Best SSD to use for Dcs

Hi guys what does everyone use to store DCS on is a SSD best to use if so what capacity 1tb or 2tb ? Also my motherboard supports m2 so would it make much difference in load times.

If you want to use it for DCS only, 1 TB should be OK. I think it's important, that you buy an M2 SSD with NVME, if your Mainboard supports it. It's much faster than a SATA SSD.

Brilliant just edited my post and you answered my question thank you. Would a 2nd m2 ssd be a good drive to use for windows then too ? Faster boot time

If you have the possibility of using two M2 SSDs, I think you should do it. A good M2 SSD (like the Samsung 970 Evo) has a reading transfer rate of 3500 MB/s. A SATA SSD will be at a maximum of 600 MB/s. That's quite a difference. I'm using a 256 GB Samsung 960 Evo as my OS drive and a 1 TB Samsung 970 Evo for DCS and other sims and games.

Personally I think it makes a difference, if you're using an M2 SSD for your OS. But I never benchmarked my system with my old SATA SSD and then with the new M2 SSD. I just replaced the SATA-drive and I'm very happy with my M2 SSDs. ;)

Thanks for the reply yes think M2 is definitely the way to go will check out the evo 970 thanks for that.

The load times wont differ that much between 2.5" SSD and a NVMe M2 SSD. Reviews I have read with other games say 2-3 seconds for most games. Compared to a HDD, both are fast as hell.

The benefit from a NVMe is the much higher IOPS compared to 2.5". It makes a difference when you ie install patches, install the OS or in general have to work lots of files read-write-delete/replace kinda thing or such.

The other benefit is also nice, no cables anywhere, clean & sleek.

If you get two of them, make sure BOTH have a cooling solution. Most not-higher end boards only have 1 M2 slot with integrated cooler and the second is blank. Buy a cooling solution for the 2nd one, they indeed do get hot when stressed for a few seconds.

Samsung 970 Evo or Evo Plus is a good choice.

Samsung EVO 960 1TB SATA here - no M2 on my board, but I'm happy with it

Like BitMaster said, it's quite important to have a proper cooling for your M2 SSD. I'm using this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Kryom-Passive-Cooler-M-2-2280-SSD/dp/B0742LYNWN/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?crid=15AP2SNOK1CYZ&keywords=aquacomputer+kryo+m.2&qid=1579726811&sprefix=aquacomputer+%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1-fkmr0 and some 140 mm case fans, for a good ventilation.

When I ordered the ROG Maximus xi Hero it has built in heat spreaders for the two M2 slots but the supplier still included 2 heat spreaders with the 2 Evo 970 NVMe 1TB drives. The ones on the MoBo are bigger and have some fins on them compared with the freebies from the supplier.

You can just see the heat spreader just above the AIO pump

Remember that only the controller needs cooling on a m.2 nvme drive.

Also consider your chipset when getting a nvme drive. On many mainstream chipsets (especially intel) you will most likely be bottlenecked by the chipset interface. Check out the topology and find the m.2 slot thats wired directly to the cpu.

Remember that only the controller needs cooling on a m.2 nvme drive.

Also consider your chipset when getting a nvme drive. On many mainstream chipsets (especially intel) you will most likely be bottlenecked by the chipset interface. Check out the topology and find the m.2 slot thats wired directly to the cpu.

This, if your motherboard has a second if third m.2 slot, one will be connected through the SATA controller instead, and probably not much speed benefit over a 2.5 drive.

Interesting stuff these new M2 drives definitely think I may get one even just for windows interesting how they heat up quick definitely need a cooler. Think my board only takes one but will check later gigabyte X470 ultra gaming board.

Hi guys what does everyone use to store DCS on is a SSD best to use if so what capacity 1tb or 2tb ? Also my motherboard supports m2 so would it make much difference in load times.

I tested this between SSD and M.2 NVMe. I posted the times on this forum a while back. There was no appreciable difference between using SSD and NVMe.

I have an NVMe drive for DCS, can confirm it made little to no difference. These transfer rates only come into play when moving large quantities of continuous data. A game does not do that, it loads many small files. As a result you NEVER COME CLOSE TO THOSE SPEEDS.

You're better off with a larger SATA SSD drive, period. Or a raid of platter drives, although that's a bit more complicated. Anybody claiming otherwise is bollocks and should be ignored.

Btw, M2 is a form factor. Has nothing to do with speed. M2 are skinny drives that lay horizontally across your board. That is all that means. An M2 drive can be either SATA or NVMe depending on your motherboard and THAT is what determines speed. Check to see what your motherboard actually has, the plugs are NOT the same. NVMe will not work in a SATA and SATA won't work in NVMe. M2 is strictly ''the style'' nothing to do with TYPE of drive.

This, if your motherboard has a second if third m.2 slot, one will be connected through the SATA controller instead, and probably not much speed benefit over a 2.5 drive.

No, the PCIe lanes used for Sata 5+6 are rereouted to the NVMe-M2 slot, that is all.

Truth is, you cannot hve full speed with NVMe if you use any other drive at the same time, like copy from Sata to USB3.2gen2 and read data from NVMe2 to memory, that will bottleneck itself, or copy from NVMe2 to a Raid-0 for 4 Sata's.

On Intel Z Desktop chips no NVMe2 slot is directly wired to the CPU, this is only true with AMD Chipsets.

No, the PCIe lanes used for Sata 5+6 are rereouted to the NVMe-M2 slot, that is all.

 

Truth is, you cannot hve full speed with NVMe if you use any other drive at the same time, like copy from Sata to USB3.2gen2 and read data from NVMe2 to memory, that will bottleneck itself, or copy from NVMe2 to a Raid-0 for 4 Sata's.

 

On Intel Z Desktop chips no NVMe2 slot is directly wired to the CPU, this is only true with AMD Chipsets.

This one tripped me up, as well as the 2 NVMe M2 I had stuck a HDD on SATA5 oops! man it took an age to boot up the PC and it was when I seen the above comment that reminded me there was mention of it in the user guide. Removed the offending HDD and now booting up in a few seconds.

Phew!

Yeah,

it's why I prefer AMD chipsets meanwhile when it comes to throughput.

Like this: 1st NVMe slot goes directly to the CPU, the 2nd and 3rd slot if present route to your PCH, -BUT- on Ryzen 3000 & X 570 chipsets THAT is a PCIe v4 connection between the CPU and PCH, which means, as long as you stick to a PCIe v3 NVMe on the 2nd and 3rd slot you can go FULL BORE. Only if you connect a PCIe v4 NVMe in 2nd and 3rd slot you could possibly bottleneck the PCH -while- that 2nd or 3rd NVMe is in full stroke operation. Still, you should be able to copy and paste from 1st v4 NVMe to the 2nd or 3rd NVMe v4 at FULL speed.

That's something Intel Desktops can only dream about.

I just built a 3800x for a friend with 1 970 Evo and he will likely get another 1TB drive from me today, actually holding back an order to wait for his call. If that is the case, I will testcopy some GB between the 2 and see if they go full bore, up to their limits themselves and not up to the limit of the CPU and/or PCH.

DCS loads thousands of small lua files before starting a mission stressing a lot the SSDs in random readings. In this case, the best of the best for PCI-E 3.0 motherboards are the optane 900P and 905P in the AIC or U2(some packages have an M2 adaptor too) form factor.

The Optanes are well known for very low latency and best performance in random readings (about 250mb/s vs 40~70 of the "normal" M2 NVME SSD). This performance come at big price sadly...5-6 times the price of a good 1TB Nvme SSD.

Since the 905P 960GB was totally out of budget for me, I've choosen the HP EX950 1TB with better random readings than Samsung 970 Pro & Evo Plus.

BTW, if you're one of the lucky guy with an X570 mobo you can buy a PCI-E 4.0 M2 and obtain a massive performance jump everywhere.

The QD1 trap, yes.

905P is out of question for most users as you have already mentioned.

IIRC the Samsung Pro NVMe models still shine bright compared to some PCIe v4 SSDs at QD1.

I run 2 x 850Pro in Raid-0 and it'sfast enough, for now :)

The QD1 trap, yes.

 

905P is out of question for most users as you have already mentioned.

 

IIRC the Samsung Pro NVMe models still shine bright compared to some PCIe v4 SSDs at QD1.

 

I run 2 x 850Pro in Raid-0 and it'sfast enough, for now :)

Yes, at QD1 PCi-E 4.0 from Corsair/Gigabyte/Sabrent are a bit below the Samsung 970, but they compensate a lot with improved latency and double speed of sequential readings when bigger files (like textures or models) are loading. Probably they still have an immature firmware that can improve over times. Samsung on the other hand have a very good NVME dedicated driver and firmware, I'm curious what the announced 980 Pro can achieve...

i put in 2x nvme and love them, but I only went for them as they were the same price. They take up less room, and are faster. That said, I really don't think any average user or gamer will notice a real bum on seat difference.

If you are doing 4k video editing...then no question, get nvme.

Note nvme also run hotter, so make sure you are comfortable with monitoring temperature and have or willing to get decent cooling. Mine runs fine without heatsinks...need to get around to putting the heatsinks on to see the difference.

Get the Intel M.2 ssds. Almost half the price of the Samsung ones, and NO difference in performance. Performance difference will be only when reading/writing single large files.

I just have dcs and my os on my nvme and everything else on my 2.5ssd.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

m2 are v v good

Hi,

Basically it is completely irrelevant if you use a cheap SSD drive or an overpriced Samsung EVO Plus+++.

Its basically a waste of money.

And if you ask yourself SSD vs. NVME?

Tl;DR

Any modern SSD will do it and you will not notice a difference in day to day use.

Save the money and put it into a better graphic card and check if your RAM is large enough.

Cheers