SATA M.2 SSD

NVMe M.2 SSDs are much more performance driven compared to SATA M.2 SSDs. By leveraging the PCIe bus, NVMe M.2 SSDs have theoretical transfer speeds of up to 20Gbps which is already faster compared to SATA M.2 SSDs with 6Gbps. PCIe buses can support 1x, 4x, 8x, and 16x lanes. PCIe 3.0 has an effective transfer speed of up to 985 MB/s per lane which means there is a potential transfer speed of up to 16GB/s. However, there’s only x2 and x4 lanes accessible when using a M.2 form factor with the PCIe bus which translates to a maximum transfer speed of up to 4GB/s.

Is NVMe faster than SATA? Technically, yes. Modern motherboards use SATA III which has a max throughput of 600MB/s while NVMe drives provide speeds up to 3,500MB/s. The level of performance is much greater than SATA SSDs regardless of form factor. Only SSDs that utilize NVMe technology exceed the transfer speed caps that limit the SATA-based SSDs.

When deciding between an SATA M.2 SSD or an NVMe M.2 SSD, here are some things to consider:

• System Support – Older devices may not be compatible with NVMe as they don’t have the necessary connections to utilize the NVMe PCIe sockets.
• Quick Start-up – Easiest way to make your computer system boot faster is to install the OS (operating system) on an SSD. You’ll see the greatest speed improvements with a NVMe SSD.
• Prioritize Storage – You can use an NVMe SSD in combination with another SATA SSD. This is an affordable option without having to break the bank. You can install your OS and resource-intensive programs and applications on the NVMe SSD and use the SATA SSD to store everything else like the smaller and less resource-hungry files, docs, etc.
• Gaming Advantages – You’ll see a drastic improvement in gaming load times when using an M.2 NVMe SSD. Games installed on NVMe drives will have vastly better performance overall because of the transfer speeds when recalling your games from storage.
• PCIe Generations – There are generations of the PCIe bus that have different levels of performance. The bandwidth doubles with each generation and there are SSDs utilizing different generations of PCIe. The latest available is PCIe 4.0 with PCIe 5.0 still on the development horizon.
• Shared Connections – Some motherboards don’t have enough PCIe connections to support multiple NVMe drives. You might have to decide on using the available connection between a graphics card or an NVMe SSD. Other times, there may be PCIe lanes available but only a certain type of connection will be able to use NVMe devices at their full speed such as an M.2 connection.