Hello everyone, today I gonna try to explain
what the difference between Hard Drive and 2.5-inch SSD, NVMe and M.2 SATA and mSATA. The difference in these drives is in different
types of connection to the laptop or PC motherboard. If you compare the 2.5-inch hard drive and
the SSD with the same 2.5-inch form factor, you will see that the connection interface
is the same SATA types. That is, if you want to replace your old hard
drive with a fast SSD drive, there will be no problems, because the SATA interface is
compatible with other type of connection - SATA 1, SATA 2 or SATA 3. But unfortunately, you can’t install an
M.2 SSD in socket of a SATA hard drive - it is physically impossible. You also cannot install an M.2 SSD in socket
of the mSATA, these drives, as you can see, also have different connection sockets. With a hard drive and an SSD with a 2.5-inch
form factor, everything is quite simple and just as without any problems you can replace
an mSATA, because this type of drive is available only in one form factor and with one type
of connection. We still have M.2 SSD with different sizes,
with different bus type, with different keys, and from this many people have confusion - “what
kind of M.2 SSD should I buy when upgrading my computer”
Ok. Let's talk about M.2 SSD
M.2 SSD has different sizes; there are only four of them: 2230, 2242, 2260 and the most
popular 2280. The first two numbers indicate the width of
the board; the second two numbers are the length. As a rule, it is indicated how long the M.2
motherboard supports. Now let's turn to the types of M.2 drive. M.2 storage can be in SATA and NVMe types
- So what is the difference between M.2 SATA and M.2 NVMe SATA M.2 SSD and 2.5-inch SSD - has the same
specifications. M.2 NVMe work on the PCI-E bus, and these
are completely different indicators in speed, that is much higher than the SATA bus. - To explain very briefly, NVMe is a type
of bus that works much faster than a SATA bus For example, modern motherboards use SATA
III with a maximum speed of 600 MB/s. NVMe drive provides write speeds up to 3500
MB/s. This is 7 times more than SATA! Yes, these two boards are very similar in
appearance, but have a slight difference in the connection socket. As a rule, an M.2 SATA supports 2 keys “M”+“B” The M.2 NVMe drive working on the PCI-E bus
will have only one “M” key. What does this all mean, I show with example. M2 SATA board with the M + B key can be installed
in most slots, while the M2 NVMe with the “M” key is physically impossible to install
in the “B” slot, so pay attention to which slot installed on your computer motherboard. How it all looks in practice. Take, for example, the Asus Prime Z270P motherboard
that has an M.2 socket under the key “M” on board, which means that you can install
the M2 SATA SSD ... as you see, nothing interferes with the connection ... you can also install
M2 NVMe SSD - also the connection does not interfere. All the same with laptops. Let me show you an Asus X570 laptop. On the motherboard of this laptop, there is
a socket for M.2 SSD, also under one key “M”, and therefore you can connect M.2 SATA and
also M.2 NVMe. But here the question may arise whether the
M.2 NVMe will be compatible with your laptop. For example, an Asus X570 laptop auto detects
which type of M.2 SSD is connected, and in most modern laptops, the BIOS auto detects
the drive. Many manufacturers install on the motherboard
slot for M.2 with the key "M" and with the support of the bus to choose - SATA or PCIe. That is, you buy M.2 SATA or M2 NVMe and any
of the drives will work. But there are cases when the motherboard works
only on one of two buses and does not support, for example, the new NVMe standard or the
old SATA. To make sure that your motherboard is compatible
with the SSD M2 drive, I will show an example with one of the motherboards from Asus. Enter the BIOS, then in the Advanced section
and find the line “M.2 Configuration”, then in the drop-down menu you can see that
the motherboard supports SATA and PCIe bus, and therefore M.2 SATA and M.2 NVMe will work
on such a motherboard. But it is also worth considering that such
a setting may not be in your BIOS, but at the same time, your laptop or PC will detect
and work with both M.2 SATA and M.2 NVMe. Therefore, first read the specification of
your laptop or motherboard, before buying an M.2 SSD storage. What to do if you bought M.2 SATA but didn’t
check the presence of the M.2 socket on the motherboard, and your laptop only supports
2.5 SATA standard. In this case, there is a quite large choice
of different adapters. For all these adapters I leave a link in the
description where you can buy them. Such an adapter allows you to connect an M.2
SATA and make it a standard 2.5-inch SSD-storage. But if you try to connect an M.2 NVMe drive
to such an adapter, you will not succeed because the connector is not compatible. There are also adapters for the mSATA storage
that make the 2.5 SATA standard out of it. Even for the 2230 M.2 SATA standard, there
is adapter that converts M.2 SATA to mSATA ... after which you can connect to the adapter
again and make 2.5 SATA. Yes ... here's a sandwich but it works. Well, I hope this video was useful for you. To all adapters and types of storage you will
find links in the description and if you have questions about compatibility of the drive
with your laptop or PC, ask them in the comments.
