M.2 nvme vs ssd: differences and which one do I buy?

The SATA interface has been with us for many years and has been fundamental in computing, but nothing is eternal and the passage of time brings new solutions that are much better and have the mission of displacing the previous ones, in this case the new M interface . 2 has a bright future ahead.

Index of contents

We also recommend reading:

• The best SSD drives on the market. How long does an SSD have ?

M.2 NVMe vs SSD

The arrival of SSD disks has been an impressive leap forward with read and write speeds much higher than mechanical disks, with this the SATA III 6 Gb / s interface has been overwhelmed, it is not without reason since it was not designed having Take into account the very high speed of current SSDs. The latter has led to the appearance of the M.2 interface that uses PCI-Express technology to provide much more bandwidth than what SATA is capable of offering. Something that has gone a step further with the arrival of the NVMe protocol thanks to which we have seen disks that reach read speeds of up to 2, 500 MB / s, a figure that leaves diapers at 560 MB / s that can be achieved with approximately SATA III interface.

Another advantage of M.2 disks is that their size is much more compact, making installation easier, especially in the case of laptops and Mini PCs where space is not abundant and therefore is very It is important to take advantage of every last millimeter. With this, a new generation of laptops with greater amounts of storage and a much higher speed for all kinds of tasks is possible.

We continue with the advantages of the M.2 standard is that the disks that use it can be connected through three different interfaces, SATA (the slowest), PCI-Express in x2 mode and PCI-Express in x4 mode (the fastest). In the case of using an M.2 disk with a PCI-Express interface we must take into account the number of lanes that our motherboard supports, since if the number is reduced we can have a loss of performance of the graphics card when connecting one of these M.2 disks. That is why with the Skylake and Kaby Lake platforms from Intel the number of PCI-Express lanes of the motherboards have been increased to give better support to these disks.

The M.2 3.0 x4 interface takes four PCI-Express 3.0 lanes and is the one that provides the highest performance, therefore, it is the connector that should be used with the fastest disks on the market such as the Samsung 950 Pro and the Corsair MP500. These ports are usually called "Ultra M.2" when we see the specifications of the motherboards.

The PCI-Express interface is the same used by current graphics cards, that is why in the market we can also find SSD disks with a very similar appearance to that of graphics cards and that connect directly to the PCI-Express 3.0 slots of the motherboard like the latter. These are still M.2 disks with an adapter to place them directly in the PCI-Express slot on the motherboard.

Before buying an M.2 SSD it is very important that we look at the specifications of our motherboard to see what formats are supported. Remember that the PCI-Express or M.2 3.0 x4 are the highest performance, but their support is usually limited to the most modern boards.

WE RECOMMEND XPG SX8100, ADATA's new M.2 SSDs announced

Of course, there are also downsides to M.2 drives, the first of which is that they have a greater tendency to overheat than SATA drives. Manufacturers have already taken good note and developed solutions like MSI M.2 Shield and AORUS M.2 Thermal Guard, two passive heatsinks that are placed on these disks to lower their operating temperatures.

Performance tests

To see the difference in performance between the SATA III and the more advanced M.2 drives we have taken the results of our tests of the Samsung 850 EVO and the Samsung 950 PRO which are based on them respectively.

We quickly realize the superiority of M.2 disks, the difference is especially great in sequential reading and writing where the Samsung 950 PRO reaches almost four times the speed of the Samsung 850 EVO. In the values ​​of read and write random the difference is already much smaller and shows the limitations of the NAND Flash memory technology used in SSD disks.

Recommended Models

We leave you the best models that currently exist on the market for M.2 and SATA disks.

Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 - 250GB Solid Hard Drive (Samsung V-NAND, PCI Express 3.0 x4, NVMe, AES 256-bit, 0 - 70C) 250GB SSD Storage Capacity; Samsung V-NAND memories, NVMe interface and Polaris controller 189.86 EUR Samsung 960 PRO NVMe M.2 - 512 GB solid hard drive (Samsung V-NAND, PCI Express 3.0 x4, NVMe, AES 256-bit, 0 - 70 C) With a capacity of 512 GB, PCI Express interface and a reading speed of 3500 MB / s; Equipped with Samsung V-NAND technology 147.87 EUR Corsair Force MP500 - Solid State Drive, 120 GB SSD, M.2 PCIe Gen. 3 x4 NVMe-SSD, Read Speed ​​up to 2, 300 MB / s SSD drives CORSAIR NVMe M.2 enable a level of performance in a compact form factor Samsung 850 Pro MZ-7KE512BW - 512 GB, 2.15 "Black Internal Solid State Drive 512GB SSD. 212.00 EUR G.Skill 240GB SSD 240GB - Hard Drive solid (Black, Serial ATA III, MLC, 2.5 ") 256 GB memory capacity with SATA Rev 3.0 interface; Form Factor 2.5 '' Shock Resistance 1500 G Crucial MX300 CT525MX300SSD1 - 525 GB Internal Solid Hard Drive SSD (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch) Random Read / Write Speed ​​up to 92k / 83k on any type archive; 90 times higher energy efficiency than a traditional hard drive

Conclusions about SATA VS M.2 drives

The conclusion is clear, if your motherboard allows you, choose an M.2 3.0 x4 / PCI Express disk to get the best performance, in case you don't have the option, choose an M.2 3.0 x2 disk or SATA III in this order of preference. Looking to the future, we are sure to see the M.2 4.0 x6 interface or something similar that will increase the bandwidth even more so that we can enjoy new discs even faster, but this is still missing. Did you know the difference between them? Do you think it's worth it? We await your opinion!