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    960gb SSD only or 256gb SSD + 1TB Hard Drive?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by omo, Mar 6, 2016.

  1. omo

    omo Notebook Enthusiast

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    I already have a 960 GB SanDisk SATA SSD. I am in 2 minds on what to do, either I buy a 256gb M.2 SSD and install Windows on it, keeping the standard hard disk for storage or I change the standard hard disk to this 960 GB SSD, taking out the 32gb M.2 SSD, as it wont work with both installed. What do you guys think? Pros and cons please
     
  2. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    Just use the 960GB SanDisk SATA SSD, simply because you currently own it. Your out-of-pocket costs will be $0.

    Down the road, when you need more raw storage, then you can look into a M.2 SSD + 2.5" mechanical HDD combo. You'll be able to take advantage of the fact that storage is always getting faster, cheaper, and higher-capacity as time goes on.

    I don't know what laptop model you have. But if you have a XPS 13 9350 or XPS 15 9550, you could get an M.2 NVMe SSD, like a Samsung 950 Pro or Samsung SM951 SSD. Those would be "techincally" faster than a 2.5" SATA SSD. But you're only going to see a performance difference between M.2 NVMe and 2.5" SATA SSDs in benchmarks. You won't get any real-world performance differences. So save your money, use the 960GB SSD you already own, and buy new storage in the future when you eventually need to upgrade for capacity reasons.