Data and measurements from our catalog, checked against each manufacturer's spec sheet.
- An NVMe M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD is the best balance of price and speed.
- For gaming, 1 TB is the minimum and 2 TB is comfortable: many games take up more than 100 GB.
- A fast SSD speeds up loading saves and levels, but barely changes FPS.
- SATA SSDs work well as a second drive for extra games and files.
1SATA or NVMe: which one you'll notice
A SATA SSD reads at about 550 MB/s, the limit of its connection; an NVMe M.2 PCIe 4.0 drive reaches about 7,000 MB/s and a PCIe 5.0 drive about 14,000 MB/s. In everyday use, any SSD feels lightning-fast compared with a mechanical hard drive. In games, an NVMe drive loads saves and levels a few seconds sooner than a SATA one, and games that use DirectStorage get even more out of it.
What doesn't change is performance once the game is loaded: FPS depends on the graphics card and the CPU, not the drive.
2PCIe Gen4 or Gen5: is the fastest one worth it?
Gen5 SSDs double the read speed, but in games the difference over Gen4 is minimal, they run hotter (they usually need the motherboard's heatsink) and they cost more. They make sense if you move huge files, like 4K or 8K video.
They also need a Gen5 M.2 slot on the motherboard: in a Gen4 slot they work, but at Gen4 speed.
3How many GB or TB do you need?
| Use | Recommended capacity |
|---|---|
| Office work and school | 500 GB to 1 TB |
| Gaming with a few games installed | 1 TB |
| Gaming with a big library | 2 TB or more |
| Video editing | 2 TB for the system plus another drive for projects |
Big games today take 100 to 150 GB or more, and Windows with its updates uses several tens of GB. Also leave 10–20% of the SSD free: when it's nearly full, it writes more slowly.
4Where the M.2 SSD goes and whether it needs a heatsink
NVMe M.2 SSDs screw straight into an M.2 slot on the motherboard, with no cables. Use the slot closest to the CPU, which is usually the fastest, and fit the heatsink that comes with the board if it has one (peel the protective film off its thermal pad first). Check the manual to see whether any M.2 slot shares lanes with another slot or with SATA ports. You'll see it step by step in the assembly guide.