What do I need to take into consideration when I want to buy a new Hard Drive?

[Morbad]

Going from a mechanical drive to an SSD is a reasonable upgrade, even on an old platform.

The issue is that we took the statements about a 'very good' system at face value and assumed something far newer than what the OP had, which resulted in an unsuitable initial recommendation. Now the OP is trying to shoehorn a modern NVMe drive into a seven year old budget motherboard.

Does anyone know if this PCIE1 Slot is compatible with this Converter (it is also compatible with 1.0 so it should work if it fits)
View attachment 190322

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07NSVNS1T/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fab_AlkEFbHR5AG4K

Yes. It will only operate at 1.0/1.1 speeds, but PCI-E is backwards compatible and if it fits, it should work.

Edit: interesting. Just learned that it seems like a SATA to M.2 Converter does also exist. Would this be faster than a PCI-E Converter that is used in a 1.0 PCIE1 Slot?

M.2 is a physical form factor. SATA and NVMe are protocols.

A PCI-E NVMe M.2 drive cannot be passively converted to SATA and the converters you see are almost certainly for attaching SATA M.2 drives to SATA ports, not for attaching PCI-E NVMe M.2 drives to SATA ports, because that is much more involved.

Just buy a SATA drive.

That's the most straightforward solution.

It's even older than your machine.

Older, but also faster and on a more capable motherboard that would less tricky to upgrade.

Using a PCI-E 4x converter card in the second or third PCI 16x physical slots would be perfectly reasonable on that platform and would only cost a modern PCI-E 3.0 M.2 drive a small amount of theoretical peak sequential performance

 

[Firestar97]

Thanks. The most important Thing is that it works at all. I think I'll buy a new Motherboard once I have a Job, so I'll buy a Converter at first and upgrade it when I don't have to Fear to run out of Money. The extremely high Speed will be a great Reward for finally winning this Challenge (even though I would already have a great Reward then because the **** from the Agency for Work would finally stop to annoy me and I wouldn't need to always torture myself with Job Applications that lead nowhere anyways)

 

[Mole HD]

Thanks. The most important Thing is that it works at all. I think I'll buy a new Motherboard once I have a Job, so I'll buy a Converter at first and upgrade it when I don't have to Fear to run out of Money. The extremely high Speed will be a great Reward for finally winning this Challenge (even though I would already have a great Reward then because the **** from the Agency for Work would finally stop to annoy me and I wouldn't need to always torture myself with Job Applications that lead nowhere anyways)

If and when you buy a new motherboard...you won't need a PCIE converter since the new board will more than likely have an NVME slot...assuming you don't buy another one with a 7 years old ancient chipset

 

[Firestar97]

If and when you buy a new motherboard...you won't need a PCIE converter since the new board will more than likely have an NVME slot...assuming you don't buy another one with a 7 years old ancient chipset

Of course but a Motherboard is more expensive so I'll use this at first as a temporary Solution

 

[Mole HD]

Of course but a Motherboard is more expensive so I'll use this at first as a temporary Solution

A good mid range motherboard is probably less than what you paid for that SSD...ASUS are my particular favourite...but there are many. You may struggle finding a modern chipset motherboard that fits your, no doubt, equally ancient CPU though...

I'm not going to go through the pointless process of explaining since you've totally ignored everything else I've ever said so far...

 

[Morbad]

A new motherboard would mandate a new CPU and new memory. There is no point in purchasing a new AM3+ processor, or any DDR3 platform.

An adapter card will allow basic use of the drive selected, though booting from it might not be possible, which will significantly diminish it's usability, and it will be capped at a low speed (still far faster than any mechanical drive).

I'd still recommend sending it back for an SATA drive as that will be just as fast and more compatible. It will also save money, even if that money has to be store credit, which could be used for something else later. Saving the M.2 for a future system doesn't make much sense as by the time you build a new system, there will be cheaper and better drives available, especially M.2 NVMe ones.

 

[Firestar97]

A new motherboard would mandate a new CPU and new memory.

What exactly do you mean with mandate? Google Translate isn't very helpful with this Word

 

[Morbad]

What exactly do you mean with mandate? Google Translate isn't very helpful with this Word

Require. Demand. Need.

Your board uses the AM3+ platform and the most potent CPU it supports is quite slow by modern standards; it's evidently sufficient for what you do today, but there is no meaningful upgrade path with it. So, you'd want a new platform. All new platforms use DDR4, which means you'd have to replace your memory as well.

 

[Firestar97]

Ok, sounds like it would really be the best Solution to send it back (hopefully that's still possible). Hopefully it won't need much Time to get my Money back so I can buy a good SSD that won't need a M.2 Port. Thanks a lot for the Help. I think I should also get a Book about Hardware

 

[Asp Explorer]

And I'd junked a bunch of ancient SSD's not too long ago. Oh well.

Urufu1997 - if you'd care to PM (private message) me a name and address that can receive mail - I'll Amazon a cheap SATA SSD to you.

 

[Firestar97]

Luckily it is possible to get the Money back on my Bank Account and not only on my Amazon Account as I thought at first, so I can already order a new SSD.
I'm sorry that this whole Discussion about M.2 Converters turned out to be unnecessary.

And I'd junked a bunch of ancient SSD's not too long ago. Oh well.

Urufu1997 - if you'd care to PM (private message) me a name and address that can receive mail - I'll Amazon a cheap SATA SSD to you.

Thanks a lot for the Offer but I prefer to not send my Adress to People I barely know. Not even my Online Friends know my Adress. Maybe we don't even live on the same Continent so it could be difficult/expensive anyways


Edit: I've found a SATA SSD that seems to be a direct Ancestor of the M.2 SSD I'll send back and it's also really good. The Amazon Page says, it needs SATA 6.0 GB/s. I think the SATA Cables won't be a Problem but to be completely sure: Do the different SATA Cables require different Hardware? Is it normally written somewhere on the Cable which SATA Type it is? (I don't know which SATA Cables are currently used in my Computer)

Ok, thanks to Google I've learned that my Computer has slightly older SATA Ports but it won't be a Problem

Why can't it be that easy to find other important Hardware Informations online too?

If I'm lucky enough it will already be here on Wednesday. If not, the latest Date for the Delivery will be on Friday

 

[Morbad]

I've found a SATA SSD that seems to be a direct Ancestor of the M.2 SSD I'll send back and it's also really good.

Don't fuss too much over the specifics. The difference between a mechanical drive and the worst modern SSD you can get is much larger than the difference between the cheapest name brand SSD, and the absolute best SSD you can use.

While the more recent Samsung SATA SSDs are fine any budget drive from a reputable brand should more than sufficient.

The Amazon Page says, it needs SATA 6.0 GB/s. I think the SATA Cables won't be a Problem but to be completely sure: Do the different SATA Cables require different Hardware? Is it normally written somewhere on the Cable which SATA Type it is? (I don't know which SATA Cables are currently used in my Computer)

SATA cables are often advertised as supporting certain speeds and it's usually safest to select a cable that explicitly mentions at least the speed being used, but the actual SATA specification is supposed to work with certified cables of any age.

Good SATA cables will work fine at 3.0+/600 speeds, even if they long predate that standard, while sketchy cables can cause problems no matter what they are supposed to be capable of. Defects are far from unheard of, so it's wise to have a spare cable or two should there be problems that need to be diagnosed...would be unfortunate to thing the drive or board are bad if something goes wrong, when it's just a cable.

Don't spend too much on cables either. Two fifty cent cables are a smarter purchase than one twenty dollar one.

Why can't it be that easy to find other important Hardware Informations online too?

Mostly just a matter of knowing where to look.

 

[Mole HD]

......Mostly just a matter of knowing where to look.

It also would help if the OP had even a rough idea of what he's looking for

 

[Morbad]

It also would help if the OP had even a rough idea of what he's looking for

I'm sure he's getting there.

 

[Morbad]

ASUS are my particular favourite

I've just put ASUS back on my "do not buy, ever", list.

Have had a lot of ASUS boards, and some of them have been pretty good, but they've always cheaped out on the most inane areas and are the only motherboard manufacturer I've ever used with a propensity to brick their own firmware from overclocking.

My Crosshair VIII Impact is the most expensive motherboard I've ever purchased for my own use and I got maybe a month's worth of use out of it in the last year between sending it back and forth to ASUS and repairing it myself before it finally gave up the ghost. It's too mangled at this point for the warranty to be intact, so I've got to rebuild the system it was in essentially from scratch.

The only ASUS boards I've used that I can't really complain about were my A7M266, my P9X79 WS (which was overpriced but makes this list because it was the only overclockable LGA-2011-0/X79 motherboard without crippling flaws, and they still managed to squeeze some plastic push pins onto a 380 dollar board somehow), and my 990FX Sabertooth R2.0.

Every other ASUS board I've had has either inexplicably corrupted it's own firmware ROM when overclocked (not something that should even be possible, but I've seen it happen several times), which is a really bad thing when the board only has a single ROM chip that is soldered to the board (like this $430 Crosshair VIII Impact), or they've simply been overpriced for their segment. The entire P6T line is a good example...I was on LGA-1366/X58 for a long time and probably had a dozen X58 boards, the Gigabyte at the price point lower than the ASUS boards invariably lasted longer and took the same CPUs and memory further, despite having technically inferior BoMs.

I usually end up giving them another shot every other generation or so, but this latest failure has pushed me over the brink.

Right now, MSI is my preferred board maker. Not perfect, but they update their firmware early and often and don't commit suicide when you look at them crosswise.

 

[Firestar97]

Can I somehow find out online which Key I need to press to be able to install the OS from the USB Stick? It does only show for approximately a half Second which Key I need to press. Why can't it just be the same Key for every Computer?

 

[Morbad]

Can I somehow find out online which Key I need to press to be able to install the OS from the USB Stick? It does only show for approximately a half Second which Key I need to press. Why can't it just be the same Key for every Computer?

Download the manual for your motherboard. It should tell you what key brings up the boot menu. F11 or F12 are typical, but different firmware makers can set different keys.

 

[Zieman]

Download the manual for your motherboard. It should tell you what key brings up the boot menu. F11 or F12 are typical, but different firmware makers can set different keys.

This.
I've seen also ESC, ENTER, F2 and DEL for example

 

[Firestar97]

Download the manual for your motherboard. It should tell you what key brings up the boot menu. F11 or F12 are typical, but different firmware makers can set different keys.

Thanks, I think I'm just to stressed currently to have thought of it myself. I've found the Manual and will try it now

Edit:for some Reason it now only shows No Signal when I start the Computer. I hope it will help to just let it turned off for a while before trying again. If this doesn't help, I'll try if maybe other SATA Cables solve the Problem

 

[Firestar97]

It doesn't work. No Matter how often and fast I press the Key. Even if I press it the whole Time nothing happens. I think I'm trying it already at least since a half Hour
I think my trashy PC is starting too fast. Is there some way to let it start slower so I'll be finally able to install Windows 10?