How many M.2 should I get on a mobo?

[jeffpmaxs6]

I basically need a mobo, M.2 and storage devices for a 6950xt and 5800x3d.

I use a i7 2600k and 6950xt on Win7 now. I want to keep Win7, but start using Win10. Right now I have 2-500g ssd. Once I switch out the mobo/cpu I hope Win7 still works fine. Then it's just that matter of installing Win10. I'd assume by keeping Win7 on the current ssd and then put Win10 on the M.2. How large should the M.2 be, should I use 2-3 of them. I heard they lose speed and things get disconnected. Which brings me hear for guidance on what, how many and what size drives to use for gaming.

[UserNotFound]

Really depends on what platform you're moving to, I think AM4 supports up to 3x PCIe NVMe M.2 Gen 4 SSDs, that's what my GB X570 Aorus Xtreme does. Pretty sure the newer platforms, AM5 and Intel 12/13 Gen LGA 1700 mobos support more as well, not sure how many as I'm not upgrading to either of these platforms.

As for size of SSD for OS, 256GB is the minimum, I have a Sabrent Rocket NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSD in my main rig, built the rig in late 2019, and I still have > 110GB of unused space in that drive. But, these days, I'd say 500GB would be better to allow for other essential programs and updates.

Oops, just noticed you'd mentioned the 5800X3D, so basically a good X570/X570S mobo....or, you can go B550, though I ain't sure of the max number of PCIe Gen 4 NVMe M.2 SSDs it can support. You have two 500GB M.2 PCIe drives? Gen 3 I assume.....

[UserNotFound]

Going NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 would, obviously, be cheaper, though the difference between it and Gen 4 x4 SSDs may or may not be that substantial. Really depends on brand and model. You can populate your PC with a mix of SATA SSDs and NVMe M.2 PCIe SSDs if want to.

My present system which will soon be upgraded as I already have some of the drives, awaiting the Kingston NV2 to arrive,(will install drives when I get back in February):
500GB Crucial P3 Plus NVMe M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4 (OS + essential programs)
2TB Kingston NV2 NVMe M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4 (Games)
2TB Teamgroup MP33 NVMe M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 x4 (Games)
4TB Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD (Games)
1TB Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD (Games)
6TB WD Black HDD (Games that I don't play very often)
2TB Seagate/WD HDD (Downloads, music/movie files)

That's a total of 17TB of storage, should last me a fairly long time....

[Ulfrinn]

My next PC build won't use any SATA drives at all. M.2 not only has an advantage in speed, but also space management not just in the device itself but all the cables not just for SATA but for power as well. For this reason, I wouldn't go less than two M.2 slots to give some room for expansion.

[Supafly]

M.2 don't just disconnect. Installed them fully and secure them and they'll be fine

Performance can drop a little as you fill them up but if you're going M.2 SSD nowadays they'll be Nvme drives so any reduction in performance won't be noticeable, not unless you're benchmarking them or something

Get as many as you want. Small one for OS, 250GB/500GB and stuff and then larger drives 1/2TB for other stuff. I have all 4 m.2 slots on my board filled. Only because it allowed me to have less cables than with the 2.5" drives.

[jeffpmaxs6]

Originally posted by UserNotFound:

Really depends on what platform you're moving to, I think AM4 supports up to 3x PCIe NVMe M.2 Gen 4 SSDs, that's what my GB X570 Aorus Xtreme does. Pretty sure the newer platforms, AM5 and Intel 12/13 Gen LGA 1700 mobos support more as well, not sure how many as I'm not upgrading to either of these platforms.

As for size of SSD for OS, 256GB is the minimum, I have a Sabrent Rocket NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSD in my main rig, built the rig in late 2019, and I still have > 110GB of unused space in that drive. But, these days, I'd say 500GB would be better to allow for other essential programs and updates.

Oops, just noticed you'd mentioned the 5800X3D, so basically a good X570/X570S mobo....or, you can go B550, though I ain't sure of the max number of PCIe Gen 4 NVMe M.2 SSDs it can support. You have two 500GB M.2 PCIe drives? Gen 3 I assume.....

No there reg ssd drives. 10 years old at that.

Originally posted by nullable:

Originally posted by jeffpmaxs6:

How large should the M.2 be, should I use 2-3 of them. I heard they lose speed and things get disconnected.

Sounds like you heard some FUD from know-nothings. There's nothing special about SSD's or M2 slots where you have to do them just so or your system doesn't work right.

I'm running two 2TB NVMe SSDs.

The wife is running two 2TB NVMe SSDs, and two SATA SSDS, 2TB and 1TB respectively. They're just drives, there's not an issue with using the available inputs on your system for SSDs.

Originally posted by jeffpmaxs6:

Which brings me hear for guidance on what, how many and what size drives to use for gaming.

I mean, I'd go for 2TB, but that's just me. I'm sold on SSDs and cutting corners there doesn't appeal to me. What's your budget?

No there reg ssd drives. 10 years old at that.

[Julien, cut it out.]

Depends on the motherboard manufacturer implementation of the platform and chipset.

Storage can either directly be connected to the PCIe lanes of the CPU or via the storage interface of the chipset.

A short explanation on how the CPU distributes its PCIe lanes.

As example, the Ryzen 5000 CPU series offer 24 PCIe Gen 4 lanes. 16 of these lanes are used for the GPU and 4 are used for the chipset downlink.
That leaves 4 lanes for storage. There are different possible configurations for this storage interface.
On a X570 motherboard, you'll see at least on of these 3 configurations: 1 NVMe with 4 lanes or 2 NVMe with 2 lanes each or a SATA configuration (2x SATA with 1x2 NVMe).

In fact, you can loose some bandwidth or ports, depending what kind of storage you use.

https://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2019/6/84149e21-86a0-4150-95c7-7bbc48f99b05.png

The 8 PCIe lanes for storage on the chipset side are also available in different configuraitons.

[Witski]

Originally posted by nullable:

Originally posted by jeffpmaxs6:

How large should the M.2 be, should I use 2-3 of them. I heard they lose speed and things get disconnected.

Sounds like you heard some FUD from know-nothings. There's nothing special about SSD's or M2 slots where you have to do them just so or your system doesn't work right.

I'm running two 2TB NVMe SSDs.

The wife is running two 2TB NVMe SSDs, and two SATA SSDS, 2TB and 1TB respectively. They're just drives, there's not an issue with using the available inputs on your system for SSDs.

Originally posted by jeffpmaxs6:

Which brings me hear for guidance on what, how many and what size drives to use for gaming.

I mean, I'd go for 2TB, but that's just me. I'm sold on SSDs and cutting corners there doesn't appeal to me. What's your budget?

On my mobo it says that the second m2 slot when installed with an ssd will run slower or something.
b550 rog strix something something wi-fi

[pasa]

The chance of W7 working onward is slim at best -- CPU support stopped before intel 7 or 8 gen and ryzen. So unless your new mobo is 6 years old you're out of luck.

As for slots, these days entry boards have 2 and those on non-budget chipset provide 3-4. Should be more than enough. Esp. as you can just increase the storage in the same slot if happen to run out later on, or add a sata drive. The diff is not much is noticable at all and if exists not hard to reorganize the files to keep the hot ones on the better performing.

The needed size only you can estimate. Media files can fill any storage in no time with current internet speed. But if you have no problem using delete and/or can evict them on hdd (than can be external) even just 1T can be well enough.

[UserNotFound]

Originally posted by Ulfrinn:

My next PC build won't use any SATA drives at all. M.2 not only has an advantage in speed, but also space management not just in the device itself but all the cables not just for SATA but for power as well. For this reason, I wouldn't go less than two M.2 slots to give some room for expansion.

I dunno, I've read and seen vids that shows load times between SATA SSD and NVMe PCIe SSDs, and the difference in load time is negligible, unlike load times from HDDs which are substantially longer. I guess this is down to how big the files/level being loaded, I see a second or two difference typically, whereas HDDs load times are noticeably longer.

I don't use Adobe or other productivity programs so I can't comment on load times between SATA and NVMe M.2 PCIe drives. Again, with Gen4 x4 (and now Gen5) NVMe M.2 drives, I can't say. But still, difference in load times between such drives vs SATA SSDs are, imo, not really noticeable as levels being loaded aren't so big that it'd take the SATA SSD substantially longer to load.

That's why I have a mix of NVMe M.2 drives and SATA SSDs, my mobo supports 3x NVMe M.2 drives, so I'll have to resort to SATA SSDs for more SSD storage.

[jeffpmaxs6]

Originally posted by nullable:

I'm not clear where I asked about your existing SSDs, so your response doesn't make much sense.

Ops. I mean to say I would go with 2TB, but probably only one at first. Assuming I would be putting games on the OS drive too. I had no choice with only 2-500g ssd drives.

Originally posted by Supafly:

M.2 don't just disconnect. Installed them fully and secure them and they'll be fine

Performance can drop a little as you fill them up but if you're going M.2 SSD nowadays they'll be Nvme drives so any reduction in performance won't be noticeable, not unless you're benchmarking them or something

Get as many as you want. Small one for OS, 250GB/500GB and stuff and then larger drives 1/2TB for other stuff. I have all 4 m.2 slots on my board filled. Only because it allowed me to have less cables than with the 2.5" drives.

Yeah I was looking at cases and notice the CD-Rom was obsolete and bays. Been replaced with fans. lol. In that case no wires makes sense too me. Using 2- 500g ssd I had no choice, but to put games on the OS. And not sure if it matters now, beside not filling it up too much. Be nice to organize and be tidy, but not necessary.

Originally posted by pasa:

The chance of W7 working onward is slim at best -- CPU support stopped before intel 7 or 8 gen and ryzen. So unless your new mobo is 6 years old you're out of luck.

As for slots, these days entry boards have 2 and those on non-budget chipset provide 3-4. Should be more than enough. Esp. as you can just increase the storage in the same slot if happen to run out later on, or add a sata drive. The diff is not much is noticable at all and if exists not hard to reorganize the files to keep the hot ones on the better performing.

The needed size only you can estimate. Media files can fill any storage in no time with current internet speed. But if you have no problem using delete and/or can evict them on hdd (than can be external) even just 1T can be well enough.

I don't care if it's supported, just that it works. lol. I don't have a plan B. Maybe I can put 2 mobos in the same case and share the GPU? lol

[Supafly]

Originally posted by jeffpmaxs6:

[
Yeah I was looking at cases and notice the CD-Rom was obsolete and bays. Been replaced with fans. lol. In that case no wires makes sense too me. Using 2- 500g ssd I had no choice, but to put games on the OS. And not sure if it matters now, beside not filling it up too much. Be nice to organize and be tidy, but not necessary.

Pretty much. There are still a few cases with them but even laptops tend to lack them nowadays. Plenty of USB Optical drives you can get if you grab a case without.

Nvme will shave a few seconds off loading Windows and games but for the most part unless you timing and actively checking you may not even notice. For now I'd go with a small, 250/500 for the OS and install it in the top M.2 slot as that'd be linked to CPU. That way you won't be trying to backup one of the SSDs with nowhere for the data to go if/when you need to do a fresh install of Windows.

[jeffpmaxs6]

Originally posted by Supafly:

Originally posted by jeffpmaxs6:

[
Yeah I was looking at cases and notice the CD-Rom was obsolete and bays. Been replaced with fans. lol. In that case no wires makes sense too me. Using 2- 500g ssd I had no choice, but to put games on the OS. And not sure if it matters now, beside not filling it up too much. Be nice to organize and be tidy, but not necessary.

Pretty much. There are still a few cases with them but even laptops tend to lack them nowadays. Plenty of USB Optical drives you can get if you grab a case without.

Nvme will shave a few seconds off loading Windows and games but for the most part unless you timing and actively checking you may not even notice. For now I'd go with a small, 250/500 for the OS and install it in the top M.2 slot as that'd be linked to CPU. That way you won't be trying to backup one of the SSDs with nowhere for the data to go if/when you need to do a fresh install of Windows.

That sound like a plan. I could use 3-4 M.2 then. 1 500g and 2-2TG. At least, until I start adding it up. lol.

[Der tüddelige Fußgänger]

Mine has 1 of those slots.
Enough, i guess.

[WeAreAllLuigi]

Dunno if it's been mentioned, but just make sure you have enough power to run how ever many drives you end up getting.

Whatever power supply you have probably wasn't chosen with the consideration of adding an endless amount of stuff to run on it.

[jeffpmaxs6]

Yeah, it's a 1000w Enermax with lots of power cables and at least 4, maybe 6 plugs for ssd. 1- 500g and 1- 2TB M.2 I think should be plenty. I only play a fraction of the game I own.