PCIe SSDs

What's the deal with these M2 SSDs? Do they fit in a PCIe socket or do you need a special socket on the motherboard?

Your m/b needs an M2 PCIe socket. But you can get adapters to allow them to be used in a PCIE 3.0 socket.

So you can. Would they work in a V1 or V2 socket? Just slower?

I'm not sure of the answer to that. But there would be little point as it would likely not be faster than SATA. Note that, in any case, you may not be able to boot from an M2 PCIe SSD used in this way.

If you want to boot from the drive, have a m/b that doesn't support M2 drives directly, and don't have a shortage os SATA connectors then I'd stick with SATA.

They are most useful in small form-factor computers, or laptops, where there isn't room for large drives.

Ta.

Some links to help:

https://www.velocitymicro.com/blog/nvme-vs-m-2-vs-sa...

Samsung M.2 vs SATA (both identical speeds, but different interface) - https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Samsung-850-EV...

My goto drives right now are the Adata SX8200 if going for NVME (M.2), and the Crucial MX500 for SATA. Both are very competitive in the £/GB, depending on the capacity you want. I suggest you look at a minimum of 480GB/500GB, as the cache sizes on smaller drives tend to reduce performance.

You'll be about £100 for a 480GB SX8200, and about £120 for a 1TB MX500, depending on who you shop with.

Bench comparison of SX8200 and MX500 - https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Adata-XPG-SX82...


My system's bench results:

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11882238
https://www.passmark.com/baselines/V9/display.php?id...

Also suggest a fairly up to date CPU/Mobo/RAM to get the most from any SSD, and to take advantage of NVME speeds (i.e. with sufficient PCIe lanes for all hardware present). I transferred a backup 840 Evo from a 2015 PC to my 2018 one, and the performance leapt up considerably.

Lastly, if on Win 7 or earlier, be aware that M.2 / NVME might be hit and miss for driver support. Win 8 should be fine. Win 10 is fine.

Thanks all.