How to Choose an SSD: SATA, 2.5", NVMe, M.2, PCIe, U.2 Explained – DIY in 5 Ep 139

Опубликовано 5 февраля 2021, 18:00

So you want that sweet SSD upgrade since is an easy way to drastically improve the speed of your PC. But how do you choose? What is SATA vs M.2 vs 2.5”? When you say “I’d like a 2TB M.2 PCIe Gen 3 NVMe SSD” you’ll know exactly what you are asking for once we decode all the terminology around SSD technology for you.

Form Factors: 2.5”, M.2, U.2, PCIe AIC
When shopping for SSDs, the first thing you’ll want to know is which form factor fits in your system. SSDs come in many shapes and sizes. For example, 2.5” is the most common type of SSD. It has a similar shape to a traditional HDD hard drive and connects over SATA cables so it offers a very familiar experience to what many are already used to. You could also choose an SSD that’s an Add-in card or AIC, operating over the PCIe bus rather than SATA. This results in a much faster experience but the PCIe slots on your motherboard are often needed for other things like graphics cards, wifi cards and RAID cards, so choose wisely. Another form factor, M.2, has become the standard type of storage for slim laptops and convertibles because the form factor is so slim and tiny. It’s also super easy to install right on the motherboard in most cases. Finally, there’s U.2 which looks like a 2.5” drive but is a bit thicker. It uses a different connector and sends data through PCIe interface, again making it faster just like the add in card. U.2 SSD tech is a beast and typically reserved for high end workstations and servers.

Interfaces: SATA, NVMe
Interface, or the way your computer communicates with your PC is available in types - SATA and PCIe NVMe. The SATA interface is more affordable, more commonly found and offers good performance for common applications. PCIe is the standard interface for NVMe, which is 3-10x faster than SATA SSD. Most high-end M.2 SSDs launched in the last few years support NVMe (but not all M.2 are NVMe, some are SATA). NVMe is so much faster because it provides much more bandwidth than SATA models, which improves performance in heavier productivity applications. If daily tasks consist of heavier work, like say video editing, large file transfers, etc, then NVMe SSD would be a good choice.

Capacity: How Many GB or TB?
How much storage do you need? Most consumer SSD range from 120GB to 2TB and while SSD storage has come way down in price over the last 5-10 years, it can still be a hefty investment, so figure out your budget and needs ahead of time. If you are looking to put your operating system and maybe a few apps on the SSD, but plan to keep your other data on a different drive, then 120GB-240GB may be enough for you. Keep in mind drives at samller capacity might be a bit slower than their higher capacity counterparts. For a nice mid-range approach you may consider 480GB to 1TB - enough to house your operating system, some PC games and a large media library. This is a great choice between price, performance and capacity for most users. Finally, for the power users out there, drives that are 2TB and above are expensive but allow you to store just about everything you want on your super speedy high end SSD drive.

SSD Design
Now if you are looking specifically for an NVMe SSD for a laptop or convertible tablet, the SSD design can have a big impact on if it works in your system. Many SSDs are built with NAND chips on both sides and there are quite a few ultra-thin systems that don’t support these types of drives. If that’s the case for your system, you’ll need to find a single-sided design. Also, when considering an SSD upgrade for ultra-thin systems, efficiency will be super important, both for heat and battery life. Often higher-speed SSDs use more energy and can run hotter than their more efficient counterparts so choosing something that won’t keep your laptop running at the temperature of the sun or draining battery faster than it charges will be important here.

Keep in mind that any SSD upgrade will be an improvement over a traditional hard drive. They’re faster, smaller, run cooler and more able to withstand movement and accidental droppage. Whatever you decide, you should notice an instant step up in speed right away. If you have more questions not answered in this video, please let us know in the comments and we’ll will do our best to answer them.