AdviceM.2 as main storage
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AdviceM.2 as main storagePosted:

Knowledge_1
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I'm in the market for a new PC build (will be my first PC I build on my own) and I'm wondering if there are any drawbacks to having M.2 drives being my only source of storage.

The motherboard I want (Asus Maximus XI Hero [with an i9 9900k]) supports two slots for M.2 storage and I definitely will get at least one for the OS but will this have any negative impact on my PC like heat and power consumption if I decide to use both slots for 2 TB's each of storage?
#2. Posted:
Spoezy
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Nothing is wrong. i use a 970 evo as my windows hdd. I also have a 1tb ssd for games.
#3. Posted:
Adam
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Nope. You'll be just fine. Power consumption isn't a factor that you should care about with M.2 drives. Heat is hit and miss. The cooler the better but I wouldn't go out of your way to make sure it's ice cool. Just a bit of airflow and it'll be fine.
#4. Posted:
-Deano
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As said by others, you will be fine. I have a Samsung 970 Evo (500GB) as my main drive and have had no issues.
#5. Posted:
M9z
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Solid state storage can only be overwritten so many times (Definitely never run a defrag on one, just in case, don't do it) but with all the games I play, I use a 7200RPM mechanical 5tb harddrive.

Definitely enough storage, and Steam can be set up to only install games to a specific drive so that's what I did, I've never even gone above 2tb used, and it's held up for a few good years now, but it's a game drive only, so if it ever fails, Steam has my back, I'd just replace the drive, and set Steam to download my games back through the night lol
#6. Posted:
Scratched
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The drawback to having M.2 drives depends on you really. And I mean this like so many other PC Builders will tell you it's always on you for the end result.

Me personally I have nothing but SSDs. On that all 1TB, do I need it... No, but I personally WANTED a rig that could hands down easily install and uninstall games, hold footage I could far easier access and playback as well as have my OS (Windows 10 Home x64) boot in legit seconds. So I went that route.
ADATA SU800 1TB SSD
Samsung 970 EVO 1TB

The drawbacks to M.2s though are really just you, in the sense, do you want to wait for prices to drop further, how many you want, the size of storage you want (personally for M.2s I wouldn't ever consider lower than 1TB purely for the means of NOT reopening motherboard covers and heatsinks and having to disassemble my watercooling just for ONE thing. BUT THAT IS ME.) as well as how often you intend to make upgrades and such. There is a benefit in having everything you want at the ready at once then to do it piece by at times painstaking piece.

In terms of heat, SSDs generally run hotter as is, my SU800s run about 40-60C and are far away from my motherboard. There is no fan on them, because they actually run better warmer too. I would say after 70C you'll see performance drops and some issues arise, but generally they will all across the board run 40-60C on average. But these are 2.5 SSDs and not M.2, M.2s however in at least most mid to high end boards like yours you have heat sinks on those M.2s which can displace that heat, will it rise your temperatures? Likely by 1-3C IF AT ALL. Depends on your airflow though. Good airflow, hell you might not even see a .000001C increase.
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