Help with adding a SSD to my network desktop computer

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turtleattacks

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#312243 30-Mar-2024 16:18

Hi guys,

I have a relatively old i7 Coffeelake with a Gigabyte Z370N running on Windows 10. This machine is not a daily driver but it's used as a server to serve media to my Apple TV.

In the machine, I have two (SATA?) drives - one is a 2TB mechanical drive and the other one is a 256GB Samsung SSD (Samsung 860 EVO). I think that the motherboard has has both an M.2 slot and SATA ports.

The Samsung SSD is dedicated to running Windows 10 and the 2TB is a media storage for my movies. They are pretty nearly full.

As I might want to start store my photos on the computer, I'm looking to buy a NVMe Internal SSD to be dedicated for my photo library.

Since the MVMe slot is empty - can I buy this and install it?

ADATA LEGEND 960 MAX 4TB M.2 NVMe Internal SSD | PB Tech

Crucial P3 Plus 4TB NVMe M.2 Internal SSD | PB Tech

Crucial P3 Plus 4TB PCIe Gen4 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD | Amazon

Would it be suitable as a shared drive so I can upload JPGs and RAW onto this drive and edit them using Lightroom?

Also would I benefit with a proper network drive (NAS) such as the Synology DiskStation?

Given that this is probably one purchase I make every 5 years or so, the difference of $100 or $200 isn't really going to matter. Just really want the best that'll last.

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SpartanVXL

1307 posts

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#3212363 30-Mar-2024 16:58

If you’re going to be doing a decent amount of editing then just check the TBW rating.

Otherwise if you don’t have any performance requirements then either will suffice. Personally I’d go with the ADATA.

kingdragonfly

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#3212369 30-Mar-2024 18:21

The NVMe design takes advantage of the low latency PCIe SSD and parallelism. (That's why NVME boots are typically fastest way to boot)

Because it can be a bit more finicky than a traditional SSD I'd patch your motherboard BIOS before installing the NVMe drive.

For some easy and tiny performance increases, you may have a tiny performance increase moving these

Windows pagefile
Adobe or similar scratch disk

kingdragonfly

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#3212374 30-Mar-2024 18:31

I didn't look, but you may want to check your motherboard NVME version

Since your photos may be valuable, you may consider an enterprise rated NVME.

It'll be more than twice the cost, but this has a 5-year warranty.

Samsung PM9A3 Series 3.8TB M.2 Enterprise SSD NVMe

eonsim

398 posts

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#3212459 31-Mar-2024 12:11

turtleattacks:

Hi guys,

I have a relatively old i7 Coffeelake with a Gigabyte Z370N running on Windows 10. This machine is not a daily driver but it's used as a server to serve media to my Apple TV.

If that is the Gigabyte Z370N WIFI then it looks like it has 2x M2 drive slots one on the front and one on the back. Depending on how much you want to disassemble the machine you could potentially fill both of them.

turtleattacks

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#3212838 1-Apr-2024 13:57

Re-thinking this a bit, given that I will be mostly writing to the drive from my Mac Laptop - would a SSD be overkill?

Can I attach another SATA drive to my motherboard?

It already has 1x SSD and 1x 2TB SATA drive.

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kingdragonfly

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#3212842 1-Apr-2024 14:14

Looking at the spec, you have room for 4 SATA drives, so you have room for two more.

You may add two HDD.

Optional it supports RAID 1, which could use two drives. This would provide some redundancy for your photos (You still need backups)

You may want to consider purchasing a NAS instead, which could be shared by all devices at home, including security cameras.

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z370N-WIFI-rev-10/sp

https://www.prepressure.com/library/technology/raid#raid-1

huckster

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#3212843 1-Apr-2024 14:16

turtleattacks:

Re-thinking this a bit, given that I will be mostly writing to the drive from my Mac Laptop - would a SSD be overkill?

Can I attach another SATA drive to my motherboard?

It already has 1x SSD and 1x 2TB SATA drive.

It looks like it can support 4 SATA drives (i.e. 2 more given you have 1 * SSD and 1 * HDD)
Comes down to whether you have space in the case.

Tradepub

Free professional, reference and technical white papers (affiliate link).

turtleattacks

914 posts

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#3212846 1-Apr-2024 14:19

huckster:

turtleattacks:

Re-thinking this a bit, given that I will be mostly writing to the drive from my Mac Laptop - would a SSD be overkill?

Can I attach another SATA drive to my motherboard?

It already has 1x SSD and 1x 2TB SATA drive.

It looks like it can support 4 SATA drives (i.e. 2 more given you have 1 * SSD and 1 * HDD)
Comes down to whether you have space in the case.

Just taken it apart - looks like I have one more unused slot.... is this slot the SATA?

Been so long since I looked at PCs.

I should have a spare space in the drive bay.

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huckster

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#3212847 1-Apr-2024 14:35

Yep.
And I think you have another underneath/covered the SATA connection on the left. If you unplugged that you should find it.