I once had a computer (before SSD's) with 2 mechanical drives set up in raid for speed, not a bad system and ran for ages without problems.  I don't think I'd care for external drives but I do like the hot swap drives in the Gateway, just slide a drive in the bay.
  So I'll go with Kiss ( keep it simple stupid ) quicker and easier in the long run. 
Carl2

Keep it simple, sounds good Carl2

M.2 for OS and programs and as big SATA SSD as you can get for file storage.

  I'm seeing some great prices for SSD's at Newegg, 149 for a Samsung 500 Gb sounds about right for me.  It's hard to believe prices have dropped that low.  I'd like to put in Blender and play with the 3 D figures but for the time and effort put in I don't have enough confidence to think I'll get very far. Spending is at a min now till my funds are higher.
Carl2

Anyone been keeping an eye on SSDs lately ?

Looking for around 500GB if someone has seen something nice

Are you talking SATA or M.2 ?

Either way Samsung still look good today.

Actually half that might be okay too.

Looks like the Samsungs seem to be holding their ground.

EDIT: posted at the same time.

Internal SATA. I think I will get a Samsung. It's mainly going to be for games.

This might do it : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-inch-Solid-State-Drive/dp/B01AAKZRP2/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1478037202&sr=1-1

Bang for bucks is pretty good on that one, most people seem to go for the 850 these days but whether you would actually notice anything between them in games, probably not.

  I keep looking at the PCIe drives and I'm still waiting for that new cpu,
I'd like to see what they say about the AMD cpu.
Carl2

I see that Corsair have released a new M.2 drive, it's competing with Samsung at the top level, here is a video of some early benchmarks, there is also some info in there about the Samsung M.2's.

It seems that Samsung are still the boss when it comes to M.2.

  Nice that you found that Data, the 960 isn't being sold at Newegg yet. The same thing a bigger the drive the quicker it is, I wonder if I'm ready for a 500 Gb yet.  Amazing Boot times I didn't think it could get that low.
Carl2

There has been a huge leap made in SSD technology from Intel, they are calling it 3D Xpoint originally announced by Intel in 2015, now available to buy, at high cost of course.

It seems to be capable of speeds around 1000 x faster than the SSD's we use now. so lots of potential there, however I should point out that it is capable of going much faster than our PC's are, They will need to catch up with 3D Xpoint.

Oh it also has a longer life than our SSD's do.

Not something we should rush out to get but good news regarding the future of SSD's.

Interesting, found these snippets...

QuotePerformance is described as slightly better than NAND flash

Not anything to write home about yet.

QuoteIndividual data cells do not need a transistor, so packing density will be four times that of DRAM

Which is good.

I wonder if this is anything to do with mristor tech?

And a vid for those that like to stare at things.

Yes they are calling it "transistor-less technology", it sounds like memristors to me.

PCIe is going to need to get faster to keep up with these monsters. A good M.2 is now only a small amount away from saturating the PCIe x 4 bus.

  A faster PCIe has already been thought of and is included in the in the Intel roadmap.  I saw a vid of a computer build with the NVMe storage in raid 0 and the boot time was 7 sec, I've got 10 sec with a regular SSD.  It seems the biggest thing is making things smaller which allows a computer with more cores.
Carl2