Why Should SSD be Preferred to Install Windows 11?

At the Windows conference in June 2021, Microsoft gave a very detailed introduction to the new system, including many new designs such as a new UI, window arrangement mode, game function enhancements, running Android apps, and a brand-new Microsoft store. On October 5 of that year, Microsoft has begun to push Windows 11 to eligible PCs in stages, and various PC devices pre-installed with Windows 11 will also be on sale.

According to the Windows 11 system requirements announced by Microsoft, the PC configuration requirements are not high, including 1 GHz or faster 64-bit (dual-core or multicore) processor, 4 GB memory, 64 GB or larger storage devices, and UEFI secure boot support, WDDM 2.0 driver compatible with DirectX 12 or higher, 720P display larger than 9 inches (each color channel is 8 bits), for ordinary users, the biggest obstacle is probably the trusted platform module (TPM) Version 2.0.

If you only meet the minimum configuration requirements, even if you install the Windows 11 operating system, the experience is definitely not satisfactory. Especially, the storage device where the operating system is installed may have a huge difference in daily use. For example, when the Windows 7 operating system was installed that year, if the system disk chooses to use SSD, the response speed will be greatly improved, which has also promoted the popularization of SSD to a certain extent and benefited many users.

In recent years, most new PCs are basically equipped with M.2 sockets that support the NVMe protocol. Generally, SSDs that meet their specifications have a qualitative leap in performance. However, under normal circumstances, players may not be able to experience the performance improvements brought about by new technologies. For this reason, Microsoft has brought technologies such as DirectX12 Ultimate, DirectStorage and Auto HDR to Windows 11 to give full play to the potential of the new hardware.

Among them, DirectStorage must use NVMe SSD to store and run games. This new generation of storage technology that has been used on Xbox Series X/S has been well received by many players. DirectStorage allows Xbox Series X/S to have lightning-like game loading speeds, allowing NVMe SSDs to bypass the CPU and memory, and directly transfer data to the video memory, which greatly reduces the game loading time and solves some material loading errors. Theory Games using this technology can seamlessly join the scenes. Even if the game does not use DirectStorage, loading time can be greatly reduced.

There is no doubt that to take full advantage of DirectStorage in Windows 11, NVMe SSD is needed to achieve the greatest performance improvement of future games.

Zhitai PC005 Active 512 GB adopts 3D NAND flash memory of YMTC Xtacking® architecture and has a good market reputation. By comparing the test data with ordinary mechanical hard drives, it can be seen that the performance gap between NVMe M.2 SSD and SATA ordinary mechanical hard drives is very huge. With the further optimization of new hardware in Windows 11, technologies like DirectStorage will be promoted, and the theoretical performance gap in the future will be more intuitively reflected in the actual experience.

Picture: To Titanium PC005 Active 512 GB

Picture: Ordinary mechanical hard disk

The main control of Zhitai PC005 Active 512 GB is Huirong SM2262EN, which is an 8-channel NAND controller, each channel supports 4CE, up to 800MT/s per channel, supports NANDXtend ECC technology, supports 2 KB code word LDPC error correction technology, and improves For the durability and data stability of 3D NAND flash memory, it supports end-to-end data path protection, and supports real-time AEC full-disk data encryption and other technologies. It supports NVMe 1.3 specification, uses PCIe 3.0 x4 channel, adopts second-generation (64L) stacking technology of TLC flash memory, continuous read/write speed is 3500 MB/s, 2500 MB/s, 4K QD32 random read /Write is 340000 IOPS, 340000 IOPS, TBW reaches 320 TB.

The price of NVMe SSD that meets DirectStorage requirements under Windows 11 operating system is not high, but it provides very good performance. Because it adopts the most common M.2 2280 specification, it is widely used in notebook computers, desktop computers and workstations, and has good applicability.

If you plan to build a gaming PC and install the Windows 11 operating system, you must choose an NVMe SSD to support new technologies such as DirectStorage to meet future gaming performance requirements. If you are still using SATA SSD, you can wait for a suitable opportunity to upgrade to NVMe SSD after changing to Windows 11 operating system. For example, choose Zhitai PC005 Active 512 GB, which adapts to the new system technical requirements and has a higher cost performance. SSD is a very necessary thing.