M.2 questions

can an M.2 drive be used instead of a hard disk drive for os and games?

are M.2 drives durable or will it fail if used for gaming all the time?

Yes and yes

I don't see a reason why not, some laptops come with m.2 drives only, if they come from a well known brand (Samsung, Crucial, Intel etc) they shouldn't fail.

SSD drives should last longer than HDD these days, shouldn't they? Unless you plan on write data to them 24/7.

It will be the best possible experience for use with OS and games.

You should most def do this. Or at least a SATA SSD.

They are very durable. i have been using my M.2 950 Pro for over 2 years with no problems. Several of my computers have M.2 drives as the OS drive. All of my computers use SSDs exclusively with the exception of the NAS server. Come to think of it, I've never had a single one fail and I own about 20 SSDs as far back as 2011. A lot of them are Samsung 8XX drives, some of them are dirt cheap off brands like King Dian, some are SanDisk, some are Kingston, etc.... I use them for everything: work computers, HTPC, gaming rig, server cache (for them quick writes before it's dumped to the HDD), router drive for logging.

Hell I'd even consider putting one in a PS4 Pro since it uses SATA III.

I love SSDs.

@horgen: Mechanical drives do tear down over time but SSD drives have a theorical maximum amount of rewrite they can do. But they usually need like constant 24/24h over several years

I was thinking extreme usage of SSD. PCIE based I think it is possible to hit those limits within 10 years or so. SATA based depends very much on capacity, probably way over 20 years for the 1TB ++ sizes.

thanks everyone will definitely give the m.2 drive a try

I only have m.2 and they’re for everything

m.2 is incredible, especially for OS. Boots up in like five seconds. Literally. I'll push the power button on my PC, look at my phone for a second, and *boom* my desktop is chilling there with any and all startup applications running.

I haven't had a traditional HDD for what feels like 10+ years. They're expensive, but worth it imo. If I did video editing, pictures, etc, you know stuff that takes up huge amounts of space, I would probably still have HDDs for storage, but for just OS and games and every day stuff, SSDs are amazing and worth it.

To answer your questions specifically:

1. Yes, and M.2 drive can be used for OS and games.

2. Yes, they are durable. Anything can fail, but as far as I know SSDs are more durable than an HDD with moving parts.

Just check your mobo for M.2 sata or PCIE based.

For the average user with mainstream mobo and CPU, is there any difference between the SATA based ones, limited to 6GBit read/write and the PCIE X4 (3rd gen) ones?

@horgen: no idea I don't really do specific tests or anything. Everything I read, though, says yes...however the caveat is that it might not be that much faster, or at least not noticeably so, for every day use.

I think I noticed a difference when I went from my OS being on a SATA connection the the PCI-e connection, but cannot verify.

*I got it as a splurge, tbh, I think if you are doing a new build and want to save money, buying a standard SATA SSD instead of an m.2 SSD would be a smart decision.

**Here is a review that sort of makes some nice comparisons. It's a positive review, but has some nice context.

***Still insanely expensive though; my drive is only 256GB (for my OS and a few select programs), but a 2 TB m.2 drive (Gen 3) costs like 800 dollars. A 2 TB SSD (SATA) is around 500, while a 2 TB HDD is....60 dollars hahaha.

m.2 pcie gen3x4 b+m type, gigabyte claims it goes up to 32 gb/s. time to get rid of the sata cables. hoping prices will start to decline soon.

Then I think you need a PCIE based M.2 drive.

I want a 2TB SSD.. regular or M.2 based, sata either way though.

At the same time, I don't really see the point of it when it comes how I plan on changing my storage space. I got a 2x4TB Raid 1 NAS set up as iSCSI disc (or is it iCSCI??). This one was merely a test, but it works well. Considering expanding it. Like seriously considering it, however it will cost me loads. Getting 4++ regular HDD and make my own NAS. I think most of the free nas OS out there also supports iSCSI. Get a mobo with 10GBit ethernet on both my main computer and NAS, connect them directly to each other. Should give me descent read speed (if enough drives and a capable RAID card or controller, I should max it) and okay write speed.

so the m.2 m key slot on the mobo would use sata 3 which is 6 gb/s, and the pci express 1 slot with an adapter for the m.2 would be 32 gb/s. if that is the case thats gonna be a problem because the gpu takes up 2 slots covering the pci express 1 :(

The M.2 connector or whatever it is called, can be either or both I think. I haven't looked it up so much because I don't want to any changes on my rig that requires touching the water cooling loop. :P

ok, gonna try and see what works, the pcie x1 slot is def out, will see what the m key slot on the mobo accomodates