2 ssds which one for windows

I have a new laptop on its way and I already bought the ssds for it. My last laptop was all ssd I had 4 in it and it makes me cringe to use something like an hdd again so I'm putting the hdd ( it is a slim 7mm one) in an enclose almost day one.

It's an xps 15 9550 i5 8gb

It has sata 3. It has a single nvme slot but I'm using it for sata

The 2 ssds are a 500 gb crucial mx200 2280

And a 1 tb mushkin reactor 2.5 inch

Now you think intuitively the Windows goes on the m2 drive that's what it is for.

But I learned from my last machine than booting from an m2 drive makes it hot. Where as leaving it as storage will keep its temperature lower

The nand on both drives is micron 16nm mlc

The mx200 has a more advanced Marvel controller vs silicon motion.

I'm not sure which will be faster or which will boot faster. The large drive could even be faster. It should be a little slower.

I can't think of a reason why the smaller drive should be Windows but I might be missing something.


Any reason you can see why one is more reliable?

Any thoughts or opinions welcome thanks

 

http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Mushkin-Reactor-1TB-vs-Crucial-MX200-500GB/m19867vs3504

I'm going to have to install it on the mx200 regardless based on when it arrives in the mail

But if a ssd is faster and cooler

 

My feeling is Crucial to be cooler. Look ar Anandtech for performance comparison.

 

The reason that can't be right is the crucial is an m2 2280 drive and the mushkin is a 2.5 inch drive

So the mushkin will be a lot cooler

But I don't know yet if they both have readable temperatures .

I had a 500 gb Samsung 850 m2 that seemed to throttle with my last laptop.

But I don't know how either of these are going to be yet.

I just remember my last machine before it got stolen I had a 1 tb 2.5 inch as storage yet it was faster cooler and used much less power than my m2 drives so I had almost decided to switch it to the boot drive.

I don't even know if these drives are gonna be like that

 

Is Crucial Storage Executive (and specifically; Momentum Cache) compatible with the M.2 drives?

If it is, then install Windows to the MX200 and enable Momentum Cache. It will be faster (for sure, I have enabled at least a dozen systems with MX200's and other SSD's (2.5") with Momentum Cache and they run fast, stable and reliable.

What I don't know is if enabling Momentum Cache will make the dreaded M.2 drives run cooler. Your testing will let us know.

See:
http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/support-storage-executive

 

I was wondering if there is a utility like that that works with mushkin.

I see intel has one Samsung and crucial.

But that makes sense that the cache is only going to be on the install drive. And the software only works for the m2.

Also I'm not sure yet when I'm getting more ram and it only has 8gb

 

My mushkin reactor arrived do a so I'm sending it to mushkin. Windows on mx200 with hdd for a minute.

I tried installing a game from the hed and gave up after 20 minutes. I forgot what that is like lol he's are so terrible.

When I take it out someday it has to be just for files like movies music. Too slow to be useful

 

Had to read your post a couple of times. DOA? That's a bad break.

Hope the next one is better.

I haven't installed a game since around 1997 or so (from floppies), but I don't think for a modern game 20 minutes is too long on a HDD.

 

Well the way I see it most games nowadays are downloads and surely your HDD is faster than what your internet can provide. If you are literally exracting and installing from an ISO or physical media, then HDD can be a bottleneck, but it also may be your CPU. No matter the medium when it comes to small files (which many games have thousands of them), it can take a while whether HDD or SSD.

 

ya i had a 2.5 inch ssd and it arrived doa. I returned it to mushkin today no idea when i will get a replacement. I could buy another one but how many do i want lol

so while i was waiting for it i was using the hdd that came with the laptop its a 5400 7mm slim hdd.

So I tried installing fallout 4 from it and it took so long i just cancelled. it would take a long time from a ssd also.

If i even try it again im transfering the file to the ssd and installing it from there. but its slow regardless hdd is slow.

Its still a large storage its just best for a movie or music or whatever. For me

 

Once the game is downloaded it has to be installed

So I don't even have a figure for you on the amount of time difference but it must be at least 10x and maybe more.

The cpu and ram can cut into it too . I'm going from an i7 broadwell with 32 gb to a i5 Skylake w 8 g

I don't know the performance difference of those but I know the former is better I can tell already. Significantly

 

See:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i7-5775c-i5-5675c-broadwell,4169-10.html

With an i7 to an i5 of the same gen giving a 15% to almost 59% better performance with the i7, it doesn't look good for the Skylake i5 platform.

Especially when it has 4x less RAM too. (Work=Productivity which equals CPU+RAM).

Without knowing the actual processors you had/have, can't really comment on the performance delta might be.

But in my own experience, even surfing the 'net with anything less than an i7 QC 16GB RAM or less platform is a waste of my time.

Installing programs, updating the O/S and other heavy duty workloads (even if they aren't too frequent) is enough for me to not recommend any i5 or lower platform - even for general 'office duty' use (especially if that office duty includes creating, updating or otherwise working with PDF's).

In the end, the storage subsystem may not be the actual bottleneck here (relatively speaking... vs. the performance 'scores' of HDD's vs. SSD's).

I think it would be worth testing for yourself how long the install takes with the HDD and how long it will take on the SSD once it arrives. You may be surprised how much an HDD still holds it's own in 2016 for what is seemingly a 'heavy use' of the storage subsystem. Of course the SSD will be faster, but it won't be 10x faster either... (this testing will be most useful if the O/S, drivers, etc. all stay the same except for the HDD vs. SSD when you test).

If you can max out the RAM on your current system to anything over 16GB, I think you may see an improvement greater than going from an HDD to an SSD (at least for installing the game). I'm also assuming you have your HDD optimally setup too - with PerfectDisk 14 Pro or higher optimizing the placement of the files, their fragmentation status, and the defragmentation of the free space on the drive too. Not to mention short stroking the HDD to give it a further minimum 10% (and up to 40% boost in performance too compared to a single partition.

In the meantime, what specific i7 Broadwell and i5 Skylake are we talking about?

 

i went from a i7 5700 to an i5 6300

 

See:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2533&cmp[]=2632

Your nominal performance went from a ~23% faster single core and ~49% faster multi core rating with the RAM being not taken into consideration. For multitasking, 4x the 8GB RAM you currently have was at least an additional 60% faster responding system.

I wouldn't be surprised if you effectively have half the compute platform you previously had.

See:
http://ark.intel.com/compare/87716,88959


The Skylake platform does offer better spec's and as those are exploited by the O/S and the programs you use, it may be useful for your workflows. But at the i5 level, performance-wise overall, it doesn't match the i7 you had before - especially with the RAM discrepancy between them.

I think I've mentioned this before; buy the fastest RAM you can to max out the platform you're running now (even if the BIOS doesn't allow specific settings for 'fast RAM'). This 'tip' can make as much difference as going from a HDD to an SSD (if we don't count boot up/shut down 'scores'). And I recommend this be done before an SSD too.

Curious to see what you may report if you decide to test the install on the SSD and HDD for us all.

 

A long time after I wrote this I now finally have my 2nd ssd.
Moves the 7mm hed to a 7mm enclosure I got for 5 dollars on eBay.

All this time Windows has been on the m2 ssd

Tests show me the mushkin reactor is similar but slower than the m2 mx200

So the faster smaller drive should stay where it is.

Neither drive runs hot. The large one does run 7 c cooler.

 

7C cooler than?

 

I have a m2 500gb mx200

As the boot drive it shows 38c. And the reactor which is new and has nothing on it shows 31c.

Nothing scientific about this they are both cool. It's just no reason to boot from the reactor because of temperature .

In technology they are both crucial 16nm nand drives.

So the original point of this was trying to make a case for using the 2.5 as the boot drive. Now that I finally have it there isn't one

 

I can show the speed tests I have.

They are the same in read and the mx200 writes a px 10percent faster

They are a similar speed and technology level. They have different brand controllers that are similar level

 

The Reactor has a SMI right? Those are known to be power-friendly and cool.

 

Yes it runs cool. I don't have any utility that shows power usage.

I had the crucial bx100 too with the same hardware but better firmware and it used crucial executive.
I am curious if it's possible that a controller would have to be in a certain size or form of ssd.

Because this sm controller is only available in 2.5 inch ssds

It is the newest or near newest sata controller to come out but it's not in m2 size anywhere.

 

@stamar if you're talking about SM2246EN, it's been available for a while, and widely used in SATA 2.5", mSATA and M.2 NGFF drives. Cheap yet good; all my SSDs are based on it.

 

It's usually available on 2.5 SSDs because it's seen as a low end controller (though still a fairly capably one). And low end SSDs are most commonly found in 2.5 form factor.

There's no technically limitation on what form factor it can go into. As Starlight5 said it is available on some mSATA/M2 models.

【This is the real link】 Here's【/This is the real link】 a USB thumb drive using SM2246EN.

Edit: damn it SkimWords!