I have a B550 Tomahawk Motherboard and I'm currently using a Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB SSD in the PCIe 4 x4 m.2 slot for my OS. I just bought a P510 Gen 5 SSD that offers up to 10,000/8,700MB/s read/write speeds. I'm trying to figure out the best way to set this up. Should I:
a) Do a clean install of Windows on the P510 and partition it for other files, while wiping the 970 and moving it to the PCIe 3 x4 slot for some other use?
b) Clone the partition from the 970 to the P510, even though I'm not a fan of cloning. If I go this route, do I need to partition the new drive to match the old OS partition size?
c) Keep the OS on the 970 and move it to the PCIe 3 m.2 slot, while using the P510 in the PCIe 4 m.2 slot for photos, music, and data.
If I choose option (c), will I notice any significant performance loss compared to option (a)? I want to use the 2TB for my photos and some minor image processing. However, if having the OS on the faster drive offers a clear performance benefit, I'm willing to do that instead.
4 Answers
Does your motherboard even support Gen 5 speeds? It may be backwards compatible, but you'd still be limited to Gen 4 speeds.
Following this because I'm in a similar situation and I'm curious about the best setup.
Cloning can work well if done right. I switched from a smaller SSD to a larger one and used cloning software to keep everything exactly the same. Just remember, the partition sizes ideally should match up, but you might find some software can handle that for you.
I would recommend going with option A. Starting fresh with a clean install of Windows is usually the best route if you don't have a lot of data to transfer. Plus, it gives you a chance to set things up just how you like them without any old files or settings getting in the way.
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