Is PCIE SSD worth investing in yet?

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#1245920 24-Feb-2015 21:09

I probably got some of those raid level numbers wrong
This guy explains it well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE7Bfw9lFfs

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toyonut

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#1245921 24-Feb-2015 21:09

Are you talking about M.2 SSD's or ones that go into a pci-e slot on the motherboard like this?

If it is the PCI express slot ones, they are excellent, but very costly. I would not say you would notice the theoretical improvement in throughput enough to justify the cost.
You would end up spending a quarter to a half your budget on a single pci-e SSD. Just go with a couple of normal ones through standard SATA3.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

Ronsoak

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#1245931 24-Feb-2015 21:20

Well I have a 2Gb GTX 760, not the top line but still cost me about 400 and runs nearly everything, but I plan to upgrade. Ive been slow building by swapping parts over the past year but i want to make a brand new computer on the side with top level parts.

So is a m.2 just another SSD just connected a different way

michaelmurfy

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#1245938 24-Feb-2015 21:25

I can tell you now you won't notice a difference between 2x SSD's in RAID and a PCI SSD, in-fact I don't think you'll notice the difference (without running benchmarks) between just a single SSD and a PCI SSD.

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Ronsoak

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#1245943 24-Feb-2015 21:29

Thats good to know, probably save me hundreds of dollars. Money I can spend on a good M/board , Processor and GPU.

NEXT QUESTION? I currenty have a Intel i5-4590, should I go i7 for gaming in my next build? Obviously dont need a Xeon.

(SUPER THANKS IN ADVANCE)

Gozer

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#1245948 24-Feb-2015 21:34

If you don't have a $1000 graphics card, you don't need a $1000 hard drive in a gaming PC.

Ronsoak

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#1245950 24-Feb-2015 21:36

Gozer: If you don't have a $1000 graphics card, you don't need a $1000 hard drive in a gaming PC.

fair point

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skamp

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#1245979 24-Feb-2015 22:09

NEXT QUESTION? I currenty have a Intel i5-4590, should I go i7 for gaming in my next build? Obviously dont need a Xeon.

(SUPER THANKS IN ADVANCE)

Short answer is no. The 4590 is still a great chip and unless you plan on playing games that specifically make use of the extra cores (and AFAIK almost none do) then you're not going to notice much (or any) difference. Better to take that cash and plug it into a better GPU.

Ronsoak

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#1245982 24-Feb-2015 22:12

skamp:
NEXT QUESTION? I currenty have a Intel i5-4590, should I go i7 for gaming in my next build? Obviously dont need a Xeon.

(SUPER THANKS IN ADVANCE)

Short answer is no. The 4590 is still a great chip and unless you plan on playing games that specifically make use of the extra cores (and AFAIK almost none do) then you're not going to notice much (or any) difference. Better to take that cash and plug it into a better GPU.

Thats awesome to know! Recently had an expert tell me I needed a Devils Canyon i7 if i wanted to be a real gamer (lol)

So I have a 760 2GB, is that a decent GPU or is that where Im being let down? Is the 980 really the next step?

Mark

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#1246012 24-Feb-2015 23:29

raytaylor:
M00S3: Can someone please explain how raid works and why its faster? And why should I buy 3 SSD's when I could buy a PCIE ssd?

The basic RAID 0 level uses two or more drives.
When data is written or read, it does it to all drives at once. This gives you redundancy. But not any extra speed. Good for mission critical servers.

The next basic level is striping
This is where you get the extra speed from, and the storage capacity of all the drives is added up (since the files are evenly dispersed in parts across the drives)

Your explanation wasn't bad up till this point :-) However ...

And the next level above that does mirroring and striping
This is where it gets interesting.
A) You can stripe across 30 drives as seen in the video I posted above, which gives you 30x the speed.
B) You can mirror across 30 drives as seen in the video which means 29 drives can fail but your 30th drive will keep the system going

Nope.

C) You can customise which drives are striped and which are mirrored. The two common types are RAID5 which allows you to stripe across 3 or more drives, and use one drive as a mirrored backup.

Oh god no that's completely wrong.

If you used three drives in RAID5, you would have double the storage space of one drive, and double the speed of one drive, with a third drive acting as a backup. One of the three drives can fail, and the system will continue, while still running fast.
RAID6 allows you to use 5+ drives and have 4 or more acting as striped drives, so you get 4x the performance of 1x drive, with 4x the storage capacity, and two acting as mirrored backups. Any two drives can fail in the array, and all the data will still be intact and the machine will continue to run.

So soo wrong I was giggling ... just no, forget the above words all wrong.

For a home power user I would suggest a simple pair of striped SSD drives for the OS and programs, and a 3TB+ drive (D:) for the 'my documents' storage and data files (porn/movies)
Then use a 4tb external drive to back up all the internals regularly, specifically performing a shadowcopy image backup of the raid/striped SSD drives (C:)

If you are a gamer, you would be best to spend more on a graphics card first, then get a larger SSD, then if you have spare money in the budget, a second SSD to stripe.

The above is OK .. though I'd not bother striping SSDs for boot (expensive and not noticeable to mere mortals to be honest), spending the $$ on graphics would have a more positive effect.
The backup scenario needs working on as well, backing C: drive is probably worthless (easier to reinstall the OS as you have the original CDs and original software anyway), but making sure you backup the unique data on the system IS important, stuff like your documents, photos, stuff that can't be replaced. Also make sure you back it up somewhere else! No point your backup being on the desk next to the computer that gets stolen/flooded/burnt/earthquaked.

alexx

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#1246027 25-Feb-2015 01:15

Gozer: If you don't have a $1000 graphics card, you don't need a $1000 hard drive in a gaming PC.

Why would it need to be $1000 or even $500?

$30-40 for PCIe SSD adaptor if not already supported on the motherboard (depending on shipping costs)
https://www.ramcity.com.au/buy/lycom-m.2-pcie-ssd-to-pcie-3.0-x4-adapter/DT-120

Then $220-350 for the Samsung’s XP941 SSD depending on the size needed.
http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components/componentlist.asp?parttypeid=720&t=25

This is assuming that you don't need to put all your data on PCIe storage and 128/256GB is enough.

On the other hand, if you are going to RAID several Samsung 850 EVO SSDs in RAID 0 then which size to select?
Write performance of the 120GB might be considered a bit too slow.
But 2 or 3 x 240GB might be a bit too expensive at over $200 for each SSD?
http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components/componentview.asp?partid=23913

But yeah, probably wasted on a gaming pc where SSD speed isn't the be all and end all.

#include <standard.disclaimer>

timmmay

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#1246030 25-Feb-2015 07:07

M00S3: So you guys have given really good input and yea you've touched on the crux of this all, that I want to build an expensive gaming rig that will last me a while so of course I see things like Raid and PCIE SSD and i guess Im wanting to know whether its worth my time and money in regards to gaming performance. Yes I do other stuff but gaming is the primary focus.

Currently I have the OS on a 128GB SSD and then everything else goes on a 1TB HDD. <- What would you do to speed that up? (storage wise?)

Also what about M.2 SSD?

Put your games on the SSD. If they don't fit buy another one or a larger one. RAID is primarily to protect data not improve performance, but it introduces complexity and risk itself.

M00S3: Thats good to know, probably save me hundreds of dollars. Money I can spend on a good M/board , Processor and GPU.

NEXT QUESTION? I currenty have a Intel i5-4590, should I go i7 for gaming in my next build? Obviously dont need a Xeon.

(SUPER THANKS IN ADVANCE)

I think gains would be marginal.

Stu

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#1246051 25-Feb-2015 07:45

alexx: Why would it need to be $1000 or even $500?

I guess because what the OP is talking about is actually quite a bit faster than an M.2 with an adapter. ;-)

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skamp

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#1246058 25-Feb-2015 07:54

timmmay:
Put your games on the SSD. If they don't fit buy another one or a larger one. RAID is primarily to protect data not improve performance, but it introduces complexity and risk itself.

Do this - run your games from an SSD. Just buy a second one and run it as a dedicated Steam/Games drive.

On CPUs: the K designated chips are unlocked, so can be overclocked when paired with a compatible motherboard chipset (Z97/X99 I believe). If you don't plan on overclocking then a K chip is really just a waste of money. The 4690K is probably the most popular premium CPU among hardcore PC gamers right now, for that reason.

Your current GPU is still a great card... for 1080P gaming. The 980, and other higher end cards with 4GB+ vram, etc - plus SLI, all really come into their own at higher resolutions (1440+) where you need the extra fillrate - they have to push so many more pixels around screen. If you have the cash then a 980 isn't going to be a bad investment in your gaming future, especially if you currently have (or plan to use) a 1440 or higher resolution monitor.

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#1246060 25-Feb-2015 07:55

will this thing fit in a standard modern laptop? ie does my laptop have one of these slots?

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