I've been using a Neo Forza NFP035 1TB NVMe SSD as my only drive, but I just got my hands on a WD Black SN850X 2TB NVMe SSD. I'm trying to figure out if I should swap out the Neo Forza and make the SN850X my boot drive, or if I should just leave the Neo Forza in place and use the SN850X for additional storage. Will I really notice a difference in performance if I make the upgrade? I mainly use this PC for gaming, and it's my first attempt at modifying a pre-built system.
3 Answers
What are your CPU and motherboard specs? If you're on a newer system like a Ryzen 7000 or Intel 12th Gen, you might want to put the SN850X in the first M.2 slot for best performance. Some motherboards can lower speeds if you install multiple SSDs, though. For your setup, I’d suggest using the SN850X in the first slot to get the most out of your hardware.
Stick with the Neo Forza as your boot drive. There really isn't a significant performance boost for Windows between the two drives. Unless you're doing something super intensive, I'd keep it simple and just get the SN850X for extra space.
To be honest, you probably won't see much difference in day-to-day use, especially if you're mostly gaming. Keeping the Neo Forza as your boot drive could work just fine without sacrificing performance.
My CPU is a 12th Gen i7-12700KF with an Asus PRIME Z690-P WIFI D4 motherboard and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. Given that, should I prioritize using the SN850X in the first M.2 slot, or can I put it in M.2_2 or M.2_3?