M.2 SSD for system or separate gaming drive
I have a spare m.2 Samsung evo ssd. I want to install the new Microsoft flight sim on it.
Should I use this SSD for the system drive & install flight sim on there. Or use this ssd as a separate gaming drive, & will this make a speed difference?
Best Answer
You should do whatever you want.
M.2 (NVMe) will be faster than standard SSD, and both are faster than HDD. How you prioritize what goes where is totally dependent on personal preference. As far as gaming goes, disk speed will only affect loading times, not FPS, network ping, etc.
Personally, I put the OS on on M.2 (PC boots in about 8 seconds, it's awesome!). There's a little left over space for one or two more games. I keep my high end multiplayer games on there. I then have a small-ish (250GB) SSD. Most of my games go on there. Then I have a much larger (2TB) 7200 RPM HDD. Thats where everything else goes: most single player games, retro games, homework, projects, giant files, etc.
Note that RAM speed (and other components) will also affect loading times of a game, so a faster drive does not always translate directly to faster load times.
For a good high level comparison of NVMe vs SSD vs HDD check out this page.
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Is m 2 SSD necessary for gaming?
M2 SSDs affect only loading time, they don't have a direct impact on your gaming performance. Moreover, an upgrade from an HDD to an SSD is a big difference, but an SSD to NVMe upgrade has less of a difference for gaming.Do games run better on a separate SSD?
Yes, do that - keep windows on sata SSD. That's easiest/simplest method, also makes most sense. Migrating OS from sata SSD to NVME SSD won't give much performance benefit. Yes - your system would boot by couple of seconds faster, but that's about it.Whats better for gaming SSD or M 2?
NVMe drives can usually deliver a sustained read-write speed of 3.5 GB/s in contrast with SATA SSDs that limit at 600 MB/s. Since NVMe SSDs can reach higher speeds than SATA SSDs such as M. 2 drives, it makes them ideal for gaming or high-resolution video editing.Can I run games on M 2 SSD?
The answer is a big yes. You can use M. 2 or NVMe & SATA SSD, both at the same time.M.2 NVME vs SSD vs HDD Loading Windows and Games
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