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.
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Yeah sure I’ll drop 4 thousand dollars on nvme drive for a raid. That’s insane to say you can use them for raids most raids are looking for capacity. Sure some will use the nvme for editing. But movie picture and music libraries on a nvme drive sure. With over 2 thousand movie files nvme is just dumb solution for my servers. I’d really love to know what my 88 TB for one of my servers would cost for nvme drives. Then calculate in your backs up of your data. You can’t just back up to one location so now your price goes up and up. I love how people are like name’s are the solution to everything. Faster isn’t always better. SSD drives have set number of reads and writes and they hate humidity. It shortens their life span. If nvme was the be all end all you’d see SATA drive sales drop off. They aren’t and won’t. Show me a 14 or 16 TB data center quality nvme SSD for under 400.00. Not going to happen. It’s just the shiny new thing for people who don’t have a clue and see oh it’s faster must be better. Sure nvme drives are great for caching but in iraids is just dumb unless it’s a company with video editing.
I thought it said std
Amazing video! Thank you so much for this, it's what I've been searching for for HOURS!
I do have 1 question though. I recently bought a 1 TB Samsung 970 evo plus NVMe m.2 SSD, although I've looked around and saw that another version
That had "NAND SSD x4", and mine doesn't have that. Is that just another form of the same device, or is there a significant difference between them in performance?
Beautiful voice
Shisha!
I thought she went to Neptune or something. 😃🤣
Going to instal m.2 at b450
🇨🇦🙏👌
i’m a computer technology student, always nice to have a little bit of jargon practice mid study
Love your video you explain everything perfectly. Can I use an ssd 2.5 and a nvme hard drive and also will an ssd 2.5 save your battery over the traditional of an hhd drive?
SSDs are a waste. Just use hard drives.
Some beta trying to score some nerd tang produced this video.
An ssd? Its A ssd.. i think they teach that in like second grade..
Wow, just wow🤤
I have an older PC with Windows 10 running Raid 1 ( 2 1TB hard drives, partitioned to C: and D: drives) that I want to upgrade to an double SSD (no Raid, just one SSD for the old C: drive data, and a larger SSD for the old D: drive data. How can I copy the OS and data from the Raid system to the new SSD drives without losing all of my data?
Nice video my system is all SSD except for two mechanical storage drives. Shared on my channel.
The Kingston SSD brought new life to my Toshiba NB505. Thank you.
I am needing a drive for my high-end video camera. I bought a drive adapter that should allow me to store footage on a U.2. NVME, or a M.2 that is converted to fit the U.2 interface. The U.2 (2.5inch I think) is harder to find and seems more expensive. Are the notably faster and more desirable than an M.2? Thanks. Also. can you recommend a U2 NVME drive for my camera?
Interesting.
How can I turn a Hp stream 14 laptop into a gaming multipurpose laptop?
Hello my Pc is Dell Inspiron 7300 2n1 sliver US. So which type of drive is could you recommend to upgrade the storage capacity of the PC?
hello! can i use m.2 nvme to 2.5 sata adapter to macbook pro? thanks!
is the crucial mx500 2.5 ssd compatible to alienware 15 r3
Is it worth to buy scsi ssd or leave it ? And go for pcie itself ?
“How much capacity do you need?”
yes
I have bought u2 adapter and pcie adapter. I want to install nvme m2 on PC and laptop. Can you explain how can we use u2 adapter and pcie adapter for installation of M2 nvme ssd in old PC and laptop. What type of other cables/convertors will be required. Video or photo guide will be more helpful.
Please use AV01 codec.
any chance you can do a video on m.2 wifi?
After upgrading from HDD to SSD, from where the OS Win10 will boot? will it be boot from old HDD, because my laptop came with pre-installed OS? Please help to explain
Yeah, no info on U.2…Thanks.
Yeeeesssss this was the information I required!!!!!
I heard nvme has 2lane and 4lane. I have an nvme slot. But does it matter if i get a 2lane or 4lane nvme in terms of compatibility? I dont know if that slot is 4lane or 2lane.
Surprising how many people show up for Trisha. Kinda weird, but well played Kingston.
Anywho… I have a DH77EB motherboard with the PCIe slot that says it is compatible with mSATA half or full cards. Is this something I should even consider?
Nice
you didnt compare the M.2 version to Pcie and 2.5 SSD where it is much advance and faster than the other
Best intro!!
Nothing that i didnt knew before this video ..
I have an old Dell XPS M1530 but the SATA interface on the HDD (Seagate Momentus® 5400 FDE.3) has 3 ports as opposed to 2 on the SSD's that are on the market.
Is there a SSD or hybrid drive available anywhere or an adaptor that I can use on an ordinary SSD? I've searched for a SSD with 3 ports on the interface but I can't find any. I have found Seagate SSHD Laptop thin 2.5 500GB.
You look very cute in Black and White..
This was a solid explanation of SSD's for consumers. Thumbs up!
I'm very big fan you Trisha 😍
Where's the overview for the different kinds of speeds? All that was covered was the different form factors