The most concise and easy to understand comparison I've seen yet. Had me going back to check my new-build part bin to ensure that I had, indeed, purchased the correct components. Thanks, I can breathe easy now.
Just sharing, when it comes to SSD, 3 criteria u guys should know: 1. Form factor : 2.5" and M.2 2. Interface/slot/port : SATA and PCIe 3. Protocol : SATA and NVME
@@gottabepablo If you see an M.2 drive with two notches in the connector instead of one, I think that means it's either a SATA drive, or a PCIe drive with only two lanes. I think it's physically the same connection? There are M.2 slots that support both or only one, anyway. But the same drive can't do both.
@@whyjay9959 I thought SATA is not only just a physical interface but also a protocol implemented in software that has to do with the drive controllers. So although an M.2 drives connector is etched for the PCIe interface, can't it not be configured to use either the NVMe protocol or the SATA protocol? (not the physical connection/interface)
I have a M.2 SSD 500Gb for the OS and I am very satisfied with it... not expensive, very fast and reliable. With HDD my PC took between 1 or 2 minutes to fully restart, but with M.2, it only takes 17 seconds and it´s ready to go.
@@dharmendra34061 it depends on what kind of motherboard you have and the type of PCIe slots it has. Older motherboards generally have a PCIe Gen 3 slot, newer ones (and the more expensive ones) have Gen 4 (which is twice as fast as 3 but in all honesty you don't need it unless you do heavy work on your PC like editing or gaming).
Hello @robxlove We're hoping this helps you out! NVMe SSDs use the M.2 slot with a single notch (M key) or the PCIe slot for higher speeds. At the same time, SATA SSDs typically have a dual-notch (B+M key) connector for the M.2 slot, supporting older, slower technology. SATA M.2 SSDs do not use the PCIe interface; they use the SATA interface despite having the M.2 form factor. The dual-notch (B+M key) connector is designed to fit into M.2 slots that support SATA. Some M.2 slots support both PCIe (NVMe) and SATA SSDs. These slots can accept drives with either the single-notch (M key) for NVMe or the dual-notch (B+M key) for SATA. Kingston Is With You
Great video. Building a new computer after 10 years (current one is still fine, but trying to get ahead of expected end of life limits of hardware). Coming from a "SSDs should only be for the OS" mentality, so very helpful.
Well, for gaming too, especially in raid, but expand memory to like 32GB if you have 16GB, and use a virtual memory drive to create a 'storage' for the virtual memory, that way, the OS can support virtual memory, which is to me pretty much obsolete, and yet required for most games or apps, while only using 16Gb of the ram for that. Yes, sounds non-logical, but virtual memory is still a widely used function, upon non present games and apps may either quit or run badly, exiting to desktop "memory full" message. (It makes no sense, that with 32 GB you'd get a message memory full, or simply app quit, and yet it happens.) (It's better to have 16GB memory and 16GB virtual, than 32 GB real with no virtual, which makes no sense.) (also, instead of using SSD as virtual memory, using the virtual drive (in memory) as virtual memory saves a whole bunch of SSD life, while still allowing for near maximum performance, but is less prone to SSD degradation by virtual memory.) It also prevents the OS from using up all the memory for 'better' performance, while the slow release usually kills the game.
Great video. A little addition to your explanation : The 2 Notch Sata M.2 use's what's called the B-Key. The 1 notch PCIE [ NVME ) m.2 use's the M-Key. The M.2 socket's on the devices motherboard can be ; A B-key socket , A M-key socket or a combined socket that you can use either type of M.2 in that single socket.
There are some 2-lane nvme drives ("PCI-e X2") that have two notches just like SATA so you can't always tell what it is just by looking at the notches.
M.2, 2.5" = type of form factor PCIe, SATA = type of bus connector (i.e. speed) NVME, AHCI = Protocols (i.e. bandwidth) SATA, regardless of form factor, uses the AHCI protocols. PCIe uses the NVME protocols.
I always thought M.2 drives were either PCIe or PCIe NVMe, where NVMe was just some kind of special version. Didn't realize it was SATA or PCIe (which IS just NVMe)! This video clears it up so much! Thank you! 😅
My 1TB Samsung SATA SSD can still boot my PC in 10-12 seconds, compared to the 2-4 minutes it takes a 5400rpm HDD to finish booting and readying programs to use. If you're using M.2, you wanna make sure you have a PCIe connection, as SATA is limited to 600mb/sec.
Sitting here with a Macbook Pro from 2011, i'm talking about the ones with CD Drives and Hard Drives for storage. Thinking of a day when i can finally upgrade and be productive again without so much lag and incompatibility with everything. Sigh
It's such a huge difference between a SSD Sata m2 and a NVME m2 that by cloning with whatever program in Windows or Linux, from the first one, to the second one, you won't be able to boot from the second/cloned one! Try it if it sounds implausible!
Great content but 4 years too late. Those PCIe blades (AHCI) have been outstanding, but you can not get them any more. Samsung 951 and the predecessor 941 hypetrain left the station in 2017.
I have PCIe M.2 in two of muh rigs, and a SATA SSD in muh main rig. All access your operating system (Windows or Linux) faster than mechanical drives, run programs very fast, and fetch files super fast.
@@twoshedsjackson6478 Huh. I kinda enjoy her voice! But I guess I could be a bit biased since I've come to associate it with content I enjoy over the years...
@@ivanteo1973 Assuming you are even addressing my statement, perhaps you missed the part/failed to comprehend where I addressed *M.2 SATA* slots on mainboards...and not 'SATA' standards as a whole.
I had found M. 2 back in 2015 when I purchased Asus Rog laptop. But that time it was only sata. So I bought sata m. 2 & it is still working like a charm
For a long time, I thought that the mid-2012 MacBook Pros were the last MacBooks to use SATA hard-drives. While they ARE the last MacBooks to use 2.5-inch SATA hard-drives, the early 2013 MacBook Pros (and mid-2012 MacBook Airs) were the last MacBooks to use SATA of any kind (a form of mSATA).
Next video suggestion: educate viewers of the nvme ssd drive's MASSIVE Achille's Heel - the 'slc cache write hole'. So many nvme drives, even the latest pcie gen5, will drop their write speeds to WAAAAAAAY below even an hdd's speed when that cache runs out !!!!!
Great presentation! Although, I still don't understand what my Asus Z170M-plus board mean by "M.2 X4" and "M.2 Socket 3", which you did mention in your presentation at 1:57. The manual states that the M.2 slot is an "M-key". Wikipedia says that M.2 SATA is an "M & B Key". Now, I know my board is old (PCIe x3) and it's very easy to get an M-key NVMe PCIe x3 SSD, but the mystery to me is...... Will the NVMe work on my mobo with the mysterious "M.2 X4 Socket 3" information?
I think the only place I've seen an M.2 SATA slot is in a slighty older laptop. Too old and it would only support a 2.5 inch SSD, newer may finally have PCIe/NVMe capability. Don't think I've ever seen a desktop motherboard with M.2 SATA, but I wouldn't put it past certain vendors to shave a few pennies off.
There are tons of mobos that support M.2 SATA especially in the low and mid range mainboard chipset series... Mid range series boards also support both SATA and NVMe, so look more closely, please.
Something I have noticed with alot of sata ssd's is after some games have finished a loading screen the screen will be almost completely white for a split second then the colors revert back to normal a second later. I have never known a pcie ssd to do this.
my old wd blue sn520 512GB NVMe drive had two notches (also known as ngff form factor). And it worked with my old Asrock Fatality 990fx Killer Motherboard.
The lack of compatibility between M.2 SATA and M.2 PCIe is frustrating. For those of us that still have (perfectly useful) M.2 SATA laptops, the drives are getting harder to find.
So even though, I am familiar with some of the facts, I didn't know about the two notches for the SATA M.2 drives, so kudos for teaching me something new! I am using three KC3000 1TB drives as a RAID0 device on both my computers. At peak levels, those drives reach up to 22.000MB/s read and 17.000MB/s write speed. If I had a bigger budget, I would have chosen the RENEGADE drives instead. Before I forget, can you please bring back OPAL 2.0 encryption for the KC3000 series of drives please?
In practice on a typical PC the speed difference between SATA and NVMe doesn't tend to be very noticeable, at least to me, and only a few specialist applications, like heavyweight video editing might perform significantly better. However, for a desktop I would go for the NVMe option anyway as the use of a SATA m.2 card generally steals one of the SATA interfaces.
It's an order of magnitude faster than sata in games that constantly stream in assets as you play (on a slow drive, the game will have micro freezes minutes after the level is loaded while you play). Their best use case are in these games.
@@wayland7150 SATA/AHCI maxes out @560MB/s, while PCIe/NVMe ...well, 2 years ago was Gen3@3600, today Gen4@7400 and new Gen5 already announced with 13000/12000 read/write speeds. (14500 theoretically possible with future Gen5 SSDs) and in 2-3 years Gen6 will max out at ~29 GB/s.
I was that guy sweating bullets. Guess, if you want the scoop on memory the Kingston memory experts are your guide. Excellent summary! Just wish you'd also discussed real world differences. I have a 2019 Dell 5060 desktop with only a long-in-tooth a HDD. It has an M.2 PCI 3 x4 and a couple SATA ports. In reality, how much faster would a M.2 PCI.3 x4 be over a SATA SSD for typical consumer/business use?
Thank you for the compliment! As for the difference The PCIe interface is generally faster, as the SATA 3.0 spec is limited to ~600MB/s maximum speed, while Gen 3 x4 lanes of up to 4000MB/s (depending on the host device). For more information please consult us via our Tech Support page: kings.tn/3DakQWz
while we talk about performances for gaming always wil be in option to chose the better one who are in domain with speed so even if is not easy affordable ppl always at most gamer will patiently collect money for the best option for any component even if that is related to the disk.
Gaming: NVMe M.2 - lays flat on the board. Some will be located on the back of the main board (motherboard) some will be located on the front. To simplify - it's all about moving information quickly from point a to point b. Think of it as a highway - more lanes fit more information - where will you notice it most? Gaming - high amounts of data transfer. When there's a lot going on, you need fast read and write times, which equals speed and efficiency. Hope this helps explain the process a bit.
i do about every 2 weeks 1st after cleaning temp folders etc then reboot pc goes faster again i use the free Revo uninstaller app deleting /cleaning out removing apps old files cleans any traces left behind so never any Conflicts with old files take your time to learn worth it pc runs like cloak work
I've read many of these fast NVMe M.2 SSDs' self limit themselves on speed based on temperature - they overheat unless you add an internal cooling fan ?
1st! That out of the way, one thing this video did not address was which to use if you were making a USB bus powered external storage device. Use SATA, not NVMe. The USB port does not put out enough power for NVMe devices, but does for SATA.
One question I had that I don't think was discussed was whether there is a difference between M.2 NVMe (which I guess is the same as PCIe? not sure) on a motherboard vs. M.2 NVMe on a PCIe expansion slot via an adapter card and if there are any issues like what kind of slot the adapter card is in or any other specs re: the card itself. I just bought an old computer with an M.2 slot but found out it's only for a PCI adapter assembly (Lenovo M900 tower computer) so I'm getting an M.2 adapter card for PCI Express card slot (physical link width x16; negotiable link width x4, x1) so I can use an M.2 NVMe SSD. The card is supposed to fit in PCIe X4 or X8 or X16 slots.
Hello there the NVMe SSD is the Bus interface while the PCIe would be the physical/logical interface. If you are going to use an adapter make sure you check the specifications of the manufacture to make sure it can accommodate an M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD. Also we found a posting pertaining to using an NVMe SSD and adapter on your system: kings.tn/3KP5eLq
Thank you for your inquiry and there is a lot of information about that so if you need supplemental info to this video, please visit our site here to learn more: kings.tn/3flntfs
PCIe is a standard bus interface that works with many things, video cards, audio cards, ethernet cards, RAID cards, and solid state drives (SSDs). NVMe, is an interface specification for communication with next generation form factor (NGFF) and solid state drives, and functionally, a PCIe bus. More inf here on 'M.2 SSDs explained': kings.tn/3flntfs
@@kingston You should rename that page you linked to “M.2 SSDs explained, except for NVME” because NVME is not mentioned at all. And again thank you for the reply, but it didn’t answer my question. When I see an M.2 SSD labeled as PCI-e and the next M.2 SSD is labeled NVME PCI-e, what is the difference between those two drives?
Ok it sounds like you are requesting further details, so please contact our Tech Support Team where we can discuss with you more. You can chat or email us here kings.tn/3y3V6c6 Thank you
When I got my motherboard (Asus Prime B350 Plus) I almost threw out the little screw. Hopefully I did in fact save it. I have not evolved out of my 2 SATA hard discs yet. One used to give me errors, but I moved it to a cpu SATA port and it stopped. Apparently those you can only have the m2 in or the drive, not both.
4:00 well the script could have added that the SATA protocol still exists because NVMe is only impressive with large file transfers, not on loading games, system updates, or app installation where the SATA can keep up.
@@wstritt you are referring to a SATA HDD. I'm referring to an SSD with SATA interface vs NVME. Only few second difference in game loads and it has more to do with the newer SSDs vs old ones....check yourself in old articles/benchmarks.
