NVMe and SSD - where does OS go?

[earthprime163]

I'm late to the NVMe party and am finally upgrading my old HHD. Isn't the purpose of NVMe to compliment a primary SSD drive? I'm surprised I don't see any NVMe / SSD combos for sale. Am I correct that my OS and games are installed onto a primary SSD?

[Omega]

An NVMe drive is just a normal SSD, but capable of sending data much faster the SATA SSDs.

[earthprime163]

Originally posted by Omega:

An NVMe drive is just a normal SSD, but capable of sending data much faster the SATA SSDs.

So my PC will boot into the NVMe - where I'll install an OS? Its a new concept for me that my OS will run off this small stick.

[Tristan]

NVMe M.2 is the latest technology of SSD

just install it on MOBO and ur good to go

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Nvme are just faster ssds.
As they run directly off the pcie as if it was a pcie plug in card. Sata has a much lower max speed as sata is a low bandwidth part of the Chipset which is pcie x1 only.

Nvme allows up to pcie 3.0 and pcie 4.0 ssds via an nvme supported M.2 slot.

Where to install the OS? Well which ever you want really. The point would be to make use of nvme and get rid of any mechanical hdd, or use those solely for data storage where high speed doesn't matter so much. Like storing your pictures, music, even 4K video rips..

What Motherboard do you have?
What are the sizes of all your drives?
If you have a sata ssd, that's fine. Those are good for either OS + Apps or as a game storage drive. As many modern games simply load or run too poorly when installed to mechanical hdds.

You don't boot to an internal drive and then install an OS. Make a Win10 64bit or Linux 64bit bootable usb flash drive and boot to that to start the OS installer. Then choose the drive to install to. It's best to only connect the internal drive you wish to install to during an OS installer. After the OS is installed you can shutdown and then connect any secondary drives you may have.

[Omega]

Originally posted by earthprime163:

Originally posted by Omega:

An NVMe drive is just a normal SSD, but capable of sending data much faster the SATA SSDs.

So my PC will boot into the NVMe - where I'll install an OS? Its a new concept for me that my OS will run off this small stick.

The NVMe SSD will behave just like a SATA SSD or hard drive. You can install Windows and your programs to it.

SATA SSDs are mostly empty space also. If you open a 2.5" SATA SSD there will be a tiny PCB with only a couple of chips on it and it will be about the same size as the NVMe drive.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Sata ssds are just mSATA on a tiny card anyways, for the most part. So M.2 made sense as it was the only good and cheap way to allow for faster drives on consumer systems. They are extremely helpful in Laptops as you can have 2-3 M2 ssds in the laptop take up less physical space then 2x sata 2.5 inch drives

[earthprime163]

Thanks everyone - makes better sense now! I'll start with a 1TB M.2 and see how it goes!

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Again, not all nvme are the same and not all M2 slots support it
What exact motherboard do you have?