PC with best data transfer rate

Hi friends,

I am building a Windows PC after a long time for home use only. I bought a new laptop with Intel i5 processor, 250 GB M.2 SSD with Windows 10 Home 64 bit on it and 1 TB HDD for data as provided by the manufacturer. The laptop works quite fast and I am really amazed at the speed offered by this M.2 SSD so I am going to consider it while building my new home PC. I have the following components in mind as of now. My only purpose for this PC is to get the most out of an M.2 SSD and enjoy the best data transfer rate possible so that I can share my experience with my friends. I am not going to use this PC for gaming or video editing.

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CPU - Intel Core i5-11400 Desktop Processor 6 Cores up to 4.4 GHz LGA1200 (Intel 500 Series & Select 400 Series Chipset) 65W

Amazon.in: Buy Intel Core i5-11400 Desktop Processor 6 Cores up to 4.4 GHz LGA1200 (Intel 500 Series & Select 400 Series Chipset) 65W Online at Low Prices in India | Intel Reviews & Ratings


Motherboard - ASUS Prime B560M-A(Intel Socket LGA1200 for 11th&10th Gen Intel Core and Celeron) mATX Motherboard with PCIe 4.0, Two M.2 Slots, 8 Power Stages, Intel Ethernet, M.2 Key, Wi-Fi Aura Sync & RGB, Black


Amazon.in: Buy ASUS Prime B560M-A(Intel Socket LGA1200 for 11th&10th Gen Intel Core and Celeron) mATX Motherboard with PCIe 4.0, Two M.2 Slots, 8 Power Stages, Intel Ethernet, M.2 Key, Wi-Fi Aura Sync & RGB, Black Online at Low Prices in India | ASUS Reviews & Ratings


RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (1x16GB) DDR4 3200MHZ UDIMM C16 Desktop RAM Memory Module


Amazon.in: Buy Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (1x16GB) DDR4 3200MHZ UDIMM C16 Desktop RAM Memory Module Online at Low Prices in India | Corsair Reviews & Ratings


M.2 SSD - Crucial P5 Plus 500GB PCIe 4.0 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD, up to 6600MB/s - CT500P5PSSD8


Amazon.in: Buy Crucial P5 Plus 500GB PCIe 4.0 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD, up to 6600MB/s - CT500P5PSSD8 Online at Low Prices in India | Crucial Reviews & Ratings


SSD - Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD - CT1000MX500SSD1(Z)


Amazon.in: Buy Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD - CT1000MX500SSD1(Z) Online at Low Prices in India | Crucial Reviews & Ratings


Now, I have a few questions on my mind, which I need to ask you before I go ahead and make the purchase.

1. The motherboard I have chosen (ASUS Prime B560M-A) is really capable of giving PCIe 4.0 speed as I am also buying an M.2 SSD (Crucial P5 Plus 500GB PCIe 4.0 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD, up to 6600MB/s - CT500P5PSSD8) with PCIe 4.0 speed?

2. The processor I have chosen (Intel Core i5-11400) does not require a separate graphics card just to boot, right?

3. My chosen M.2 SSD (Crucial P5 Plus) with PCIe 4.0 is the faster in terms of data transfer in the market, right? I mean PCIe 4.0 is the fastest standard as of now.

4. I have not given much thought to an SMPS yet. Can you please recommend a few?

5. Do I need a UPS to protect my system, if yes, can you please give suggestions?

6. My current 1 TB external HDD for data backup has USB 3.0, but I think I now need a faster external drive than this one, please guide me, so that I buy the one which works best with my system.

7. I intend to install Windows 10 Professional 64 bit OS on this PC, but I have never bought Windows 10 myself as all the systems that I currently have came preinstalled with Windows 10. I live in India and I guess the best way to buy Windows 10 in India is to buy it from Microsoft India website, which after payment is made, allows the buyer to download the same as an ISO image, a link to which is sent by Microsoft to the e-mail ID provided. Am I right here? I need some guidance on this subject from Indian members of this forum if possible.

Thanks a lot.

Hi,

What are you going to use it for ?

If brute speed is the only thing that matters, I would get a Intel Core i5-11600KF (5.5ghz) for the same price and a low end GPU like a VCX Quadro T400.

Buy one large M.2 for your OS, The ASUS Prime B560M-A offer (1) 4 lanes PCI 4.0 slot. they all quote...

* Actual transmission speeds will be lower than the theoretical maximum speed.

The fastest SSDs on the market at the moment are Serial Attached SCSI at 12 Gbps. Some controller can use 8 or 16 PCI lanes with up to 32-64-128 gig of on board cache memory... You know when your whole system is in the cache how it goes

Use an internal SATA drive for backups, Keep your USB to have a double backup of your crucial files.

And finally don't go with 16 gig of ram go with 32-64 right away.

The need for a UPS really depends on how stable is your electricity provider, I only had one really bad case of disk corruption in over 40 years. So I would not say it is a must, depending on your household electric power conditions... And I never shut down anything during lightning storms.

Don't hesitate to put extra $$$ on your PSU they are a major part that make a computer enjoyable and dependable.

tech291083 said:

1. The motherboard I have chosen (ASUS Prime B560M-A) is really capable of giving PCIe 4.0 speed as I am also buying an M.2 SSD (Crucial P5 Plus 500GB PCIe 4.0 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD, up to 6600MB/s - CT500P5PSSD8) with PCIe 4.0 speed?

Yes, as of today, the PCIE Gen 4 slots are the fastest available.

tech291083 said:

2. The processor I have chosen (Intel Core i5-11400) does not require a separate graphics card just to boot, right?

That CPU does have Integrated Video

tech291083 said:

3. My chosen M.2 SSD (Crucial P5 Plus) with PCIe 4.0 is the faster in terms of data transfer in the market, right? I mean PCIe 4.0 is the fastest standard as of now.

Yes, PCIe Gen 4 is the fastest option around. The WD SN850 and the Samsung 980Pro is slightly faster, but you aren't really going to see any differences other than a benchmark.

tech291083 said:

5. Do I need a UPS to protect my system, if yes, can you please give suggestions?

All depends upon your confidence level in your power. I use them at my house and they give me a little piece of mind for protecting my equipment. But they certainly aren't required. Generally speaking, i like APC, TrippLite and CyberPower.

tech291083 said:

6. My current 1 TB external HDD for data backup has USB 3.0, but I think I now need a faster external drive than this one, please guide me, so that I buy the one which works best with my system.

With standard external hard drives, USB 3 can handle the max speed of the HDD. The only way you are going to get faster is to get an external SSD, or if you want the best speeds possible get an external 10Gbps USB-C/USB 3.2 Gen 2 exclosure with an NVMe drive and you can get just over 1GB/sec throughput.

Hi MaloK,

What are you going to use it for?

I want to use it for home use only, only MS Office, Internet etc. no gaming or editing nothing of that sort. But I am very curious to know the data transfter speeds these days as the very technologies that affect actual data transfter rates (in my own limited understading of this subject) have grown quite a bit over the last 7-8 years or so since I built my last Windows PC with Windows 7.

For example PCIe 4.0 is now available, so are Intel 11th gen processors (which I gather are capable of supporting PCIe 4.0 and the previous gen of Intel processors are not) and M.2 SSDs etc.

I basically want this new build of mine too be as fast as possible, but budget is a constraint, that is why I am not looking beyond Intel i5 processor.

With this build, I hope to achieve the followings...

1. Overall fast system performance.

2. I would be having one M.2 NVME SSD (500 GB), one SSD (1 TB), one 1TB HDD and in future too, I will be adding more SSDs and HDDs with different operating systems on them installed for permanent use, such as Fedora, Ubuntu, CentOS, Mint, Unix variant, Puppy Linux etc. I am not going to keep attached more than two drives at any given time. I would like to test data transfter speeds (cut, paste, copy) among different paritions on the same drive as well as among totally different drives with totally different operating systems.

3. I am also interested in finding out data transfter rates when my current 4 year old external USB 3.0 hard drive is attached.

If brute speed is the only thing that matters, I would get a Intel Core i5-11600KF (5.5ghz) for the same price and a low end GPU like a VCX Quadro T400.

Your are right, but I do not want to have any GPUs as of now.

Buy one large M.2 for your OS, The ASUS Prime B560M-A offer (1) 4 lanes PCI 4.0 slot.

Yes, true, but I am not going to be able to afford an M.2 SSD with more than 500GB capacity due to budget constraints.

The fastest SSDs on the market at the moment are Serial Attached SCSI at 12 Gbps. Some controller can use 8 or 16 PCI lanes with up to 32-64-128 gig of on board cache memory...

I know nothing about this, so I will google the same.

Use an internal SATA drive for backups, Keep your USB to have a double backup of your crucial files.

Sure.

And finally don't go with 16 gig of ram go with 32-64 right away.

OK, but do you have any suggestions here, in terms or brands and models?

The need for a UPS really depends on how stable is your electricity provider

True.

Don't hesitate to put extra $$$ on your PSU they are a major part that make a computer enjoyable and dependable.

Sure, but what should be the minimum watts I should be looking at as I am not going to use a GPU.

Actual transmission speeds will be lower than the theoretical maximum speed.

I shall keep this in mind.

Many thanks.

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Hi selden,

Note that you'd only save about $20 (US) on the CPU if you choose a KF processor instead of K, but would have to spend much more than that on a discrete graphics card. The F suffix means no integrated graphics, which would require that you purchase a discrete graphics card in order to even boot the computer.

OK.

You can always add discrete graphics at a later date to a processor with integrated graphics.

True. Actually I want to use this build for home use only, only MS Office, Internet etc. no gaming or editing, nothing of that sort. So GPU is very much out of question now.

3. There are some SSDs which have slightly higher transfer rates than the one you've selected, but they're outrageously expensive.

OK, I get you, but can you please name a few, based on your own understading? This will help me help other friends of mind. Thanks. I am not going to buy other SSDs than the ones I had originally mentioned.

A 500W power supply would be OK if you plan to never add a discrete graphics card.

OK. I will go for 500W only as I do not intend to buy a GPU as of now.

Otherwise, an 800W supply (or larger) would be appropriate. 80+Bronze would be a reasonable choice. That rating refers only to its efficiency, though, and otherwise says nothing about the quality of the power supply. Silver, Gold or Platinum ratings would be more efficient but more expensive.

Makes sense.

5. A UPS is required only if you live in a location where power outages or brownouts are frequent. If you live where thunderstorms are frequent, you might consider a whole-house solution. A UPS can't provide any protection against a nearby lightning strike. I don't have either, so can't make a recommendation.

I understand.

so an "enterprise-class" drive should be considered, with a 5 year warranty rather than the usual 3 year consumer warranty.

OK. Can you please suggest a few brands or models? Thanks.

7. I don't know anything about how Microsoft software is handled in India. Sorry.

Please do not say sorry, it's not your fault.

8. You don't mention anything about a cooling solution. An air cooler probably would be appropriate. The pumps in liquid coolers tend to fail more quickly than fans do, and fans are cheaper and easier to replace than pumps.

Great insight. I would buy air cooler only.


Many thanks.

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Hi pparks1,

Yes, as of today, the PCIE Gen 4 slots are the fastest available.

OK.

That CPU does have Integrated Video

Oh great. I am relieved now.

The WD SN850 and the Samsung 980Pro is slightly faster, but you aren't really going to see any differences other than a benchmark.

Great info.

All depends upon your confidence level in your power. I use them at my house and they give me a little piece of mind for protecting my equipment. But they certainly aren't required.

Makes sense.

Generally speaking, i like APC, TrippLite and CyberPower.

I will keep these brand in mind for future use.

With standard external hard drives, USB 3 can handle the max speed of the HDD.

OK.

The only way you are going to get faster is to get an external SSD, or if you want the best speeds possible get an external 10Gbps USB-C/USB 3.2 Gen 2 exclosure with an NVMe drive and you can get just over 1GB/sec throughput.

But I do have one 4 year old external USB 3.0 hard drive, so I am sorry but I won't be buying an external SSD in near future, but I will try to get the external exclosure you have mentioned so that I can get faster speeds with my old USB 3.0 external HDD. I hope I find that in my local shop.

Many thanks.

Hi Selden,

selden said:

The fastest NVMe SSD might be the Samsung 980 Pro, at least according to Tom's Hardware.

Thanks for the link, really useful.

Unfortunately, all HDD manufacturers have produced poor quality drives at one time or another no matter what their warranty. I can't make a personal recommendation: I haven't purchased one recently. I suggest using a Web search for internal sata hdd 5 year warranty -ssd -usb review enterprise

I could not agree more. Thanks.

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Hi Berton,

The main purpose of a consumer-priced UPS is to allow orderly save of open documents then shut down for the duration of the commercial power failure,

True.

Berton said:

I've used TrippLite and APC.

I live in India and I have only used local brands over the last decade or so, but now I will focus on the ones mentioned by you. Thanks.

selden said:

The fastest NVMe SSD might be the Samsung 980 Pro, at least according to Tom's Hardware. Best SSDs 2021: SATA, NVMe, and Add-in Cards | Tom's Hardware

Unfortunately, all HDD manufacturers have produced poor quality drives at one time or another no matter what their warranty. I can't make a personal recommendation: I haven't purchased one recently. I suggest using a Web search for
internal sata hdd 5 year warranty -ssd -usb review enterprise

The Fastest NVME is Seagate Fire Cuda 530 Seagate FireCuda 530 M.2 2280 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe 1.4 3D TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ZP2000GM3A013 - Newegg.com

solarstarshines said:

The Fastest NVME is Seagate Fire Cuda 530 Seagate FireCuda 530 M.2 2280 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe 1.4 3D TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ZP2000GM3A013 - Newegg.com

Thanks for the link, really useful.