Aurora R5, to improve loading times, which SSD?

SATA devices max out at about 550 MB/s. When the M.2 device is PCIe and provides NVMe, it’s quite a lot faster than SATA. NVMe can perform at up to a few GB/s, and have substantially lower latency than SATA.

With what you have already purchased, this would be my recommendation.

C-Drive   NVMe-SSD   512gb   Windows and Apps (and a few favorite games). 256gb if you must.

D-Drive   SATA-SSD    512gb   Large Games. Games and levels will load fast.

E-drive   SATA-HDD    1.0tb     Media files, Data, and backups. Can also be in external USB-3 enclosure.

2.5inch SATA SSD is 5-times faster than old spinning-platter HDD. Also, it uses less power, runs cooler, and is more reliable. 

M.2-PCIe/NVMe-SSD is 5-times faster than even a SATA-SSD. You want machine booting from one of these and Windows running from it.

 

 

My Aurora R11 also came with only a Toshiba A200 HDD, taking ~2 minutes to boot Windows 10.

I installed two (2.5" SATA) Samsung 860 Evo SSDs, and migrated the OS to one of them (both are connected to the mobo using a black port; the blue port is left empty). Now the system boots in ~22 seconds. If I disconnect the HDD, it boots in only 13 seconds.

(I did not buy an NVMe SSD because the M.2 slot is right next to the graphics card, preventing me from installing a big Sabrent heatsink.)