I'm looking into the rig I will build when I graduate (fantasizing). The OS drive will of course be an M.2 SSD. I was thinking an 960 EVO 500GB, and a large 1TB SSD for storage + a small headless file server for the HDDs for music, photos and videos. I was very surprised to see that the 960 EVO 500GB is very similar in price to an Intel 600p 1TB (at least in China). I'm wondering, are we starting to have a divide where a performance M.2 is similar in price to a decent M.2 NVMe drive that is double the capacity? I was looking forward to a good 500GB M.2 NVMe + a good value 2TB SATA SSD. Now I'm wondering if 2.5" SATA based SSDs are becoming outdated. I can imagine a future with a 2.5" SSD for factor 'raid card' what can house multiple budget M.2 drives or a number of other similar configurations. Lastly, if it is the case that I can choose between a 960 EVO 500GB and a Intel 600p 1TB, what is the better choice for a typical home user/gamer? Would I even notice the difference between the two under normal real world conditions?
The consensus is, I think, that a typical home user/gamer won't notice the difference between any kind of SSD. I think capacity is much more important, especially as games are creeping up towards 100GB installs.
I think that for most home users, you'll never be able to tell the difference between SATA or NVMe SSDs, or between the fastest NVMe drives and the slowest. The Intel 600p is, on paper, slower than the 960 EVO, but both are theoretically miles faster than a SATA drive like the 850 EVO. I have an 850 EVO and a 960 EVO in my computer and I cannot tell the difference at all between them. At all. On that basis, I'd get a larger capacity SSD over a "faster" one.
I would not expect anyone to be able to tell between an EVO and a PRO, or even an 850 and a 960. I was hoping that the difference between SATA and NVMe SSDs would be noticeable.
I can notice a difference between the two. Granted the difference is nowhere near as great as going from a HDD to a SSD, but the difference is there.
I had a 850 EVO/960 EVO combo too and can confirm there was no noticeable difference in every day use. Given that storage has generally been a bottleneck for so long, I do expect the extra speed PCI-E/nVME provides to be utilised soon, but for now the biggest bonus to a gumstick drive (SATA or PCI-E) is space saving and lack of cables.
Just a general feeling around the OS itself. Going from a SATA drive to an NVMe drive is a fair improvement, and definitely one that I encourage.
Well, I'm not going to say that you are wrong or that it's just confirmation bias at work, but... I reckon it's confirmation bias at work
As I said, it is nowhere near as big a jump as going from a HDD to a SSD, but it is definitely noticeable.
I guess it would depend on your usual usage and what you have running in the background. The other thing is that some people are more sensitive than others, audio and video quality as well as frame rate come to mind. The conclusion is that for whatever reason, a significant increase in read/write speed including random IPOS does not produce a noticeable change in performance for the average user. What is the bottleneck that is preventing an improvement in the users experience? I read on another forum that some members were suggesting that NTFS was holding back the performance and that Linux users benefited from NMVE more than Windows users.
