Any advice on M2 SSD vs 'traditional' SSD in a gaming laptop?

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Oomjah

New member
How do,

I'm thinking of buying a new gaming laptop from here, but it's been MANY years since I last bought a computer and I'm a little lost regarding new-fangled things like M2 SSD's. From what I've read, it's essentiallythe same as a traditional 2.5" SSD but in a different shape, is that correct? :)


The machine I was thinking about was:

Defiance Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 8750H (2.2GHz, 4.1GHz Turbo)
16GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
GeForce® RTX 2080 Max-Q - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
or
2TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

1st M.2 SSD Drive
???

I'm stuck between either:
  1. an upgrade from 1Tb to 2Tb SSD hard-drive,
  2. a 1Tb main SSD plus a 500Gb Samsung 970 M2 SSD
  3. or a 1Tb Samsung 970 M2 SSD with no main SSD
  4. and I've no idea which would be better, I don't know if it's even work with just the M2(!)
Any thoughts or advice would be gratefully received, :)
Merry solstice-mas!
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Loading speed difference between a 970 evo and a regular 2.5" sata SSD is a second or two at most

The option I would avoid is a 500gb 970 Evo + 1TB SSD as that's using up 2 storage slots and giving you an SSD that's half the size of what you could afford in either.

If you want a 1TB 970 Evo, go ahead, you can always add another 2.5" SSD or indeed HDD yourself in the future. Likewise the 2TB 860 QVO - you can always add an M.2 SSD in if you leave the slot free if you need even more storage, and performance won't be affected other than the odd second here or there on load times.

As for the difference between an M.2 SSDs and 'normal' SSDs, there isn't really one as far as the end user is concerned, it's just how they plug into the PC. M.2 allows for faster SSDs like the 970 Evo, using PCIe rather than Sata, but you can also get the same SSD in both 2.5" and M.2 flavours (e.g. the MX500)

Rather than the RTX 2080 Max-Q in the Defiance, consider the RTX 2070 (non-Max-Q in the Vortex, if 15.6" is viable. It's much less expensive, has similar horsepower, and most importantly has a gsync screen. Also has Thunderbolt as a bonus.
 
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Oomjah

New member
Hi,
thanks for the reply, helps a lot. Think I'll try the M2, I can fit a 2.5" myself later but that's the limit of my hardware abilities!

The bigger the screen the better, it's going to be 95% for games so I'll stick with the 17", but 2070 is definitely a consideration given the price difference (even if it's not 'full fat').

Cheers!
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Further to what Oussebon has said, and to complete the picture for if/when you buy an additional SSD, there are several physical issues related to HDDs and SSDs; the type of connector, the form factor and the type of interface.

With HDDs you use the SATA connector, the ACHI interface and either the 2.5" or 3.5" form factor - and that's it.
With SSDs you have two different connectors; SATA and M.2. With M.2 drives there are different form factors (physical dimensions) and not all motherboards support all form factors. In addition, with M.2 drives there are two interfaces, ACHI and NVMe.

A SATA SSD uses the same SATA connector as an HDD (and the ACHI interface), so you can take out a SATA HDD and replace it with a SATA SSD and you're done. The speed of a SATA bus is limited to 600MB/s, so SATA SSDs cannot be any faster than this. SATA SSDs use the 2.5" form factor.
An M.2 SSD uses the M.2 connector on your motherboard, this connects the SSD to the PCIe bus which can theoretically offer bus speeds up to 4GB/s. Remember there are different physical sizes of M.2 SSDs (different form factors) however, not all motherboards support all form factors.

M.2 SSDs also use two interfaces; ACHI and NVMe. The main difference is the latency of the interface, this affects the maximum speed at which the SSD can operate. Very roughly, an ACHI M.2 SSD can reach speeds of around 2000MB/s whilst an NVMe SSD can almost double that.

There is thus an SSD hierarchy and from fastest down to slowest it is; M.2 NVMe - over 3000MB/s, M.2 ACHI - up to around 2000MB/s and finally SATA (which also uses the ACHI interface) - up to 600MB/s. There is a similar cost hierarchy too!

When you order from PCS the configurator handles all these issues and won't offer an SSD that can't be fitted in your build, but if your'e buying your own drive later you need to ask on here to be sure you're buying the right type. You're safe buying a SATA SSD of course because they will fit anywhere but do ask for advice before buying an after sales M.2 SSD.

Without going into even more details, you want the fastest SSD you can afford for Windows and programs. The faster this SSD is the faster Windows will boot, the faster programs will load and the snappier your system will feel. For most user data however, the speed of a SATA SSD is more than good enough, not much user data will benefit from the speed of an M.2 SSD and only in rare cases (game scenery perhaps?) will an NVMe SSD benefit user data. Note that music and videos don't need to be on an SSD at all. :)


SATA = Serial AT Attachment (the AT comes fro the original IBM AT home computer (AT = Advanced Technology)
ACHI = Advanced Host Controller Interface
NVMe = Non Volatile Memory Express
 
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Oomjah

New member
Very interesting, thank you.

My last gaming laptop was bought about hmmm... 6-8 years ago, and can barely run anything vaguely modern even at the most minimum of specs. I'm aiming (hoping) for its replacement to last as long, so I'm just trying to get the best I can afford that'll still be useful for some time to come! :)

The M2 would be for windows and games, anything else would probably just be for books and stuff, not speed critical :)

One final question, I assume the M2 could be set as the primary boot location in the BIOS, it wont just insist on booting form a 2'5" drive if it's present?

Thanks again!
 
H

Heartfeltdawn

Active member
Oomjah said:
The M2 would be for windows and games, anything else would probably just be for books and stuff, not speed critical :)
Click to expand...

Go with two SSDs. My main desktop PC (4th gen i7) runs SSDs for audio recording and I run a PC Specialist Cosmos i5-8300H with a Samsung m2 alongside an Acer Swift 3 with a Samsung m2 I installed. The difference in loading time of large projects on each computer is negligible.

If you're dead set on having the best graphics available then go with one SSD drive at first and install another later. Installing additional memory and drives to my Cosmos is an absolute cinch.
 
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