Off Topic So slow I'm ashamed...

Ok, have a stupid question of the day. I am 99.9% that I have the answer but was hoping to get confirmation.

My SIL bought my nephew a pre-built Cyberpower PC for his birthday because he wanted to PC game like his cousin (my son). haha It only came with a 500GB HDD which is almost full as he told me that he can no longer download games. I just got specs for the MoBo from my BIL and it is an ASROCK B660M-C AC DDR4 Micro-ATX ARGB 1GBE Lan 4.

According to the ASROCK site it has 2 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen 4x4) slots for SSDs. I was going to suggest that she get the same Samsung 980 Pro that my son has which is listed as 4x4 NVMe. As I said, I am 99.9% sure that this will fit but wanted to ask the experts before they buy it and take it apart to find out that it will not. It seems like a pretty straight forward install/upgrade and the bonus is they will not have to mess around with finding a way to power it.

Thanks kindly!
 
Yeah that's no problem. You can also run a Gen 3 m.2 nvme drive no issue to save some $$$ and maybe get more capacity for similar price of a gen 4 drive. Now Direct Storage may be starting to become a thing in which case, sure the Gen 4 drives will be faster, but for most games, actually pretty much all games out there right now, there won't really be a speed difference that is perceptible between the two in terms of load times.

So Gen 3 to save $$$ and get more capacity for the money.

Gen 4 for higher speed and future-proofing if Direct Storage becomes more prevalent, but more expensive.
 
CTt3P5 said:
Thank you @ColoradoDriver. She has already gone out and bought the gen 4 drive, just waiting to have it installed by myself. haha
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I'd recommend using a clone app like Macrium Reflect to clone the 500HD over to the M.2 (as long as that is bootable). Spinning HDDs should be for backup storage. Bootdrives that run system and games will benefit with the faster load times of the M.2 bus. I check ASRock site on that board's specs and it says down in storage section "Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks".
 
macanix said:
I'd recommend using a clone app like Macrium Reflect to clone the 500HD over to the M.2 (as long as that is bootable). Spinning HDDs should be for backup storage. Bootdrives that run system and games will benefit with the faster load times of the M.2 bus. I check ASRock site on that board's specs and it says down in storage section "Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks".
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Hey, thanks for the tip. I will have to look into the Macrium Reflect. When my son built his, he mistakenly loaded Windows to the HDD. I found and used AOMEI to clone it to one of the SSDs. Of course the free version wouldn't clone it so I paid a few bucks. 🤦‍♂️
 
CTt3P5 said:
Hey, thanks for the tip. I will have to look into the Macrium Reflect. When my son built his, he mistakenly loaded Windows to the HDD. I found and used AOMEI to clone it to one of the SSDs. Of course the free version wouldn't clone it so I paid a few bucks. 🤦‍♂️
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Macrium worked great for me
 
I never clone drives, I tend to start fresh every new computer I move to and then just move files to my storage drive. But I have heard good things about Macrium too. Was thinking of trying that when I build my Dad a new rig. I just upgraded his W7 PC I built him in 2011 to W10. Seems to be working ok, but his GPU died (an old HD 6850), so just thinking I should build him something new in the near future.

Yeah rule of thumb is only have the drive you want Windows installed on plugged in at the time of Windows installation. After that is done, then plug in the other drives and format/whatever. Avoids mistakenly putting Windows on the slow drive.
 
ColoradoDriver said:
I never clone drives, I tend to start fresh every new computer I move to and then just move files to my storage drive.
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I mean, building new, of course a fresh install is the way to go. If you are just upgrading/swapping a drive, cloning is absolutely the way to go. Reinstall makes zero sense for that.
 
It's begun. Wasn't going to buy a new case buuuut.... A buddy wanted to go to Microcenter and it just jumped into my cart! 🤣
 

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OK so my new Class 4 NVMe arrived. Installed. My god those tiny screws are a pain in the ass.
Installed Windows. O M G. I have never not once ever seen Windows install that quickly before. Literally less then 3 minutes and it was rebooting. Absolutely-freaking-insane.
To say I am pleased would be an understatement. Installed Apex just to see how it runs. Perfectly. Now I need to figure out how to get Windows for free (or cheap). Been a long time since I've had to do that. :D
 
Installed Windows 11 in under 5 minutes. This is officially the fastest PC I've ever had. For the first time in a long time it feels like it is faster then me. Never waiting on it.
This case is absolutely the bees knees. No, I don't know what that means either. Just good. The cable management, the compartments, the storage options for SSD's. Just incredibly designed. LOVE the ports and power button on top.
Babysat the temps to make sure the Noctua fan is as good as everyone says it is. Routinely comes close to the best AIO's in terms of cooling. And it does. Never hit over 58c during high performance mode running Apex. The case vents so well, it's insane how much heat you can feel coming out of it.
I'm very happy.
 

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Hey @yrwei52 - Starting to see some of the MSRP models for 4090's come back in stock at Best Buy locally. Saw one model from PNY and another from MSI for the $1599 price. Didn't know if your son was still looking for one. Might be worth checking locally again.
 
Ready for gaming. What are we playing these days, people? :D
So far I've reinstalled Apex Legends, Rocket League, Ori and the Will o the Wisps... dammit I need to finish that. Absolutely freaking gorgeous game. Seriously, it looked great on my last rig...I'm still using the same video card so it shouldn't look better. Maybe it's placebo but I swear it's even prettier. :D
Also Cyberpunk. Gotta' finish that too.
PS Did hit some mid 60's on CPU temp the other day. Still in the acceptable range.
Got it's first 'nearly all day' test on Wednsday as that is my work from home day. SO I set it up for work and then played around on it most of the night (thanks Fam for understanding! LOL).
Loving it!
 
ColoradoDriver said:
Hey @yrwei52 - Starting to see some of the MSRP models for 4090's come back in stock at Best Buy locally. Saw one model from PNY and another from MSI for the $1599 price. Didn't know if your son was still looking for one. Might be worth checking locally again.
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Ha, Thanks for the info! My son couldn’t wait and bought the PNY 4090 card for $1549 from Walmart.com a couple of months ago. He definitely is happy about having a new 4090 video card earlier!
 
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