what SSD do i get?

[daring copper]

4 Years ago, i bought a prebuilt pc and its ssd was not good but its lasted me until now i think its time for an upgrade and i have my eyes set on 2 ssd's.

Samsung 980 Pro 1TB M.2 NVMe Gen 4
or
Samsung 870 EVO SATA III 1TB

which one is better?

[distant burrow]

M.2 NVMe drives are way better than just SATA SSDs any day

[daring copper]

do you mind giving me some reasoning as to why that is. i just dont want to waste $60

[distant burrow]

Well an M.2 SSD is faster than SATA, like a lot faster.
If you want an easy to install compact drive with fast speed, you can't go wrong with M.2 especially for your operating system. Downside with M.2 is that it's not supported by older motherboards and you won't be able to take the full advantage of Gen 4 if your mobo only supports up to Gen 3.
If you're just looking for extra storage, SATA SSD will do just fine you won't notice a huge difference especially with games and such + it's compatible with older mobos.

[daring copper]

i read online that sata fits all motherboards and i have no clue what motherboard i have but i bought starfield and because i only had a hard drive to install it on, it was dreadful to say the least. I need both storage and better performance.

[distant burrow]

Well you did say it was a prebuilt, which system exactly? I can try and figure out if it supports M.2

Btw Starfield is notoriously badly optimised, so don't expect a huge improvement in performance by simply installing an SSD

[mental haven]

Installing much of any big game is dreadful on a HDD. My first PC had 3 of 'em. 2TB each

Needless to say, it was slow

Shit wifi didn't help, either

[daring copper]

in 2019, i was new to pc gaming so i bought an upgradable cyberpower pc for $599. Since then, ive upgraded the gpu, ram, and i tried to upgrade the cpu but i messed up platonically. The current ssd that was in the computer was a $15 Lexar 256gb SSD and a random 500gb HDD.
The computer is probably now worth $1500 yet it feels so held back because the ssd basically isnt usable.

[daring copper]

right but rn every 10 seconds or everytime i enter a room, my fps stutters and freezes for 5 seconds which is not fun whatsoever

[mental haven]

All replacing the HHD with a SSD will do basically is make load times shorter

[daring copper]

yeah especially when the game devs of starfield say the minimum requirement is to have a SSD

[mental haven]

Aside from more storage if you get one bigger than the HDD

[daring copper]

i watched a video of starfield and it was a guy who was comparing a hdd and a ssd and the hdd was stuttering while the ssd was smooth as butter

so is a hdd and ssd only load times and storage or is it also better performance and less stuttering

[wild hound]

Keep in mind that if you end up getting a cacheless/cheap ssd, it'll be the same or worse performance than an HDD

[daring copper]

yea well wouldnt a $60 SAMSUNG 870 EVO 1TB be better than a $15 256gb ssd?

[daring copper]

yea

[mental haven]

Yes.

Yes it would

[wild hound]

Ye xd

[daring copper]

$60 is fairly cheap for me

[wild hound]

Was just giving that info, some even pretty big ssd's can end up being cacheless and aboslutely perish due to it

[mental haven]

And the SSD thats in it rn is basically unusable because its just being used for windows

[daring copper]

funny enough, ive had less than 10gb free of storage for the last 2 years

i dont know if i want to risk buying a $60 M.2 when theres a chance of it not being compatible with my motherboard

[mental haven]

My 2tb SSD in my computer in never under half full

[mental haven]

As long as the motherboard has M.2 slots it'll work

[daring copper]

exactly, ive had less than 750gb of storage for the last 4 years

i basically know nothing about computers except the obvious

i just need something to change because nearly every game i play stutters and its been 4 years of upgrading the gpu and ram