Solved Which NVME is the right one for this notebook.

Hey all.
I have to change the SSD in this notebook. It's getting too small with
the games getting too big. 1TB is not enough. I know, your going to
tell me to install my games on the storage SSD but. I want to keep them
on the OS drive. I want to keep the storage for well, storage.
So, with that in mind, which of these would you install if in my place.
Also, how hot would the ones you would recommend from the list
below get and would a heatsink be advisable. I have one in mind that
will fit as I have seen this done on the MSI GE77 which is the same as
my GE76.

SAMSUNG 990 Pro 2TB​

SK Hynix Platinum P41​

Seagate FireCuda 530​

These are all 2TB nvmes.

Heatsink:


All words of wisdom will be taken into account.

Flashorn said:

Hey all.
I have to change the SSD in this notebook. It's getting too small with
the games getting too big. 1TB is not enough. I know, your going to
tell me to install my games on the storage SSD but. I want to keep them
on the OS drive. I want to keep the storage for well, storage.
So, with that in mind, which of these would you install if in my place.
Also, how hot would the ones you would recommend from the list
below get and would a heatsink be advisable. I have one in mind that
will fit as I have seen this done on the MSI GE77 which is the same as
my GE76.

SAMSUNG 990 Pro 2TB​

SK Hynix Platinum P41​

Seagate FireCuda 530​

These are all 2TB nvmes.

Heatsink:

Amazon.ca Something Went Wrong / Quelque chose s'est mal passé

All words of wisdom will be taken into account.

Click to expand...

When it comes to drive compatibility, the two factors that come to mind are:

1. Formfactor
2. Size

Not all motherboards support all sizes of storage drives. One example I'll share was where someone I knew installed a 2TB NVMe in their laptop (new in 2018) which was incompatible based on the drive size. The manufacturers white papers showed a limit of 1 TB for his system. That was money down the drain for him, although it was used in a different system later on.

Obviously, BIOS/UEFI updates can increase storage compatibilities, but not always. Something to consider.

Check your MSI GE76 specs to see if it will support the 2TB drive.

One other thing to note is that storing your games on a 2nd drive/partition is really only relevant for HDD's. SSDs read access is instantaneous... so there is really no difference in performance that I've seen.

I store my VMs on a 2nd NVMe because I only use a 512 GB NVMe for my system drive. My user files are sync'd with Synology Drive and everything else is on my 2nd NVMe (2 TB).

I don't game on my laptop, but run several VMs in a lab environment.

Best of luck...

Flashorn said:

All words of wisdom will be taken into account.

Click to expand...

I don't think I have any of that to offer, just some personal thoughts on the matter

All of the drives that you have noted are reviewed highly. One possible thing to consider, but only if you use the system on battery frequently, is that the Samsung may draw less power than the others. Not by a huge amount, but when running on battery, that's always a plus.

NOTE: You may want to check the specs to make sure I'm not wrong on that point, but that is my off the cuff recollection.

Also, as you noted, your system can accommodate 2 NVMe drives, but one slot is Gen 4, and one is Gen3. I'm not clear on which one the boot drive is. I would suspect that the boot drive is currently the Gen 4 capable slot, but if not, you may be able to save a few dollars by stepping down to a Gen 3 drive. However, since Gen 4 drives are still usable in a Gen 3 slot, it won't hurt anything to just go Gen 4.

As for the thermal pad, I'm not certain about your specific system. You may want to go up on YouTube and do a search for something like "MSI GE76 Disassembly" or "MSI GE76 SSD Replacement". That should give you a better idea. It's possible that if there is a pad on the existing SSD, you may simply be able to transfer it to the new drive.

Finally, I assume that MSI has a forum. You may want to inquire there as well to see if anyone has direct experience replacing the SSD(s) in this system.

EDIT: Personal note - I'm in a similar situation, but my laptop only has a single NVMe slot. I've been looking at Gen 4 drives as well and I've been leaning toward the 990 Pro mainly because of the excellent reputation and possible less power usage. My system is an ultra light system so low power consumption would be a big plus in that system. I'm holding off for the moment because rumor has it that the forthcoming 4TB version of the Samsung 990 Pro may be one of the first single sided 4TB drives. If that rumor turns out to be true it would be worth my waiting a little bit for it . I say this only because I assume that as slim as my laptop is, it may not be able to hold a double-sided NVMe drive. That might be something to take into consideration with your system, although I believe that all the drives you listed are single-sided in the 2TB capacity.

hsehestedt said:

That might be something to take into consideration with your system, although I believe that all the drives you listed are single-sided in the 2TB capacity.

Click to expand...

Yes they are but, I think you can get 4TBs in single sided. I saw this on my travels this week.
And no, my notebook is never on battery. I tried it once and only got 1 1/2 hrs out of it. This
was just see and it was the same on my GT73 Titan. You can't go too far from a wall outlet.

hsehestedt said:

You may want to go up on YouTube and do a search

Click to expand...

I did and yes, it can be done.

I was really leaning on the SK Hynix side but, after seeing the 990 pro and Seagate well, wasn't sure.
I always had Samsung for OS drives and they still serve me well to this day. I have about 10,000 hrs
on the 970 plus that I have updated the GT73 with but, all my Seagate external HDD (not SSDs) are still in
good working order and still hold all of the files intact. So, this was and still is a dilemma.

The 2 TB drives will fit in my GE76 and have already bought the storage drive. Like you said, I did not verify
first that the second slot was PCIe4 and is indeed a PCIe 3 so, it will have to do as it is also a 2TB drive.

Another little spot of info I just came across. Were you aware of this :


I was not. Patriot drives are using this new protocol but, their drives are not suitable for notebooks.

Thank you for all of your advice and will consider what I can do going forward.

Mike.

ZERO269 said:

Check your MSI GE76 specs to see if it will support the 2TB drive.

Click to expand...

Thanks.
Yes, I can install a 2TB as the OS and I can also install a larger one in the second slot
so, there isn't a problem with either form factor or size as both are 2280.

Since you have a gaming laptop, if you are going to upgrade from a 1TB drive that is just getting too small due to games, I would probably go as big as possible. I'd try to find a 4TB if you can swing the budget. Games are just going to keep increasing in size.

pparks1 said:

Since you have a gaming laptop, if you are going to upgrade from a 1TB drive that is just getting too small due to games, I would probably go as big as possible. I'd try to find a 4TB if you can swing the budget. Games are just going to keep increasing in size.

Click to expand...

Thanks.
For the moment , 2TB is as far as the wallet will allow LOL!
I really want something that will give an equal speed performance as I have
in here already. This drive is a Micron 3400 and is pretty competitive as far
as speed goes. If they had a 2TB drive in their stable, I would've bought it already.

Flashorn said:

SAMSUNG 990 Pro 2TB

SK Hynix Platinum P41​

Seagate FireCuda 530​

These are all 2TB nvmes.

All words of wisdom will be taken into account.

Click to expand...

You could consider solidigm p44 pro. It is the same hardware as hynix p41 under a different brand name ( Hynix owns Solidigm ). It is also usually quite a lot cheaper.

So, what exactly is the difference between a SK hynix Platinum P41 and Solidigm's P44 Pro? To state it simply, the P44 Pro can be made to go faster and is typically the cheaper option.

Click to expand...

One point of clarification: Be cautious about assuming that a 4TB SSD will work. The issue is not the capacity, nor is the size of the NVMe in the horizontal plane (22mm x 80mm or "2280"), but it is the THICKNESS of the drive. A good friend of mine also has a gaming laptop (the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 8). It's a rather thick, bulky system so you might assume that a 4TB should fit no problem. Wrong. As with your computer, it has 2 NVMe slots but only one of them can fit a double-sided NVMe. To be clear, when I say "double-sided" this refers to an NVMe that has components on both sides of the circuit board. Again, as I noted, I believe that all of the 2TB models that you are looking at are single sided. I was simply bringing this up as something to be aware of.

One more point: Don't get too hung up in the listed specifications of an SSD. There is a really good chance that in real life you will never notice the difference. Take a look at the video linked to below. I found this very interesting:

In the games I play, i see practically no difference between the games on my WD SN850 (7000/5000) than I do on my Sandisk SSD (560/530). In virtual machine or huge file copies, my SN850 destroys the Sandisk. Not all games will be exactly the same, but as a general rule the raw throughput is not the be all/end all.

Last month I was in the same position...laptop upgrade time. I was torn between the 990 Pro, P41 Platinum, and SN850X. All were on sale but I opted for the P41 Platinum. While the 990 Pro is the fastest, all three drives are pretty close. In some reviews, the SK Hynix was said to be more power efficient. Since I use my laptop on battery power a lot, I figured that was best...although my guess all three are pretty close in that performance metric as well. Right now, since there isn't a major sale going on, the Solidigm P44 Pro is identical hardware and considerably cheaper.

In case you're curious, when plugged in, my P41 Platinum averages over 6900 MB/s for sequential read and write. Pretty close to its rated maximum of 7000. On battery, it is a little less. My idle temp is around 40 - 43C with a standard Dell heat sink (XPS 15 9510), and I can't remember but I think when running Crystal DiskMark it was getting in the 60s to 70C.

mccnavy said:

Last month I was in the same position...laptop upgrade time. I was torn between the 990 Pro, P41 Platinum, and SN850X. All were on sale but I opted for the P41 Platinum. While the 990 Pro is the fastest, all three drives are pretty close.

Click to expand...

Yeah, in the real world, you wouldn't eve be able to differentiate any improvement between the 3 drives. Couldn't really go wrong with any of them.

mccnavy said:

In some reviews, the SK Hynix was said to be more power efficient. Since I use my laptop on battery power a lot, I figured that was best...although my guess all three are pretty close in that performance metric as well.

Click to expand...

I haven't read up much on this, but I would think over the course of full to empty charged battery, the power draw of the NVMe wouldn't result in noticeably more life. I could very well be wrong here as my machines are mostly desktops. Going to read up on this a bit.

hsehestedt said:

but it is the THICKNESS of the drive

Click to expand...

Yes, I also saw that the double sided SSDs would most likely be a problem not only in fitment
but probably in heat dissipation as the notebook has been reduced in size (and space) from
previous generations.
That youtube is pretty old as you can see Linus as a younger man. I have seen the whole video
where he invites people from his company to see if they can tell the difference. I believe only
one saw a very small difference and was dismissed as only Linus can do.

rumour has it that the forthcoming 4TB version of the Samsung 990 Pro may be one of the first single sided 4TB drives

Click to expand...

So, the single sided 4TB drive award for being the fastest to market (but, not the fastest all rounder) goes to:


I was rethinking my storage. What do you guys/gals think of Crucial's offer up above.

SIW2 said:

You could consider solidigm p44 pro.

Click to expand...

I already bought the 2TB version but, the P41 for the second slot as storage but, now that I've
seen Crucial's offering, I don't know anymore.
I was also thinking of getting a NAS for the purpose of having all at my finger tips. So, the 4TB
might just be a waste of money. I already have 12TBs of external drives which are 8TBs full.
Having a NAS would simplify things and cleanup my PC room and desk.
I have looked into it as it doesn't seem to be too hard to setup but, that would be a project for
latter this year.

SIW2 said:

You could consider solidigm p44 pro. It is the same hardware as hynix p41 under a different brand name ( Hynix owns Solidigm ). It is also usually quite a lot cheaper.

Click to expand...

Absolutely thought of it but, the 990 is about the same price in Canada. The Seagate Firecuda is about the same price as well but, is faster.
Don't know if this will make much of a difference but, I do like Seagates.

Intel sold Hynix their NAND operation in late 2021 but, kept their Optane operation. Also, Micron makes the chips for
Crucial. So many companies changing hands lately, you just don't know who you can choose to have the best drives.
Not only the best but, the longevity of their products. I usually don't spend on allot of upgrades and don't buy new
equipment but, since I like to game, I simply have to keep up.


Thanks everyone.

HI All!
So, as I let the cat out of the bag on another thread, I will update this one so you know that all your efforts and advice didn't fall
on deaf ears.

I was really looking forward to buy the Hynix but, as life goes and prices go up, it became too expensive for me to acquire this one.
I settled on the Samsung 990 Pro 2TB for the OS and the Solidigm P41 for the storage. It's a slower drive but, it's storage.

Someone asked if there would be enough room under the drives to have a two sided nvme well, there's ample room.
Just so you know, MSI has a solid piece of copper under both drives and that's where the Thermal pads resides. I have never seen
this configuration before. My GT73 has it's thermal pads on top of the drive. The thermal pads under both drives are 3mms thick
and covering the drives is a piece of rubber but, under that rubber is a soft piece of metal. Not too bendable but enough that you don't
have to fight with it. What I did with the top of the drives is, I covered both drives with a 0.5 mm thermal pad as to not have metal
on the controller and memory modules. As you will see in the screens, I think that did a good job of keeping those drives safe and cool.

I have to say though, the Solidigm software is a beautiful piece of coding. It will report in Real Time all of the pertinent usage of the drives
be it read / write , heat and used space plus...

One piece of info I was not expected to see is that, the second drive, unlike the info on the documentation for this notebook, was that, the
second drive is in fact a PCIe x 4 gen 4. This is why I get the results from Crytal Disk that I saw which is about the same as Solidigm's reporting for
this drive. Also, you get a tab on the software where you can activate (for this drive only and not on the P44 Pro version for now) called Fastlane
where the drive will optimize and prioritize frequently used programs . Pretty neat option.

So below are my screens for both drives with Crystal Disk.

Thanks to all.

Seems odd that the Samsung is less expensive then the Hynix. Reviews have them as similar in performance, with the edge going to the Samsung.

Congratulations, all the same.

bobkn said:

Seems odd that the Samsung is less expensive then the Hynix. Reviews have them as similar in performance, with the edge going to the Samsung.

Congratulations, all the same.

Click to expand...

Thanks.
At the time I bought the 990 Pro, the Hynix came in at $324.99 CA and I got the 990 Pro for $199.99CA on
Amazon. When I was doing my research, the Hynix was $279.99CA and then I saw the 990 Pro for $199.99CA.
The price keeps fluctuating so I grabbed the 990 before it too became untouchable for me. It is now $324.97CA


They just keep swapping prices on those drives.

Did the cloning with Macrium Free and that only took about 18 minutes.

PassMark scores were different as well after the upgrade.

Before:

After:

Disk scores were pretty much different considering that the Micron is a pretty good drive.

All in all, very happy with the outcome.

Flashorn said:

Thanks.
At the time I bought the 990 Pro, the Hynix came in at $324.99 CA and I got the 990 Pro for $199.99CA on
Amazon. When I was doing my research, the Hynix was $279.99CA and then I saw the 990 Pro for $199.99CA.
The price keeps fluctuating so I grabbed the 990 before it too became untouchable for me. It is now $324.97CA

Amazon.ca Something Went Wrong / Quelque chose s'est mal passé

They just keep swapping prices on those drives.

Did the cloning with Macrium Free and that only took about 18 minutes.

PassMark scores were different as well after the upgrade.

Before:

PassMark Software - Display Baseline ID# 1873455

www.passmark.com

After:

PassMark Software - Display Baseline ID# 1904270

www.passmark.com

Disk scores were pretty much different considering that the Micron is a pretty good drive.

All in all, very happy with the outcome.

Click to expand...

Yes, your PC doesn't have an NVME soulmate.
Once you get around 7000Mb/sec transfer speed, it's all good!