A Quick Post about Storage: NVMe vs. SATA SSDs

[Jerry James]

I've had quite a number of people asking me about what sort of SSDs their builds should have so I thought I'd make a post here.

Before getting into this, I'll address a common misconception. M.2 is a form factor, NOT a storage standard that indicates the speed in any way. So, you can very well have SATA M.2 SSDs as well as NVMe M.2 SSDs that will operate at very different speeds.

NVMe SSDs are faster than SATA SSDs because they use PCI-E lanes for transferring data rather than SATA. There's absolutely no contention here. However, will you be using that extra speed? Here are a few common workloads that do benefit from the use of a faster NVMe SSD:

- Workloads involving the movement of large raw files to and from certain drives
- Workloads that require high IOPS (Input/Output Operations per Second). Usually database-based workloads like running web servers, for example.

PCI-E Gen 4.0 NVMe SSDs are even faster than the previous generation NVMe drives and they do offer almost double the speed. Hence, if you're working with very large files, paying the premium will improve your workflow. No doubt about it.

If you aren't handling any such workloads, don't pay a significant premium over a SATA SSD for your build. Pricing seems to have normalized in most regions, and both types are available at pretty similar prices. In such cases, it does make sense to just grab an NVMe drive.

Here's a pretty telling benchmark video about games and Windows loads on various storage devices -

 

[blender_render]

A lot more expensive here in netherlands. Usually around 20-30%. Though they are a lot faster too I would expect them to be sold for quite a bit more. Is the cost of manufacturing roughly the same for m. 2 nvme and sata ssds?

 

[Jerry James]

A lot more expensive here in netherlands. Usually around 20-30%. Though they are a lot faster too I would expect them to be sold for quite a bit more. Is the cost of manufacturing roughly the same for m. 2 nvme and sata ssds?

Oh, that's surprising. I can find the Sabrent Rocket Q 1TB NVMe for $119.98 while a Crucial MX500 1TB SATA SSD is $114.99 in the United States (Amazon). It's no Samsung Evo, but still I'd definitely spring for the NVMe in this case.

 

[Alex Glawion]

The Crucial MX500 1TB is about 100€ here in Germany. The Samsung 860 QVO 1TB and Western Digital Blue SATA SSD 1TB too.

The cheapest NVMe SSD I can find in the same size is the Crucial P1 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD at 115€, so exactly 15% more expensive.
That one though has about 2000mb/s read and 1700mb/s sequential write, so not among the top of the nvme ssds.

The cheapest (known Brand) NVMe SSD which has very high read write (3400mb/s, 2900MB/s) seems to be the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB, M.2 at around 140€.

There is a cheaper Leven JPR600 1TB, M.2 (never heard of that one before?) that goes for 124€ here in Germany which states to have 3000mb/s read and write.

And the cheapest PCIE4 NVMe SSD is around 210€ for a 1TB model.

 

[Jerry James]

The Crucial MX500 1TB is about 100€ here in Germany. The Samsung 860 QVO 1TB and Western Digital Blue SATA SSD 1TB too.

The cheapest NVMe SSD I can find in the same size is the Crucial P1 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD at 115€, so exactly 15% more expensive.
That one though has about 2000mb/s read and 1700mb/s sequential write, so not among the top of the nvme ssds.

The cheapest (known Brand) NVMe SSD which has very high read write (3400mb/s, 2900MB/s) seems to be the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB, M.2 at around 140€.

There is a cheaper Leven JPR600 1TB, M.2 (never heard of that one before?) that goes for 124€ here in Germany which states to have 3000mb/s read and write.

And the cheapest PCIE4 NVMe SSD is around 210€ for a 1TB model.

Interesting. I can find the Crucial P1 and the MX500 for pretty much the same price in my region. A 15% price bump to get a somewhat decent NVMe like the P1 is right at the edge of whether it's worth it or not. True.

Yep, Leven is relatively new. Taiwanese company I think. They use 3D TLC NAND so it won't be a Samsung Evo, but still not a QLC so worth a shot. Might be interesting to test it out