M,2 SSD Types, Sata? PCIe? nVME?

[RickL]

So I have just purchased a Dell Inspiron 7559, the base option so without the SSD however it does have that empty slot in there so I am going to fill it.

The standard one that comes with (when selected) is this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transcend-SATA3-Solid-State-Drive/dp/B00KLTPUYG

 

I already know that the laptop is not nVME supported, its SATA3, so does that mean that the one below will work perfectly fine?

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-MZHPV256HDGL-00000-SM951-256GB-PCI-e/dp/B00VELD92U/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1456522630&sr=1-1&keywords=SAMSUNG+SM951+M.2

[intelCore]

11 minutes ago, RickL said:

-snip-

It's a PCIe Bus SSD so this would not work with a SATA3 M.2 slot.

 

This one however looks good:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-SSDNow-Drive-SM2280S3G2-120G/dp/B01BCEYJPY/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1456523886&sr=1-2&keywords=M.2+SATA3

[zMeul]

the transcend one will work

 

the samsung one is PCIe - so, no

[RickL]

Ok, just done more reading. So really.... there are 3 different types of SSD now right?

 

• M.2 - (Looks a bit like PCIe but its not) and its known as SATA, the same speeds as the 2.5" Sata SSD around 540 m/bit sec reads.
• M.2 - PCIe (AHCI) SSD - Read speeds around 1400 M/Bit sec.
• M.2 - PCIe NVMe SSD - Read speeds around 2000+ M/Bit sec.

 

In this Dell its the first, M.2 Sata.

 

Thank you for your help guys, that was a quick response from you all!

I guess with the SATA speed limitations then it really doesnt matter a great deal which make I get.

 

[Naeaes]

That Samsung drive isn't Sata. It's PCI-e. Specs on Samsung website.

 

See those two notches on the Transcend connector? That's called B/M-keyed connector. That's what you should be looking for. For comparison, the Samsung you linked is M-keyed. B-keyed would be a single notch at the opposing side. 

It's not written in stone, but more often than not PCI-E is M-keyed and Sata is B/M-keyed.

Technically, if the laptop has an M-keyed connector, both, the Samsung and the Transcend would fit but if you already know, it has to be Sata, you need to keep looking.

[RickL]

Ok, thanks for that Naeaes

 

Would you all agree that the Samsung 850 EVO would be one of the best ones for this class?

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-N5E500BW

 

[Sakkura]

8 minutes ago, RickL said:

Ok, just done more reading. So really.... there are 3 different types of SSD now right?

 

• M.2 - (Looks a bit like PCIe but its not) and its known as SATA, the same speeds as the 2.5" Sata SSD around 540 m/bit sec reads.
• M.2 - PCIe (AHCI) SSD - Read speeds around 1400 M/Bit sec.
• M.2 - PCIe NVMe SSD - Read speeds around 2000+ M/Bit sec.

Sort of. M.2 PCIe is M.2 PCIe whether it's running AHCI or NVMe. Those are just storage interface protocols, an SSD that supports NVMe would still support AHCI. And those performance numbers are not set in stone at all, plus they're not always relevant. SATA is indeed bottlenecked in the mid-500s in sequential performance, but it's less of a bottleneck in random IO. And PCIe SSDs can scale to whatever the SSD itself is capable of - PCIe 3.0 x4 allows up to just under 4 GB/s. NVMe on a given SSD will improve random IOPS, but sequential performance shouldn't really change. And a fast AHCI drive can still beat a slow NVMe drive.

 

It's worth bearing in mind that random IOPS are typically more important than sequential speeds.