Advice: about using M2 PCIe for Boot Drive?

[SiHawk]

I'm a Senior now putting together his 2nd 'puter, my 1st was when SSD Drives were NEW to me and many, now this time around it's these M.2 Drives and SATA Express and "U" xxxxx. Well I have been trying to learn what I can before I get me money out and found that the use of the PCIe M.2 seems to be preferred over the SATA M.2 because they block out SATA Slots. Anyway, I now see it the small print [specs] of some I've looked at that it might say, something to the effect, "NOT to be used as the Boot Drive".
I am presently using an Intel SSD as my "C" [BOOT] Drive and I use EaseUS to keep an updated Clone of it on an external HDD......I want to purchase the right M.2 Drive to Clone over my present "C" to the new M.2 and be good to go. Will someone PLEASE help me make the correct decision in making the right purchase for my purposes.
PS: Am also using a separate standard HDD mainly for Games that I may replace.

TKS michael

 

[Valantar]

If you have a reasonably up-to-date PC (Intel 9X series chipset or newer, AMD AM4) and run Windows 10, booting off an m.2 NVMe drive is no issue at all. Windows 7 lacks built-in drivers for m.2 drives, and as such needs those to be baked into the install to work at all. On older chipsets (Z87 and earlier) you can (usually) access m.2 PCIe NVMe drives as storage devices, but they're not seen as bootable devices in the BIOS/UEFI. As such, they can only be accessed through Windows (or another OS). If the drive is marked as "NOT to be used as a boot drive" it's probably some old/non-standard implementation meant for caching or other non-standard use. Stay away from those.

The reason for prefering m.2 NVMe PCIe drives is by the way not that they don't block SATA ports, but rather that they perform far faster. On the other hand, for the vast majority of users, this performance is barely noticeable, and comes at a massive added cost - usually x2/GB or more. For regular home usage and gaming, you're far, far better off getting a higher capacity SATA SSD than overspending on an expensive NVMe drive. Whether the SATA drive is in an m.2 or 2.5" form factor doesn't matter unless you have a motherboard with precariously few SATA ports.

What do you use your computer for? If the heaviest usage it sees is games, buy a bigger SATA SSD to replace/supplement your HDD, rather than paying through the nose for an NVMe drive. If you have a constrained budget (which it sounds like you do), buying an NVMe drive makes no sense. Either buy a bigger SATA SSD, or buy a SATA SSD and put the rest of the money aside for a future upgrade that you'll notice more, like a graphics card.

 

[SiHawk]

If you have a reasonably up-to-date PC (Intel 9X series chipset or newer, AMD AM4) and run Windows 10, booting off an m.2 NVMe drive is no issue at all. Windows 7 lacks built-in drivers for m.2 drives, and as such needs those to be baked into the install to work at all. On older chipsets (Z87 and earlier) you can (usually) access m.2 PCIe NVMe drives as storage devices, but they're not seen as bootable devices in the BIOS/UEFI. As such, they can only be accessed through Windows (or another OS). If the drive is marked as "NOT to be used as a boot drive" it's probably some old/non-standard implementation meant for caching or other non-standard use. Stay away from those.

The reason for prefering m.2 NVMe PCIe drives is by the way not that they don't block SATA ports, but rather that they perform far faster. On the other hand, for the vast majority of users, this performance is barely noticeable, and comes at a massive added cost - usually x2/GB or more. For regular home usage and gaming, you're far, far better off getting a higher capacity SATA SSD than overspending on an expensive NVMe drive. Whether the SATA drive is in an m.2 or 2.5" form factor doesn't matter unless you have a motherboard with precariously few SATA ports.

What do you use your computer for? If the heaviest usage it sees is games, buy a bigger SATA SSD to replace/supplement your HDD, rather than paying through the nose for an NVMe drive. If you have a constrained budget (which it sounds like you do), buying an NVMe drive makes no sense. Either buy a bigger SATA SSD, or buy a SATA SSD and put the rest of the money aside for a future upgrade that you'll notice more, like a graphics card.

THANKS a lot, that kind of INFO is just what "da Dr. Ordered!". This will help: I have started purchasing components toward NEW PC, which will be only used for surfing and game play; I already have upgraded to a 650 Watt PSU; a RX 480 8GB GPU; new I5 7600K CPU in da mail; shopping for my new Z270 Mobo, Memory, Cooler, Storage, OS W10 64bit. My present Intel SSD is only like 280GB and I have been looking/learning/pricing various @ 500GB M.2 PCIe to replace it [prices, low is Intel 600 @ $169....others a tad more]. Have not even considered, will now, just staying with NEW larger SSD Drive...maybe 2 - to replace my other HDD. This new 'puter will be FAST anyway - w/o using M.2....just kind of wanted to use da latest and greatest!
I did see in one article a fella showed a photo of an Asus UEFI Bios and under one Category I saw u could choose M.2. But, if I understand u correctly, if I install a M.2 PCIe as Boot Drive I could still run into Problems doing so.....but, if I stay with the "older" SSD Drives I won't have to deal with install hassles? Is this correct?
TKS

 

[VirtualLarry]

Intel's 600p PCI-E M.2 SSD is barely faster than a "good" (eg Samsung 850 EVO) SATA 2.5" SSD in performance.

 

[SiHawk]

PLEASE check this out for me and advise:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820215029

Have 10 hrs left on this special....can get now for $119.......was thinking to use in the SATA M.2 Slot and transfer like 350GB's of Games to it???? Can't get a regular SSD for that price?
TKS

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's a pretty decent deal, price-wise. I'm sure that would be fine for gaming workloads.

I really wish that it was a 2.5" SATA, though. I get the impression that non-PCI-E M.2 is going away.

 

[Valantar]

But, if I understand u correctly, if I install a M.2 PCIe as Boot Drive I could still run into Problems doing so.....but, if I stay with the "older" SSD Drives I won't have to deal with install hassles? Is this correct?
TKS

Nope, I'm not saying that. If you're building a Z270 system, it will handle booting from an NVMe drive just fine. I'm just saying that with a limited budget, it's not worth throwing away money for one.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Well, he says he's a "senior," but he could be a senior in high-school, a senior in college, or a senior on Medicare like me.

Personally, I was just intrigued by NVMe M.2 promise of speed, curious about caching regular SATA III SSDs and 5,400 RPM HDDs to an NVMe M.2 volume to see how flexible and fast I could make my storage subsystem. I'm usually parsimonious in buying storage devices, picking only the sizes I think I'll really need. But with a dual-boot Win7/Win10 configuration, I didn't want to be stingy. I held off as long as I could, but I shelled out for a 960 Pro 1TB.

Without the double OS setup, I think I might very easily have done what I wanted with a 512GB NVMe. Better yet, with a single OS I probably might have been fine with a 960 EVO. But I think now, there should be some alternative NVMe drives available, and as Larry might have mentioned, there are the Intel 600P drives but also manufactures with intermediate specs between the Intel and the Sammy 960's.

Building desktops has been an obsession of mine for some years, and I provide myself an annual budget for it that allows for detours and miscalculations.

All in all, I'm glad I did it, but it shouldn't be something you need to do in a hurry. By itself, the difference between an SATA III SSD and the NVMe M.2 won't be too noticeable. Caching a 2.5" Seagate Barracuda 5,400RPM 2TB on the other hand, with PrimoCache, is an ongoing experiment and I'm very optimistic about it.

Right now, I've got about $1,000 I can spend on various techno-things for this and other PCs, and this system is so marvelous, I just haven't the incentive to let go of the money. And I had definite plans for that money, too . . . Just can't bring myself to pull the string.

 

[deustroop]

Have not even considered, will now, just staying with NEW larger SSD Drive...maybe 2 - to replace my other HDD. This new 'puter will be FAST anyway - w/o using M.2....just kind of wanted to use da latest and greatest!

Here is an M2 SSD with a PCIe connection you could consider for the OS drive, the SAMSUNG 950 PRO M.2 256 GB NVMe PCI-Express .
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/FdDzK8/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mzv5p25.

Not a SATA drive ( faster-M.2/PCIe effectively runs up to 3.94Gb/s versus SATA III 600MB/s.) . Considerably more expensive than lesser drives of course but mid range for the latest drives.For a senior who is looking for the latest tech for his 2nd build, this may be just the thing.They appear difficult to acquire in some markets now but perhaps your area still has them. Don't buy an adequate but less developed drive just to save a few bucks. If you can afford it, stay with the future/buzz, and have fun.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

You can easily use a 256-er for the OS-boot drive. You could plan a little in advance and consider adding a regular SATA-III SSD to extend a "Program Files (X86)" etc. and similar folders. I do that anyway. Right now, neither my Win7 or Win10 OS and programs for either one are using more than 70GB in volumes of 350 each. Going the PCIE x4 route will cost about $15 to $30 for the expansion card. There are many to choose from.

 

[Shmee]

I myself ordered a corsair MP500 for the AM4 build. Its on sale on newegg for ~$250 for the 480 GB.