built my current PC in December 2019, I used the 2x2TB 7200rpm Toshiba hard disks that were installed in my previous PC. However, I am now considering upgrading the main drive to an SSD/NVMe, and I have a couple of questions:-

• It seems that the NVMe M2 drives that can be installed on motherboards are considerably faster than the standard SSD drives. Are they worth the extra cost? I would be looking at a 1TB drive.
• Is there a way to transfer my OS and all files that are currently on my C:\ drive to the new drive, and then make that the boot drive? In other words, without having to reinstall everything again.
• I am reasonably certain that my Asus Maximus IX Hero motherboard can accommodate NVMe M2 drives, but are there any that would be incompatible?
• Would one of these drives provide smoother performance in P3D (or any other "entertainment" software) if the OS increases the number of background tasks at any point (eg. Windows or Antivirus updates)?

In a 1TB drive, you'll find the NVMe's are no more than a SATA SSD.  You'll find the Western Digital SN550 1TB is only £68 on overclockers at the moment.  (I use a couple of these and are excellent drives)

20 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

It seems that the NVMe M2 drives that can be installed on motherboards are considerably faster than the standard SSD drives. Are they worth the extra cost? I would be looking at a 1TB drive.

 

I never use anything else now Chris, have used NVMe for my last build and now my new one. I use Samsung 970 EVO Plus drives. New build will be 2TB.. I have to say though, the biggest jump you will notice is from mechanical hard drives to SSD. From SSD to M.2 NVMe not so much. But to be honest NVMe is a reasonable price now and less cables, not SATA power or data cables required. Its in benchmarks where you will see the big difference between SSD and NVMe. 

 

 

Quote

Is there a way to transfer my OS and all files that are currently on my C:\ drive to the new drive, and then make that the boot drive? In other words, without having to reinstall everything again.

 

Yes, Samsung migration software is available. Others manufacturers I'm sure provide the same. 

 

20 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

I am reasonably certain that my Asus Maximus IX Hero motherboard can accommodate NVMe M2 drives, but are there any that would be incompatible?

 

You have duel M.2 sockets on your board, type M. The Samsung I mentioned is Type M. Most on the market are. 

 

https://www.atpinc.com/blog/what-is-m.2-M-B-BM-key-socket-3

https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-maximus/rog-maximus-ix-hero-model/

Edited December 19, 20214 yr by martin-w

I have never used an SSD of any type, so I assume that jumping from a HDD to an NVMe will net me a serious performance boost?

2 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

I have never used an SSD of any type, so I assume that jumping from a HDD to an NVMe will net me a serious performance boost?

In what sense?

Startup times, absolutely 

Sim performance, maybe depending on use case and settings

I mean loading times, Kevin. I do not expect it to act like a second CPU!! If some stutters in P3D are due to accessing the HDD, then presumably the NVMe drive would also help in this department?

Edited December 19, 20214 yr by Christopher Low

This is the one that Charlatan mentioned. Would this be compatible with my motherboard? Does anyone know if migration software is available for it?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-blue-sn550-1tb-ssd-nvme-m.2-2280-pcie-gen3-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0c-hd-56l-wd.html

Amazon UK has an updated (faster) version for only another £7....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-SN570-High-Performance-500MB-speed-dp-B09HKDQ1RN/dp/B09HKDQ1RN/ref=dp_ob_title_ce?th=1

I also recommend putting windows on an M2 or SSD.  

https://www.guru99.com/best-hard-drive-cloning-software.html
I’ve also used Marion reflect in the past

This SSD would be for Windows 10 and P3D. I have just checked the used space of my existing HDD C:\ drive, and it is 738GB. Presumably, that leaves enough space for efficient operation if I transfer everything to the 1TB NVMe drive?

Edited December 19, 20214 yr by Christopher Low

13 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

This SSD would be for Windows 10 and P3D. I have just checked the used space of my existing HDD C:\ drive, and it is 738GB. Presumably, that leaves enough space for efficient operation if I transfer everything to the 1TB NVMe drive?

Yes, but 2Tb would give a lot more headroom..

1 hour ago, Christopher Low said:

This is the one that Charlatan mentioned. Would this be compatible with my motherboard? Does anyone know if migration software is available for it?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-blue-sn550-1tb-ssd-nvme-m.2-2280-pcie-gen3-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0c-hd-56l-wd.html

 

Yes. Type M has just the one slot on the gold contacts and the PCB is usually longer.

 

Edited December 19, 20214 yr by martin-w

I have decided to go for the Western Digital Blue SN570 1TB drive. If the performance proves to be revolutionary, I may think about purchasing another one for P3D scenery, and using my second 2TB HDD as a true backup drive.

1 hour ago, Christopher Low said:

I have decided to go for the Western Digital Blue SN570 1TB drive. If the performance proves to be revolutionary, I may think about purchasing another one for P3D scenery, and using my second 2TB HDD as a true backup drive.

 

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wd-blue-sn570-review/2

 

WD’s Blue SN570 is a decent NVMe SSD that delivers fast, snappy performance during small operations and game loading, but it fell behind many of its competitors during sustained copy and write workloads.

 

 

Edited December 20, 20214 yr by martin-w