Upgrading the wife's Asus X407M laptop.Has the traditional mechanical hdd now. It has an empty M.2 ssd slot. Cost aside, should I go with an M.2 ssd or replace the hdd with 2.5 inch ssd? I'm considering Samsung EVO series, which have both formats.
Samsung EVO 500GBWhat brand/model/size did you end up getting?
You can still store your stuff in a data drive off the computer. 2 separate drives won't protect you if you are losing the data drive instead of the OS drive, and HDD are less shock tolerant than SSD despite longer data retention and heat tolerance, they both have their places.I guess it's too late since you went with SSD, but personally I would've gone with M.2 and keep the HDD as a data drive. Most data is lost because people have all their stuff on one drive. Having two separate drives, one for OS and another one for storage is a very good practice.
While I practice that my steam folder alone is 1.3TB.. and its not Economical to buy larger than 2TB ssdI guess it's too late since you went with SSD, but personally I would've gone with M.2 and keep the HDD as a data drive. Most data is lost because people have all their stuff on one drive. Having two separate drives, one for OS and another one for storage is a very good practice.