How to install an M.2 SSD for OS and games

It wasn't all that long ago when SSDs were expensive, low capacity things. The speed advantage over traditional mechanical hard drives was inarguable, but the price per gigabyte was so high that storing anything large, like a game was not cost effective.

These days, however, things have changed. You can get M.2 SSDs with huge capacities for just a few hundred bucks. Of course, old-school hard disk drives (HDDs) still rule the roost for server-scale capacities, but for the average PC gamer, you can get all the storage you need with just one or two SSDs.

This is very fortunate, too, as the size of games has ballooned hugely in recent years, often to downright inconvenient levels. Just ask any Warzone enthusiast with a slow internet connection. Regardless of the size, though, an SSD is still the way to go. Faster load times and high fidelity graphics pretty much require solid state storage, so today, we're going to show you how to set up an M.2 SSD for your OS and for games. Luckily, it's a really simple process, and the advantages you'll gain over an HDD are instantly noticeable, too.

Once you've received your SSD (we'd recommend the CORSAIR MP700 2TB, as it the fastest drive we make and has enough capacity for multiple behemoth games), crack open your PC case so you can access the motherboard.

First, locate your M.2 slots. These are usually positioned underneath the CPU in-between the PCIe slots. Some Mini-ITX motherboards have them on the back, by the way, so if you've got a small form-factor build, you might have to remove the motherboard entirely.

If the M.2 slots have heatsinks on top of them, then remove them by removing the screw that holds them down. Then remove the screw that will secure the drive itself into the slot. This will be preinstalled and you need to keep it safe to reinstall later. Remember to check for plastic peels that might be here from the factory, failing to remove these could cause a lot of issues when the drive heats up during use.

Now insert the M.2 into the exposed socket. Then hold the other end down and reinstall that screw you definitely remembered not to lose from earlier. It's worth mentioning here that some motherboards won't even use screws here. Oftentimes they'll have a latch that swivels into place to secure the M.2 instead, which is convenient, but won't affect performance, just ease of installation.

Now the M.2 is installed, if the slot was covered by a heatsink, reverse the steps you took to remove it to put it back. If the motherboard doesn't have a heatsink for the M.2, or the M.2 drive itself has a heatsink built in (like our MP600 PRO XT), then you're all done.

Please note here that some SSDs will require some kind of cooling solution, either the heatsink from the motherboard, or it's own included heatsink. Check the M.2 manual to ascertain if your specific M.2 drive needs cooling.

Ok, so the M.2 SSD is now installed correctly, we need to format and initialise the drive, so that the PC can use it properly.

1. First, open the Disk Management utility by searching "Disk Management" in windows. Here you'll find the newly installed M.2 listed as "New Volume".
2. Name the drive whatever you want. The name doesn't affect anything other than helping you remember which drive is which. Calling it something like "Game Drive" will help keep things clear.
3. Set the file system to NTFS, and leave the allocation unit size as default. Then press next and the system will format the drive so it's ready to go.

Here's the last part. We actually need to tell Steam, the EA App, GOG Galaxy, the Epic Games Launcher etc to install the games to the new M.2, instead of wherever they were previously set up to install game files.

Luckily, all the games launchers have a pretty identical process for this, and it only takes a few clicks. We're going to use Steam for this example, but clicking around in the settings of the other apps will get you to the right place very similarly.

1. Open steam and head to the "Settings" tab.
2. Now find the "Storage" section and set the drive you've just installed as the default install location. Now all future games will automatically be installed on the M.2 SSD. But what about the games you already have?
3. In the same menu, you can go through the games installed on your previous games, and move them to the new drive. Moving them to the new M.2 drive will be way quicker than re-downloading them.

Our guy Nick has made a video guiding you through this process, too. So check it out below for a more visual example of what we're talking about here.

Of course, the speed of an M.2 drive compared to an HDD isn't just handy for playing games. using an M.2 as the OS drive will make your PC boot up super quick, too.

This guide will assume that you're installing the OS for the first time in a new build, as a fresh Windows install is a lot simpler than moving a pre-existing OS to a new drive.

First, follow the steps above to install the drive into the motherboard. Then, when you first post the PC and install windows, use the BIOS to make sure that the M.2 is designated as the boot drive. This will happen automatically if it's the only drive installed, but if you have multiple drives, then you'll have to specifically pick it during this process.

Of course, depending on your motherboard, the BIOS can differ a lot. Luckily, motherboards come with super comprehensive manuals that cover the entire process. So make sure to refer to the manual, as it will guide you through this process in more detail than we have time to get into here.