M.2 Solid State Drive for Photographers?

[Abitconfused]

Contemplating a fast solid state drive for your photography computer? See my thoughts after installing an M.2 SSD. https://edruthphoto.com/m-2-ssd-for-photographers/

[Manfred M]

Sorry, but I find the piece long and confusing with a number of errors.

Let me be clear; I agree that SSD and especially the M.2 form factor do have a major speed (read / write) advantage over traditional HDDs. I do use SSDs in my own hardware where speed is required and use traditional HDDs for data storage / archive purposes).

What is confusing is that you seem to forget is that M.2 is a form factor and can be used to house a traditional SATA HDD as well as a more recent NVMe technology. I have used both technologies in my systems, from a 2.5" SSD, through to older technology SSDs in a M.2 format as well as more modern M.2 NVMe storage. Traditional SSD, regardless of the form factor that are SATA drives are more limited in bandwidth versus the NVMe drives; NVMe can be up to 5x faster than SATA SSDs, depending on the specific drive and standards the motherboard has been built to .

If you are using the fast NVMe technology via the SATA interface, you are not getting the throughput that you would be getting on a modern motherboard mounted drive. Nicely said, you could have saved yourself a fair bit of money by getting less expensive drives to use on the SATA connections. I understand that there are PCIe connections offered in both NVMe and non-NVMe as well.

I have yet to see a computer tech "bleed the capacitors" the way you recommend. Yes, the computer should be unplugged, when you are working on it and a grounding strap is not a bad idea either.

In terms of HDD, I recommend that RAID be used to protect against HDD failure when you store your work; never a single HDD. I use external RAID for my storage, just because I don't want to have to open up my computer when a drive failure occurs, but have used internal RAID-1 or better storage in the past. Disks do fail and not losing all of your data is important....

[Abitconfused]

Yah, the capacitor thing needs to go.

[Abitconfused]

There, perfect now!

[Abitconfused]

Manfred, I think the only reason to buy a SATA SSD over an M.2 NVMe is if you have unused SATA ports and desire a less responsive storage device. Regarding, "If you are using the fast NVMe technology via the SATA interface, you are not getting the throughput that you would be getting on a modern motherboard mounted drive." Please explain, a NVMe SSD is attached to the PCIe bus not the SATA bus. Even if it can be done, I would never encourage such use as SATA gen 3 is considerably slower than PCIe gen 4 or 5. Additionally, I have in my article a very long, and no doubt confusing, paragraph describing M.2 as a form factor and not a SSD.

[Abitconfused]

An M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD is a potential avenue toward upgrading a photography computer.

"The upgrade over the traditional hard disks with the SATA SSDs would have been the wisest choice until a few years back, but not anymore. The general SSDs have begun to wear out in the current demands for a faster host controller interface. As a result, more and more businesses and individuals are opting for state-of-the-art storage solutions like NVMe." See: https://www.promax.com/blog/what-we-....0-nvme-so-far

[Manfred M]

We are starting to split hairs here and frankly any form of SSD will put any HDD to shame. In my view, all things being equal, motherboard mounted drives are fastest, followed by PCIe and finally SATA.

If you are a gamer or do a lot of video rendering, then the specific technology is going to be important, but let's face it, editing images is not particularly resource intensive, so we don't need the highest end SSD. We should have at least two SSD in a modern computer; one with the operating system and the second one as a working data drive / swap drive. I am often working with files that are in the 1GB - 2 GB range and even with fast storage, they do take some time to load and save.

With my desktop I use an older 2-1/2" form factor SSD for the OS and software and an M.2 drive for my working files. With my new laptop, I use two NVMe drives; one for the OS and software and the other for storage. I use external RAID drives (via USB 3 and LAN) for archival storage.

Specific motherboard and SSD performance can be found on a lot of websites. The general rule of thumb is faster = more expensive. I definitely do not go for the highest cost solutions.

[Abitconfused]

Thank you. For the consumer market: PCIe NVMe direct bus to CPU is fastest, PCIe NVMe through chipset to DMI (Direct Media Interface) to CPU is second fastest, SATA SSD, then lowly SATA HDD, next comes smoke signals. True, NVMe SSD does not come before that new lens. I genuinely experienced faster image file read/writes, so my modest investment in two NVMe SSDs, one a PCIe to CPU boot drive, have been eye opening. I do believe NVMe M.2 PCIe x4 adapter card will revitalize an older system as far back as PCIe 3 if the chipset will support it. Step by step instructions are in the article. I genuinely hope this will be of benefit to someone. Cost was $143 and the exact parts are listed in the article. Not too bad. Cheers!

[DanK]

Even if it can be done, I would never encourage such use as SATA gen 3 is considerably slower than PCIe gen 4 or 5.

Indeed. I'm no expert, but an article in PC World (https://www.pcworld.com/article/5583...ifference.html) says the difference is huge:

Currently, the maximum speed for an NVMe PCIe 3.0 (aka Gen 3) SSD is up to 3,500MB per second, while a NVMe PCIe 4.0 (aka Gen 4) SSD can hit up to 7,500MB per second. Manufacturers usually list the theoretical speeds to expect from a particular model, which you can then verify by checking out independent benchmark results.

SATA SSDs typically hit speeds of up to 500MB per second.

[Abitconfused]

That is very true, DanK, and I have discovered that the complexity of these small SSDs can boggle the mind. Consider an M.2 NVMe SSD described as, "2TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 Internal SSD," I had not considered the depth of technology behind such cryptic terminology until I began a new PC build. But, in fact, every element of the description is quite important when choosing an M.2 NVMe. That is why I wrote my article...to define terms and process so that a non-Geek photographer could update a system with confidence.

[Abitconfused]

Thanks for sharing the link.

Thank YOU! I really appreciate it. I truly believe photographers can benefit from this piece of hardware. I have labored attentively to create a more comprehensive and error free article. In truth it is a tad long, but my goal is not only to describe the PCIe M.2 storage solid state drive but also its relationship to other hardware and software functions. The idea being that the more we understand our hardware the more productive we may be. Thank you.