28/03/2026 11:55 pm
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Which PCIe 5.0 NVMe drive is actually worth the money right now for a fresh Z790 Refresh build with a 14900K? Ive been building my own rigs since the early 2000s so I usually know my way around a BIOS but this whole move to Gen 5 storage is giving me some serious decision fatigue. I finally treated myself to an MSI MEG Z790 ACE MAX and a 14900K for my video editing business here in Chicago and I want to max out the bandwidth.
I was looking at the Crucial T705 because those 14,500 MB/s read speeds look absolutely mental on paper but then I started reading about the thermals. People are saying these things hit 80C in seconds and then throttle down to basically SATA speeds if you dont have a tiny jet engine fan on top of them. I hate fan noise. Then there is the Phison E26 stuff like the Cardea Z540 or the Gigabyte Aorus 12000... it feels like every brand is just slapping the same controller on a board and charging a premium.
Budget isnt a huge deal since I have about $450 set aside just for the primary drive but I do have a weird concern. My manual says that if I use the primary M.2 slot it takes away lanes from my 4090. I didnt think that was still an issue on the 14th gen but apparently Intel is still stingy with the lanes compared to Threadripper or even some of the newer AMD boards. Does the performance jump really justify gimping the GPU to x8?
- Crucial T705 (seems like the speed king right now)
- Corsair MP700 PRO (heard it runs a bit cooler with that active sink)
- Teamgroup T-Force GE74 Pro
Is the real world difference between 10GB/s and 14GB/s actually something I am gonna feel when scrubbing through heavy 6K 10-bit 4:2:2 footage or am I just chasing numbers at this point? I really want the fastest possible setup for this project I have starting next month but I dont want to deal with a drive that overheats during a long render session. What are you guys actually seeing for sustained speeds after the cache fills up...
3 Answers
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29/03/2026 12:30 am
Regarding what #1 said about lane splitting, I actually went a different route because those heat issues scared me off. Im kinda new to these crazy high speeds, and the thought of my 4090 losing lanes and drives hitting 80C made me nervous. I disagree about the lane splitting being something you can just ignore... it felt risky. I grabbed a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe and honestly, I am so satisfied.
- Temps stay low
- Way cheaper
- No lane sharing Everything works well and my projects render fine without the extra heat.
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04/04/2026 8:15 pm
@Reply #2 - good point! I completely agree that the thermal issues on some of these top-tier drives are frustrating, but for professional 6K work, sticking to Gen 4 might leave performance on the table. I've been very satisfied with a middle-ground approach using Gen 5 drives that hit 10GB/s to 12GB/s. They run cooler and are much easier on the wallet than the 14GB/s monsters.
- The TeamGroup T-Force Cardea Z540 2TB is a fantastic value right now. Its often significantly cheaper than the T705 and still delivers way more than a 990 Pro during those long sustained file transfers.
- Another solid option is the Seagate FireCuda 540 2TB PCIe Gen5. It handles heavy write loads very well, which is exactly what you need for your render sessions. It also comes with data recovery services which is nice for a business. Dont sweat the x8 lane shift for your 4090 too much. Since those are Gen 5 lanes, the total bandwidth is equivalent to x16 Gen 4. You wont see a frame drop in your editing software. I've been running a similar setup for months with no complaints... it works perfectly fine for high-res scrubbing.
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29/03/2026 12:10 am
Look, that lane splitting is a total buzzkill but for 6K video editing you absolutely want the massive bandwidth! If you use that top slot on your ACE MAX, your 4090 drops to x8 Gen 5, which is technically the same bandwidth as x16 Gen 4. In reality, you wont even see a frame drop on the GPU side for editing, so just go for it! I love the Crucial T705 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen5 for pure speed, its amazing seeing those 14GB/s numbers in the real world. The thermals are definitely spicy but that MSI board has a massive heatsink that should keep it in check during long renders without needing a separate fan. If you want something that stays a bit more stable under load the Corsair MP700 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen5 is also fantastic and stays very fast. Just grab the fastest one and dont look back... the difference in scrubbing high bitrate footage is night and day!
