SSD selection for high end PC

So I'm building a gaming PC and have earned enough money over summer to not worry too much about price (around $6000 budget). Of course that's always a factor, but really I just want top high end parts.

So I'm planning on getting the mobo X99S GAMING 9 AC from MSI (link below), and it has a M.2 turbo port which claims to provide speeds up to 32Gb/s (x4 8Gb/s), but I'm trying to find the right SSD to compliment that. PCpartPicker.com has been helpful with filters of choosing parts, but their storage filters are so confusing to me and I'm finally asking for your guys' help. http://www.msi.com/product/mb/X99S-GAMING-9-AC.html#hero-specification

Ultimately I would be happy with 10-20Gb/s, trying hard to avoid 10Gb/s, and would love to utilize the M.2 port with turbo for the 32Gb/s because that's just insane. My research has basically gotten me to understand these as my options:

10Gb/s options: M.2 (PCI-e protocol) with "B+M" key; or Sata Express

20Gb/s options: M.2 (PCI-e protocol) with "M" key

32Gb/s options: this is what I need help understanding, how to utilize the M.2 Turbo on that board.

Thanks for the help, also what sort of setup would you recommend for gaming as far as storage goes? I definitely want to have a backup HDD, so I'm thinking at least a 500GB SSD at minimum, but not sure what my options are past that. I'm looking for best performance with the security of at least partial backup for important files. What about something like the 500GB SSD (for OS, applications, and some games), added HDD for extra non-performance storage (pics and what not), and then a large enough HDD to back everything (or maybe partial) up.

Please don't spend that much on a PC. You would be so far past the line of diminishing returns it would be almost comical. You would be so much better off building a high end but not ridiculous PC and then putting a little bit of that money away for a GPU upgrade or two over the next few years.

@mb said:

I have to say, I kind of agree, but maybe not for all the sames reasons.

I'd have to know if you have a good PC right now. If you do, wait. Next year, PCs are going to need to be practically rebuilt to take advantage of a really big improvement. You'll need a new mobo, most of which will probably be running new chipsets and sockets, will support new ram, etc. This will be to support A) the major change coming with the next full generation of GPUs (nVidia's Pascal architecture is set to be a very big departure from what GPUs look like now, and will bring significant performance boosts as a result). and B) the next big step up for CPUs (likely to be less of an upgrade but more significant than the ones we've seen recently).

If I were you, I'd wait until next fall to build a $6000 machine. Unless you expect to be able to make major upgrades by then.

I also think X99 is actually worse for gaming right now. The CPUs you can use on it are slower but bigger, basically. More for rendering or other core-gated performance challenges, not so much for games which will use at most 4 cores and benefit from faster cores. And DDR4 seems kind of useless at this point as well, for the price. M2 is a nice benefit but a good SSD is plenty fast. You could do yourself much better if you spent your money elsewhere (more, stronger GPUs for example, and watercooling come to mind). Or just plain later than now. We're sort of at the tail end of a trend and next year could be a huge boost. It'd be a shame to spend thousands of dollars now and end up missing out on a big change to what PCs are capable of. Pascal kind of ate up half the big boost we were hoping to see with Maxwell, with unified memory and 3D Memory and a new interface (no more PCI) all being Pascal features now.

Essentially, Pascal is going to shove 4k over a desk and have it's way with it if you invest in it and assuming nVidia executes properly and in a timely fashion.

Seriously though, you could be a lot smarter with even $6000. It seems like a lot but goes quick if you spend it all on crazy M2 chips and X99 boards/CPUs, etc etc etc. If you do build this year consider focusing more on other aspects. Get a kick ass case, fill it with 980's (maybe wait for higher capacity models?) and water cool everything. If you still have money for the extras after that, good on you. But I think you'd be pushing it. Although it's been a while since I checked out prices for that kind of build, and the 980 is an exceptional value compared to the previous options.

The only Ultra M.2 drive I'm aware of is the Samsung XP941 which technically isn't a consumer grade drive. It will be a long time before storage is able to run with the bandwidth supplied by 4xPCI-E lanes.

Just get an Intel SSD. They really are the most stable and reliable SSD's on the market right now. Up until a few months ago I would have recommended the Samsung Evo drives but a recent discovery shows that their read speeds decrease a month after installation.

The recommended SSD right now is is the Samsung 850 Pro. It is a high-end part so that means it will be expensive, but it is the only SATA drive that can exceed the bandwidth the SATA 6 maximum.

@jarmahead: @mb: The $6000 was really just a number I threw out there as an ABSOLUTE maximum no a penny over line. And MB, I like the idea of at stashing a bit now to not stress upgrades in the future. I am still thinking about saving money of course, it's just that I have a ridiculous amount to spending money accrued. The "budget" does include all I/O equipment as well, and I'm going to get the ROG Swift, so I'm building towards a 1440p rig. I am already planning on a GTX 980 (or whatever is top VC at the time of build, stashing some, and then buying another down the road or upgrading it if it's enough for down the road).

Armhead, my thought process with the 2011 sockets were for the 40 lanes in hopes that it would allow more throughput for the videocards when I SLI as well as other components. And do you really think that Pascal is going to be that big of a jump? I also kind of thought that when they do come to release equipment with new architecture that it would be far too expensive at first.

In either case, you guys know what you're talking about and if you really suggest waiting until pascal, I'll make do with my PS4, because I truly don't want to build it RIGHT before some massive jump. I just know that there will always be better and newer stuff coming out so I kind of came to terms with it and decided might as well build now. I have no computer right now at all, my last computer was an E-machine from 1999 that I didn't even game on, but if you guys really suggest waiting until Pascal, I'll wait until pascal. MB, what do you think about waiting until Pascal, and building a rig next fall?

@monetarydread: @korwin: So an M.2 (PCI-e, "M" key) doesn't benefit from that "M.2 turbo" from that mobo? There's only specific drives that can make use of that feature? I also kind of figured the feature would give some longevity for down the road when drives do become available to the gaming market. And Monetary, thanks for that heads up, with all the confusion of the M.2 "turbo" crap my fallback was those 840s.

I don't think you need to wait until next fall. I would wait just a little bit until the new GTX 980s with more than 4gb of VRAM are announced, though. Especially if you're getting the 1440p/144hz monitor.

@mb: Do you believe in the higher VRAM requirement wave hitting relatively soon?

@hurricaneivan29: not really. I think it will be increasing a bit but not as much as some have theorized. I think 3 & 4 gb cards are going to be plenty for at least the next few years. However, since you're going up to 1440p and/or 144hz, you're going to want as much VRAM as possible.