Posted on 12/15/2022 5:40:45 AM PST by Paul R.
Interesting related article for those confused (like I was!) by the jargon.
https://digitalworld839.com/difference-between-nvme-vs-pcie-ssd-explained/
Note this statement: All you need is a memory space in RAM where requests are copied to the NVMe SSD to speed up data access. This is crucial, for example, for applications that move large files, such as texture atlases in 3D rendering or large-capacity video editing files.
Granted I don't do much with files that large. But would more RAM speed up the NVMe drive under some circumstances, when I have several windows open? Any difference for the 2nd SATA drive (if it actually works)? That (SATA data drive would be where large file transfers might be occurring now and then.) Might come into play when doing backups?
Good points I had considered but ‘quick and easy’ gets high points in my world. Pros and cons need to be weighed.
Well, an external SSD (or even a USB-C flash drive) as an “available at any time” data drive is quick and easy INITIALLY, but a hassle over time.
I in fact have a Lenovo Thinkpad Netbook for which I use a 256 GB micro-SD card in the (external) micro-SD card slot as the data drive. (Similarly, my old HP laptop’s SD slot got used with a SD card as IT’S data drive.) But of course then that slot is tied up, so if I want to transfer, say, pics off a micro-SD card onto my “data drive”, I have to have a separate USB card reader on hand, with the attendant somewhat slow speeds in play. A few years back I used an external HDD with the employer supplied laptop from a company that employed me as a consultant — I never did forget to take it on a trip to their facility, but... Plus it’s just more to lug around while traveling.
In 2022, a high-reliability micro-size flash drive (maybe Samsung makes one?) permanently left in a USB-C port would make sense, but this laptop has only one USB-C port.
So, what I’m looking at is “quickest and easiest”... as judged over the life of the machine.
Reliability / life of the boot / programs drive is also a consideration: Less use of it, and keeping most of it “empty”, should prolong its life.
Of course if it just can’t be done, requires a different motherboard, etc., then the advantages over time of a 2nd internal data drive are outweighed or just plain sunk. :-(
If you do try that out, the results would be interesting (but may vary with the bios and motherboard). If that SATA M.2 is 500GB (or maybe even 256 GB) do you want to sell it?
I can confirm that adding a 512GB M.2 SATA SSD in the WWAN slot DOES work in my Dell 5490 laptop. (With my motherboard and BIOS, so, older machines may be iffy.)
Noteworthy is that the new SSD did not immediately show up as a drive in File Explorer, etc.: but it did show up with the mfgr. part number in Device Manager. Then going from there into “Properties” and “Disk Management” I had to initialize the new drive & give it a volume label. That done, it then showed up in File Explorer and I was able to save a couple image files to it, close everything, and then open those files successfully. Copying a few text files from the NVMe boot drive in the M.2 “drive” slot to the SATA drive in the WWAN slot works smoothly too.
Woohoo!
As it turns out (see my post just above), adding the M.2 SATA drive in the WWAN slot was fairly easy, although I did have to learn how to initialize the new SSD for File Explorer to recognize it (something I’ve not run in to as such when cloning drives in the past - maybe the cloning software just took care of it.) The initialization is easy once you know how to get to it via device Manager.
“Device Manager”. Sheesh.
Good news.
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