All SSD Types EXPLAINED

look I get it picking a storage drive for your  next rig can be a difficult process currently   SSD prices are very respectable they've  got many storage options many different   speeds to consider many different prices I  really this video is appropriate and I must   confess that this reddit post of all things  was what prompted me to create this video   believe it or not some good can come from  that cesspool we'll discuss that and more   in this video not read it but the SSDs so here  we go another one for the crash course playlist so there are two basic form factors you should  keep in mind when choosing your next SSD the two   and a half inch drive and the in bat to drive  much smaller the former looks something like   this it's usually mounted to SSD trays in modern  cases though they can be placed really anywhere in   a build upside down sideways duct tape behind the  motherboard tray you get the point I've benefited   the stylus freedom of placement it'll work with  really any relatively modern motherboard boasting   SATA ports I recommend SATA 2 or 3 and isn't  composed of any moving parts meaning they aren't   as fragile as their hard drive counterparts a few  pros and cons of a 2 and a half inch SSD for one   because they use the SATA interface you'll deal  with higher latency 'z and lower bandwidth overall   and these drawbacks result in significantly  slower effective transfer rates because the   SATA interface is the bottleneck typically in the  realm of about 500 megabytes per second from both   the reads and writes unless you have a crappy  drive and then typically the writes are trash   and the reads are respectable these speeds mind  you are still several times faster than hard   drives meaning they'll still be the preferred OS  drive expect boot times in the realm of about 10   to 15 seconds depending on what you have loaded  on the operating system to slower drives using   the SATA interface are much cheaper than their PCI  siblings so these straps should be considered in   more budget oriented builds 500 gig 860 Samsung  Evo's for example these are great drives by the   way are only about 75 bucks each I recommend  these if you aren't looking to break the bank   I've linked them down below I have first-hand  experience with these even the 850 Evo's were   fine but these 475 or so US dollars are a steal  and three you'll need to connect to external   cables to these drives one SATA data cable and one  state of power cable right next to its the bigger   one overall just a tad more bulk added to your  build but again definitely worth it if you're in   the market for something relatively affordable  and decent in terms of speed the next SSD form   factor is MDOT - they're 22 millimeters tall and  can range and basically length from 40 millimeters   up to maybe 120 140 millimeters I really depends  motherboards typically support all the different   lengths and the height again will be almost always  22 millimeters in that - actually stands for the   second generation of mini SATA hence the M in  the name the form factor attaches to the computer   either via pcie three and occupying up to four  lanes more on that a second or say two three or   usb3 the physical connector for this kind of  drive looks like this right here I'll show a   close-up which can be found on again most modern  motherboards now a common misconception here is   that since these kinds of drives use a different  connector they must inherently operate a much   higher or lower speeds when in reality the speeds  of these drives are largely determined by the way   in which data is transferred not necessarily by  the form factor the diagram I mentioned earlier   on reddit comes in handy here thanks to user  Alex 2003 super for the original post the two   technology is distinguishing em 2 drives apart  are SATA and nvme we've already mentioned SATA   whose accompanying drive speeds max out at around  600 megabytes per second which is why you want   likely to find any SATA drive in either the MDOT  two or two and a half inch form factor pledging a   speed above this mark the SATA interface would  literally become the bottleneck so this drive   for example is a SATA MDOT to drive notice how  it doesn't promote transfer speeds above 600   megabytes per second in fact on the box I don't  even see it listed and it's probably because it's   nothing really to be excited about if you want  to pass this off as a much faster drive just   don't put how fast the drive is on the box it's  gonna be closer to 3,000 megabytes per second   you better believe that transfer speeds gonna  be on the box so that's a way you could tell   that this was a SATA MDOT - just by looking at  the transfer speeds you could also tell by the   physical connection on the MDOT to drive say to  MDOT twos are keyed twice there is an exception   to this and we'll discuss that later in the video  now a few pros and cons of SATA MDOT - SSDs or as   follows one they're physically smaller I mean come  on clearly smaller than their two and a half inch   counterparts and can thus be easily installed  into any compatible motherboard to the board   of course has to support the hem dot to interface  right but don't be just too disappointed here most   boards will have at least one I mean heck even the  cheapest a 324 Tyco and find on Amazon supported   one more on that this video or right here and then  three these drives are roughly the same price as   their two and a half inch counterparts though you  may actually I'm holding the wrong one this isn't   MDOT to envy me drive this one right here might  cost just a tad bit extra over its equivalent   two and a half inch on our part but in general  if I to choose between the MBA form factor and   the two-and-a-half inch form factor I would choose  this one simply because if I wanted to swap this   out or maybe just remove it altogether I don't  have to remove say my graphics card to get to   the end got to drive which is that's particularly  where the port is between PCIe slots it's more   annoying to remove this and that's really the only  reason why I'd prefer this now another kind of SSD   we'll discuss in this video is the nvme SSD now  I can hold this thing this is actually from Team   Group it's very fast but also fairly expensive  nvme stands for a non-volatile memory express and   it's characterized by its high bandwidth and thus  fast storage solutions when memory is non-volatile   it simply means that it doesn't require power to  retain stored information you can power cycle your   computer all day long and unless the drive itself  dies in the process you'll be able to recover your   data without loss system RAM DRAM is volatile and  on the other hand and and that basically means   that the data is wiped from memory when current  is cut so that's why you can't use system Ram to   store any important applications or data long  term well go into that in further detail in a   future video but for now what you need to know  is that nvme storage drives by nature of their   protocols are often extremely fast with respect  to their inherent Layton sees and transfer speeds   the fastest nvme SSDs I could find on the  market exceed read and write speeds of thirty   five hundred and twenty five hundred megabytes  per second or 3.5 and 2.5 gigabytes per second   respectively that is lightning fast and would  result in an incredibly snappy system overall os   boot times are often under five seconds can you  imagine that and any game save you these drives   load dozens of times faster than a typical hard  drive once you go in via me it's very difficult   to look back and that's not to say that all MV  messes these are extremely fast a subcategory of   these drives relates to the number of PCIe lanes  each occupies so for instance this drive right   here is a two lane SSD whereas this one is a four  lane SSD and the difference is basically and if   I wanted to generalize this transfer speeds take  this Samsung 970 Pro it uses four PCIe lanes noted   by the x4 ording this is what you want to look for  when you're buying an envy any SSD for PCIe lanes   have bandwidth equivalent to about 32 gigabits  per second for basically 4 gigabytes per sec   so theoretically the fastest nvme utilizing this  interface would cap out at around 4,000 megabytes   per second using the preferred SSD standard  other env meas however like this one right here   are limited to just two lanes so that means that  theoretical transfer rates cap out at around 2   gigabits per second instead of 4 moving from two  to four lanes basically doubles your bandwidth   and this right here is an example of that by the  way physically four lane and Vimy SSDs only have   a single key you can see there's just one little  notch there but a lot of the Tulane and VMI SSDs   will have two keys just like their SATA in dot 2  counterparts it's it's kind of confusing I kind of   express my frustration with this on Twitter  but some tooling nvme SSDs will have just a   single key and some will have two keys like their  SATA in bed 2 counterparts so that's really not   a great way it's not an effective or reliable  way of being able to figure out which is which   if it's 2 or 4 lanes you have to just read the  product description make sure you know which one   you're buying and obviously you should look at the  read and write transfer speeds because those will   reveal how fast these drives are and typically  how many lanes they're using now here are a   few pros and cons of envy me about two SSDs one  obviously because they're much faster in general   they're more expensive alright so typically  around twice the price per gig or more or less   depending it depends on the market really which  has historically to turn a lot of PC builders   I've got only two for line MVM SSDs in the studio  and neither of them are in my personal rig it's   just in my opinion a better value to opt for the  two and a half inch or say 2 m dot 2 drives too   many beefier nvme drives will run very hot and may  require heat sinks with active cooling to maintain   adequate transfer speeds for long amounts of  time to be fair all SSDs will throttle to an   extent under heavy load but this is something  you should consider along with your use case   scenario since you're likely to spend hundreds  of dollars on these drives you want extract all   the performance you really can now the last a kind  of SSD we'll mention just at least mention in this   video is the PCIe based SSD there isn't really  much that sets these apart from their Envy Miam   to counterparts save the interface used in this  case it's PCI Express versus the MDOT two-port   transfer speeds are essentially the same in fact  you can buy little conversion cards that allow you   to connect impact choose to those boards and then  let's connect those boards to the motherboard via   the PCIe slot so they're really the same thing  it's just the method by which you connect them   to your system is a little different PCIe based  drives aren't really as popular since they're much   larger than m2 drives and literally consume a slot  on your motherboard they're also typically more   expensive so just really isn't ideal or functional  one benefit may be temperatures where some PCIe   and viennese may have bulkier heat sinks or even  fans but again thermal throttling really only   applies to those interested in transferring gigs  of data at a time by the way I'm not gonna discuss   a unit two drives in this video they aren't  mainstream yet and are pretty expensive assuming   you can even find them in a consumer market I have  however linked a reliable article down below that   may interest you regarding the technology and  how it works it is very well written I've also   attached affiliate links to several SSDs in  various forms that I trust and have personal   experience with for those interested in picking  something up they are also in a video description   those kicked back to do go a long way I appreciate  it if you guys like this video thumbs up you know   what to do thumbs down for the opposite click  that red subscribe button if you are feeling   extra fancy and I'll catch you in the next one  this is science studio thanks for learning with us

Channel: Greg Salazar

Views: 1,735,610

Keywords: science, studio, solid state drive, all ssds explained, what is an ssd, how to choose an ssd, ssd vs hdd, m.2 vs sata, m.2 ssd, nvme vs ssd, nvme vs sata, drive transfer speeds, solid-state drive, how to, transfer rate, ssd types, ssd buyers guide, types of ssd, ssd explained, ssd vs m.2, m.2 vs ssd, sata ssd, best ssd, nvme vs m.2

Id: kx0ynC8Thlw

Length: 10min 37sec (637 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 12 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/seattleandrew]

Tl;dw

• 2.5mm is popular because it's cheap and compatible with everything
• m2 is reasonable for price and offers 2-3 times the speed of SATA drives
• NVMe is expensive and fast, keep an eye for whether it uses x2 or x4 Lanes. More Lanes, more speed. Up to 8 times SATA speed