M.2 storage types

[Gurky]

Hello all,

 

I’ve spent about 2 hours doing research and I’ve just confused myself even more! I’m hoping you amazing people can help me out. 

 

Basically which m.2 drive do I need!? In term of the key? I’ve put below my motherboard and the two key types which I think are m.2 sata (which is two indents?) and m.2 nvme (one indent?) 

 

i also believe that the Nvme is a lot lot fast but seems more expensive, it’s mainly for my OS that’s all. I already have two ssd for games 

 

I’m very much hoping you could help me out? 

 

Thank you to anyone who can help me 

 

Gurky  

[-rascal-]

@Gurky

 

The motherboard can support both NVMe and SATA M.2 SSD's.

There is a HUGE difference in speed between NVMe and SATA, though -- NVMe being the faster one.

 

SATA based M.2 SSDs are limited to ~600 MB/s speed ....as it is the limit of the SATA III interface.

Basically and ordinary SATA SSD in M.2 size / form.

 

NVMe uses the PCI-E (3.0) bus interface.

From what I can see, most consumer NVMe SSD's are capable of running at up to speeds of 3200 MB/s.

[Gurky]

7 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

@Gurky

 

The motherboard can support both NVMe and SATA M.2 SSD's.

There is a HUGE difference in speed between NVMe and SATA, though -- NVMe being the faster one.

 

SATA based M.2 SSDs are limited to ~600 MB/s speed ....as it is the limit of the SATA III interface.

Basically and ordinary SATA SSD in M.2 size / form.

 

NVMe uses the PCI-E (3.0) bus interface.

From what I can see, most consumer NVMe SSD's are capable of running at up to speeds of 3200 MB/s.

Wow thanks man so if I can get a good deal on the nvme I should definitely go for that. I was going to get a normally ssd but just for space and sleek looking m.2 makes sense.

 

How come both can use the exact same slot but one can reach 5x speeds? 

[mariushm]

The m.2 connector has lots of pins. nvme connection uses a big portion of those, sata uses different (and fewer) pins.

Imagine pins for nvme being same as the ones in a pci-e slot just without the thick slot...so with lots of wires you can transfer data fast.

SATA on the other hand was designed for few wires,like USB (when it was invented, now usb is more complex). It was aimed to replace IDE cables which were cumbersome, with up to 80 wires and slow speed (max. 133 MB/s)

Cable has only 4 wires and was designed in such a way to be cheap and simple.

SATA was added to m.2 connector as easy way to make m.2 ssds - a ssd maker only had to take existing ssd design and rearrange chips in that "candybar" footprint and sell ssd and make m.2 connector popular. This way ssd makers didn't have to wait until ssd controllers that knew how to speak nvme were made...

 

ps. be aware that if a board has more than 1 m.2 connectors, some may be only sata capable and the nvme capable one may not have sata support.

Usually, the one closer to cpu socket has nvme but no guarantee...check manual or descriptions before buying.