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M.2 is a form factor that can integrate devices such as Wi-Fi cards, NFC devices, WWAN among others, but is more widely used for high-speed storage devices. M.2 SSD is a small form factor solid-state drive that is installed on a PC or laptop and most storage devices that use this form factor are NVMe SSDs (Nonvolatile Memory Express).
When building a gaming PC, it is highly recommended to install an M.2 SSD and install Windows on it, as an SSD will outperform a hard disk in every way. Besides decreasing boot times substantially, it will also run all applications faster and more smoothly. However, for gaming, it is a different story.
How M.2 SSDs impact gaming
Readers must keep in mind that installing games on an SSD will not increase FPS in any way, as that is something handled by other components such as the GPU, CPU, and RAM. An SSD can only decrease transfer times exponentially, helping games load quicker, reduce lag and make the overall gaming experience smoother.
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Faster load times
The faster read and write times compared to a traditional mechanical hard drive help the system load large files faster, something that is commonly found in games. Games installed in an SSD will boot faster, loading in half the time it would if installed on an HDD. Loading from the game's menu into the game will also be much faster, significantly reducing the amount of time spent waiting. Essentially, a few minutes of loading time is saved in every gaming session, leading to the saving of hours of waiting in the long term.
PCIe 4.0
The latest PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs are currently the fastest storage devices, with read speeds of up to 7200 MB/s and write speeds of up to 6800 MB/s. If you want to future-proof your setup, buying a PCIe 4.0 drive is the way to go as they are much quicker than a PCIe 3.0 drive. However, currently, other components cannot take full advantage of the high speeds for gaming. They can also be installed in a PCIe 3.0 slot as they are backwards compatible, but will only run at PCIe 3.0 speeds.
Price
The only disadvantage of buying an M.2 SSD is its price and capacity. For gaming, users will need a significant amount of space to play modern day games. In recent years, the install sizes of games have become enormous, with the average AAA game taking up to 20% of total storage space in a 1TB storage device. As newer games are released, their graphics get better with more high-resolution textures being used that have a larger memory footprint, which proves that games are only going to get bigger.
To buy a higher capacity SSD, a large amount of money will have to be spent, with 1TB being the minimum amount of storage needed for gaming unless users are okay with deleting a game to make space for a new game, every single time. Even though the prices of SSDs have been decreasing recently, they are still pricier than getting a mechanical hard drive, but also have clear advantages to justify the bump in price.
Conclusion
Getting an M.2 SSD is definitely worth it for gaming, which not only improves the gaming experience but also makes it a cruise to use the system, with faster boot times and transfer times. If you are a content creator, there is more reason to buy an SSD over an HDD as most software that deals with large files make the most of a fast storage device.
