Explaining M.2 SSDs

[Music] welcome to another video from explaining computers calm this time I'm going to discuss MDOT - SSDs specifically I'm going to compare MDOT to SSDs to the board traditional to the half inch form factor SATA SSD and then I'm going to discuss the broader implications of MDOT to technology so here we have an MDOT two SSD it's the same one I showed you to start the video I've just taken my label off so we can see things a bit more clearly and as you can see comparing it to my finger it really is a very small storage device and there's not a great deal to the hardware in terms of looking at the thing we've got the connector down this end we've got the flash memory chips on the top and this is indeed a single-sided m2 SSD for for turn it over there aren't even any components on the other side of devices really is very minimal an amazingly small piece of storage technology and just to give you a little bit of background m2 is a fairly new standard for connecting SSDs and other devices things like Wi-Fi adapters and bluetooth adapters as well into computer motherboards and m2 replaces and SATA and was initially known as the next generation form factor or ng F F and today m dot 2 is increasingly being used to connect devices not just to desktop motherboards but also to the motherboards used in laptops and tablets many modern desktop motherboards now have one two or three m dot two slots and so for example the gigabyte H 170 MDS 3 H that I recently used in an i7 build has one m dot two slot and indeed I'll be fitting this and got two SSD into that slot later in this video now different m dot two cards have different notches or cutouts in the connector to prevent them from being connected to slot incompatible with that device and also from being inserted the wrong way around m dot 2 SSDs in particular can be keyed with either a B or an M slot or as here with both of these notches MDOT two cards come in a variety of lengths and widths which are coded into a four or five digit number so for example this m2 SSD uses a very common 2280 form factor meaning but it's 22 millimeters wide and 18 millimeters long other common sizes for m dot 2 devices in general are sixteen thirty twenty to thirty thirty thirty twenty to forty two thirty forty two 20 to 60 and 20 to 110 this said if you're fitting an m dot to SSD into a desktop PC it's most likely to be a 20 to 80 device this particular m dot - SSD is a SanDisk X 400 the capacity is one to eight gigabytes although already through a one terabyte X 402 SSDs sandesh also sell X 400 SSDs in the 2.5 inch form factor and if we put the m dot 2 X 400 next to it to 2.5 inch form factor cousin you can see how incredibly small the m2 SSD really is and it's amazing to think that fairly soon we will have multi terabyte SSDs in the m dot to form factor again comparing an m2 SSD with a 2.5 inch form factor model we should note that all modern 2.5 inch form factor SSDs have got a SATA 3 interface and this means they can transfer data at up to 6 gigabits per second in contrast MDOT two devices can feature a satyr a PCIe or the USB interface although in practice Desktop end up to SSDs will either use a SATA or a PCIe thus now here this particular X 400 SanDisk and docked to SSD has a SATA 3 bus exactly the same as that in it's 2.5 inch hub companion here and there for both of these SSDs both the end up to and the traditional 2.5 inch form factor model will transfer data at up to 6 gigabits per second so I'm not going to do a test comparing in this video they come out exactly the same however some end up to SSDs have a PCIe interface and that can transfer data at up to 32 gigabits per second or other 5 times faster than traditional satyrs 3 & 4 many people achieving PCIe speed is what really matters when you're purchasing an m dot 2 SSD and in turn that means if you are going to get yourself a number up to SSD be very careful to be clear whether you're purchasing a PCIe or a SATA 3 device via PCIe devices and much faster although of course PCIe undocked to drive cost more than the SATA drives to fit a traditional two-and-a-half inch SSD you'll need to connect a SATA data cable like that those need to connect a SATA power cable and may you need to mount the SSD in your computer in contrast particular m2 SSD is easier and neater that's all we need to do is to remove the retaining screw get that out from there I can do it whilst not getting in your way there we are going to screw out from there we don't need to take the SSD just neatly goes into the socket there like that and then it just spring load so it will just drop down into place I just get my screw ready and then we can just put the screw back in here screw that down on our drive is all mount it and we have no wiring to worry about no cable management no Drive mounting it really is the easiest the simplest method of installing a new drive in the desktop PC this said you do need to be aware of at inserting an MDOT - SSD into an MDOT to start on most motherboards will prevent the use of a related Satur socket so here for example installing the end onto SSD prevents the use of SATA port 0 you in years to come I think we will look back in the introduction of MDOT to sockets on desktop PC motherboards as a really signature a really important PC innovation now partly that's because if you can plug in at MDOT to SSD you can get much faster data transfer speed if it's a PCIe SSD that said of course we've had pci-e slot SSDs for motherboard for a long time to plug directly into standard PCIe slots and today you could actually buy PCIe cards which will take multiple n/2 SSDs in a raid configuration so the speed issue has not been reliant on the introduction of MDOT to and in fact it goes beyond just the end up to socket but I think the really important thing is actually more than speed it's the fact that for years and years and years when we built desktop pcs we basically had a case which has contained three chunks of technology and those chunks have been the motherboard with a processor and the cooler and the memory they've been the power supply and they've been that drives but now with introduction of m2 on standard desktop motherboards you can build a PC if you like into chunks the motherboard including the process of the core of the memory and the storage and then the power supply and indeed we've already got motherboards with two or even three MDOT two sockets so it's now possible to build really powerful multi drive pcs without any drive bays at all and that I think is a really important change the computing industry it'll alter the way we design and build desktop PCs and their form factor for a long time to come anyway that's now it for another video if you've enjoyed watching this please press that like button if you haven't subscribed please subscribe and I hope to talk to you again very soon [Music]

Channel: ExplainingComputers

Views: 592,506

Keywords: M.2, SSD, SATA, PCIe, form, factor, computer, storage, solid, state, drive, SATA III, motherboard, NGFF, next, generation

Id: SP0Brsc0dMY

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 12 2017