HDD vs SSD?

[LecktheTech]

I will have a computer with a GTX 960m, and a i5 6300HQ, and a 1TB HDD and a empty disk bay. What I'm wondering is if I should buy a SSD for operating system/software or if the HDD should suffice. I an thinking of some gaming, but not all that much.



Or have all the hardware techies left?

[Xeno]

An SSD is optimal for booting your OS from and having applications installed on for much faster loading times. That said, it sounds like you're using a laptop based on the parts you've listed, so you're sure you have space for an additional drive?

[LecktheTech]

Yeah, there is a drive bay free. I've been toying around with the idea of getting a ssd to use as well, but I'm not sure that the performance gain is enough to be worth the additional cost, especially since the additional storage isn't required.

[Rusty Claymore]

For a laptop I would go with SSD, since there are no moving parts. It's also lighter, if I am not mistaken, which is also a big plus for portable computers.

[shooraijin]

And very likely uses less power, too.

[IPv4]

Not sure if a ssd will be fast if its mounted as an external drive unless you have some kind of risky RAID configured in BIOS. I could be wrong though

[LecktheTech]

There's a PCI-M.2 slot for the hdd, the laptop can be bought with a ssd in it as well as the hdd, but I bought mine without it.

[IPv4]

Im pretty confident theres a way to mount a ssd if theres an open slot on the laptop. My concern was if the ssd would utlize its full potential if you have the operating system installed on the HDD and then load programs from the SSD.

[Xeno]

There's a PCI-M.2 slot for the hdd, the laptop can be bought with a ssd in it as well as the hdd, but I bought mine without it.

I'm fairly certain that an M.2 HDD isn't a thing. M.2 drives look this this:


Mechanical platters won't fit on that for obvious reasons. If you can install the SSD and move your OS install to it then you're golden, otherwise you won't notice a performance increase. This is reading like you don't really have a "drive bay" available so much as an unused M.2 slot. M.2 SSDs are exponentially more expensive than SATA3 SSDs. So more than likely, you'll spend more than you'll gain.

[LecktheTech]

I was meaning a SSD, not a HDD.
Ahh, that's why the all of the models with SSD's were quite a bit more....
I've not done much at all with hardware, so I was unaware of what a PCI m.2 slot was.

[quote=Xeno]
M.2 SSDs are exponentially more expensive than SATA3 SSDs. So more than likely, you'll spend more than you'll gain.[/quote]
Well, I guess that finishes that. If I were to put a SSD in, I'd not pay more than $80. So, the stock drive it is.
Thanks.

[IPv4]

a m.2 ssd cost about the same as a normal ssd. PCIe m.2 ssd on the other hand are more expensive but there are cheaper ones. For instance this PCI ssd cost $170 (https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-MZVPV256 ... B015CWQY4Q), which is nowhere near "exponentially" more expensive.

There may also be a way to mount m.2 ssds to the pci slot with an adapter but you may have to check on that.

[Xeno]

256 GB PCIe m.2 drive for $170 vs a 250 GB SATA3 SSD being like $80. Yeah, that's a pretty substantial increase in cost.

[LecktheTech]

About a 2x increase? That's substantial in my book.
As for an adapter, that doesn't sound very stable, especially in a laptop. I'll give that a look though.

[LecktheTech]

Looks like most of the adapters are designed for a desktop, so the form factor wouldn't work. Besides, it would be about another $20 at least, so it'd not be worth it.

[IPv4]

lets dig deeper: intel PCIe ssd $89. It will be black friday soon so theres a possibility that it will be on sale.

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-600p-SSDPE ... el+pci+ssd

[Xeno]

So it looks like my research from about 12 months ago is fairly outdated and the PCIe versions of m.2 form factor cards are getting a lot cheaper. As an alternative to that Intel one, I'd suggest a Samsung 960 EVO. It's $30 more, but it's read/write speed is much, much faster. http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/mem ... -v6e250bw/

Look in your users manual though and make absolute sure the laptop requires a PCIe and not a SATA3 m.2 drive. m.2 is a form factor, and it's the bus type that actually matters here, if you buy the wrong one and your computer doesn't support both, you're up a creek.

[LecktheTech]

Just checked the docs, it supports PCIe M.2 SSD's. Notes that they're third-gen. Also, supports up 2.2 Gbyte/sec read.

If I could find a 128GB+ PCIe SSD for less than $90, I might buy it. The performance would help with load times everywhere, which would be appreciated, but not required.

[Xeno]

I'd wait for that Samsung 960 EVO drive I linked to go on sale on Newegg or Amazon and snag it then.

[LecktheTech]

This is a better price for what IPv4 listed.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

[LecktheTech]

It seems to me that SSD's will replace HDD's in the future, just as soon as they can make them cheaper than HDD's.

I'd like to dual-boot, and it'd be nice to have a SSD big enough for that, but really, the 1 TB HDD will suffice.