Sdd upgrade

[Bernijg]

I want to upgrade the internal ssd.  for a m.2 NVMe PCI-e 1Tb 2280.  Should I buy a gen 3 or 4 ?  This is taken fron WD site '' Western Digital PC SN520 NVMe SSD, supporting PCIe Gen3 x2, ''.  Does it mean it is a Gen3?  If a Gen4 is use, will  the speed be a Gen4 or 3?

Thank you very much.

Jean-Guy Bernier

[DGroves]

the SSD model you reference  is using only TWO pci-e data lanes (x2)  as such it's max speed will be slower when on a pci-e 2.0/3.0 capable system most nvme ssd's will use x4 (four pci-e data lanes)

if you have a pci-e 2.0 system instead of 3.0 your ssd speed will be cut in half compared to pci-e 3.0

so if you use this ssd on a pci-e 2.0 system the data speed will be approx. 1/4 the speed a pci-e 3.0 using four data lanes

unless you will be upgrading to a motherboard/computer that has pci-e 4 support, save your money and stick with a 3.0 ssd

compare the R/W specs of your drive with others

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/cl-sn520-nvme-ssd#SDAPNUW-128G-1022

one of the very best nvme 3.0 ssd's

https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-MZ-V8V1T0B-AM-980-SSD/dp/B08V83JZH4/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=ssd&qid=16740...

there are better ssd's that go on sale from time to time, use google to search for online reviews

[Bernijg]

Thank you for the reply.  As mentionned, I don't know if the M.2 socket on wich the ssd is hooked on the motherbord is Gen 2-3 or 4.  The  WD SSD on it  is a Gen 3 so I can imagine the bord acccept Gen3 Nvme SSD ?   Tis is the WD I own :  WD PC SN520NVMe    M.2 2280-S3-B-M   SDAPNUW-256g-1006.

Thank you.

Jean-Guy

[DGroves]

i supplied you with the HP quickspecs for your model is there a problem with the link?

taking the time to read those specs will answer your questions

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Bernijg 

According to the motherboard specs for your PC, it has an Intel H470 chipset.

HP Desktop PCs - Motherboard Specifications, Baker | HP® Customer Support

The Intel specs for the H470 chipset indicates that the PCI express generation is 3.0.

Intel H470 Chipset Product Specifications

I have no doubt the M.2 slot is PCIe 3 x 4.

[Bernijg]

I also bought a larger HDD. WD 40EZAZ 4Tb to replace the original Toshiba 1Tb,  The device manager in Win10 after the disk been initialised show a  1.8Tb in MBR and 2Tb in GPT.  Checked in MSInfo32 and BIOS is EUFI.  I know if the BIOS is Legacy, it cannot read more than 2TB. Chip set is H470 and motherboard is BAKER 8767.  PC is Pavillion Gaming Desktop PC TG01-1109.

Thank you for you time and your help.

Jean-Guy Bernier

[DGroves]

earlier systems had bios's that had a 2TB size limit, you can usually work around this by using the drive as a data drive and partitioning your 4tb drive as two 2tb partitions  so your boot drive will be under 2TB as "c" and your 4tb drive will be partitioned as 2tb partitions "D/E" which is what your current configuration now is

[Bernijg]

Thankyou very much.  To clearify, my boot is on a ssd M.2.  My data will be on the 4Tb with 2 partions of 2 Tb.  Will it better to initialise GPT or MBR ?

Thank you very very much.

Jean-Guy

[Bernijg]

All that because Disk Manager do not see my HDD as a 4Tb but only a 2 Tb whatever I initialised it GPT or MBR.

So I returned the disk a took a 2 Tb 40$ less expensive.  This will work as my data disk.

[DGroves]

for older systems where the bios limits the drives to 2TB or less MBR is recommended

GPT format is newer and supports large drives better

Master Boot Record (MBR) disks use the standard BIOS partition table. GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks use Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). One advantage of GPT disks is that you can have more than four partitions on each disk. GPT is also required for disks larger than two terabytes (TB)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk-management/change-an-mbr-disk-into-a-g...