Hardware & Technical Current gen vs 4 yr old SSD questions

Mot

M
I have a Corsair Force LX 256GB SSD which I now use for OS, system apps and main games. It was the only drive in my computer up until 6 months ago and has had moderate use over the past 4 years. It has been formatted 4 times that I can remember. I have a few questions about it and a possible upgrade.

What sort of lifespan can I expect from it? I understand that there is a limited number of writes that can be performed before it dies.

I see articles about how much faster new SSDs are. Is this only for specific use case scenarios like massive files being transferred and say, content creation?

How much has current gen SSD tech improvements improved gaming load times over my older drive? How much faster will a new Evo 960 be for gaming, if at all?

My motherboard only supports PCIe M.2 cards so a more expensive NVME is necessary rather than a SATA M.2, would I be better off with a 2.5" Evo rather than a M.2? Are there any trade offs?

As I understand it, not having an OS on drive will improve load performance in games.

I need more space as the 1TB HD I bought 6 months ago is nearly full already, so it's not a case of should I buy, but what should I buy. Yes I know that a SSD will be vastly superior speed wise, and a HD will be more storage per dollar. I'm looking at SSDs now and already have an idea what to get to increase bulk storage.

Thanks guys.​
 

Caramel Clown

Caramel Clown
May be unpopular opinion here - M.2 isn't worth it at the moment. Way too expensive. Huge performance gain on paper, but in practice differences are marginal. Maybe it's not utilized yet.
I'd stick with good old SATA, they are still much faster than HDD.
Not sure about lifespan and reliability. It's a difficult thing to put a number on, and give definitive answers about. We're mostly dealing with electronic component deterioration here since there are no mechanical parts. More often than not it can't be diagnosed before the whole thing goes kaboozle. Up until recently I had a 100Gb SSD from 6 years ago, and it worked flawlessly. But I've heard stories of newer models failing after months of use.
General consensus is - get high capacity and keep it mostly empty for best reliability, but it doesn't strike me as the most practical solution :D
 

Jon flint

Jon flint
No difference whatsoever for gaming, not even load times are improved with nvme m.2 drives. They're good for benchmark prowess and little more.

My own Samsung 960 Evo nvme m.2 benchmarks with roughly 10x the read/write performance of my Samsung 850 pro SATA ssd, but there is no measurable performance difference either in moving large files around or general gaming tasks.

Just go with the cheapest and largest drive you can (either SATA or nvme). The only real choice is to go 2.5" or m.2 format, I find m.2s are much more convenient, no additional cables to plug in, just simple slap a heatsink on it and plug into your mobo.
 

Mot

M
Thanks for replying. From what I saw last night when I was briefly researching this, I tend to agree that M.2 might not be worth it. Especially being forced to go with NVME rather than a SATA M.2 ...but then again, it's only a 39AUD difference at the one place I've looked. Who knows, maybe I'll become a content creator in the not too distant future...

My bro had his brand new Kingston SSD fail after a short time, so I hear ya.

I can't really afford to go bigger than 256 atm... I could-maybe-possibly *force* myself to get a 500 2.5" ...and no that doesn't sound like a practical solution.
 

Mot

M
Jon flint said:
... just simple slap a heatsink on it...
Click to expand...

Thanks for reminding me of that, I'd forgotten completely... I'll probably pull the trigger on something tonight when I get paid and have finally made a decision.

Hmmm... that's another 16 bucks...
 

Jon flint

Jon flint
Mot said:
Thanks for reminding me of that, I'd forgotten completely... I'll probably pull the trigger on something tonight when I get paid and have finally made a decision.

Hmmm... that's another 16 bucks...
Click to expand...

They're not entirely necessary, especially for SATA m.2s, but nvme m.2s can get a bit toasty, mine regularly gets to 60 degrees even with a heatsink!
 
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