General Discussions

[AtanuMandal]

I'm Student currently using Ryzen 5 3400G processors & Asus Motherboard,8GB Ram which SSD would be recommended for me??

[FunkZ]

What is the Asus motherboard model or chipset?

[AtanuMandal]

Asus Prime B450-K Motherboard 

[FunkZ]

The Asus Prime B450-K has a single M.2 slot that is tied to the CPU PCIe lanes. Since the Ryzen 5 3400G only supports PCIe 3.0 you will be limited to ~4000MB/s throughput. You can use a PCIe 4.0 drive but it will throttle back to PCIe 3.0 speeds. There is a small cost savings comparing PCIe 3.0 drives to same capacity PCIe 4.0 drives. If you plan to keep the system (motherboard, CPU, SSD) for a while then may as well buy a PCIe 3.0 drive and save some cash. If you plan to upgrade soon then buy a PCIe 4.0 drive so it can work faster in the new system. Just remember when comparing drives, with your current CPU and motherboard, you are limited to ~4000MB/s read/write speeds. Again, unless you plan to upgrade the system soon, there is no reason to pay extra for a drive that supports higher speeds than what your current system supports.

[elstaci]

FYI:

Here is your motherboard's Storage Specs from Asus:

Storage

AMD B450 chipset :
4 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray,
Support Raid 0, 1, 10
3rd/2nd/1st Gen AMD Ryzen™/ 2nd and 1st Gen AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics :
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)
AMD Athlon™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics Processors :
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA mode)

Here is your motherboard's QVL List for Devices: https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/prime/prime-b450m-k/helpdesk_qvl?model2Nam...

PRIME_B450M-K_Devices_report.pdf

DOWNLOAD

You can download the QVL LIST PDF and see which SSD are compatible with your processor and motherboard.

[Kahlimdor]

Hi there!

The ssds are compatible with your motherboard "not your cpu". I would recommend an NVME M.2. What you are looking for is the writing and reading speeds. Faster is better. Of course, you are on AM4, so you do not need to go super crazy with it. It also dependes on what is your main use for the pc.

I won't tell you a specific brand/model, just establish a budget and look for the best option of an M.2 within it. If it is too expensive, you could always go with a SATA SSD, but they are not as fast as M.2.

Hope that helps a bit! Regards - Kahlimdor -

[FunkZ]

---

@Kahlimdor wrote:

The ssds are compatible with your motherboard "not your cpu".

That statement isn't entirely correct. Many motherboard M.2 slots (like the OP's Asus Prime B450-K) are directly connected to the CPU PCIe lanes rather than the chipset.

[spower12a]

I won't tell you a specific brand/model, just establish a budget and look for the best option of an M.2 within it. If it is too expensive, you could always go with a SATA SSD, but they are not as fast as M.2.

[johnnyenglish]

Addedum:

Since no one mentioned, get a good NVMe and avoid the DRAM'less ones.

The SN770 Black from WD is quite good for the price, its only shortcoming is (I have one) with continued usage, or when the cache gets full, its gets really slow, noticeable on video editing with larger projects, but for everyday use its just fine.

I can even get it for 70€ here, not bad at all.

There are more expensive ones, like Sabrent, Crucial, Samsung and Corsair but for general use, I would say the WD is a good catch.

[FunkZ]

The SN770 offers good performance at a lower price, I have one myself. But it is PCIe 4.0 - the OP has a 3400G which is limited to PCIe 3.0 and will never realize the performance of that drive.

[johnnyenglish]

For that price, let it be and for a 2tb model, its also future proofing.

[AMOCO14]

The ASUS B450 Motherboard only has a PCIE 3.0 not a PCIE 4.0, 

And how I know is I had a ASUS Prime Plus motherboard before the one I am currently on.

And my GPU at the time was a PCIE 4.0 card.

So yeah to get the best performance out of the M.2 slot would be to get a NVMe 3.0 SSD.