By Sophia | Last Updated
Nowadays, more and more people pursue higher PC speed. For old PC, it is useful to upgrade their HDD to SSD. It will improve your PC speed directly. SATA SSD and NVMe SSD are our familiar SSD. Some people will encounter a problem when they upgrading SSD, which one is the right? This article will use different data to answer you .
Actually the above statement is not correct, SATA SSD refers to the SSD with SATA interface, and NVMe SSD is using the NVMe upper layer protocol's SSD. Interface and protocol are not comparable. But SATA interface SSDs are indeed slower than NVMe protocol SSDs, many consumers only care about the last speed.
Let's use a picture to explain the relationship between SATA and NVMe:
As can be seen from the figure, the SATA interface SSD must use the SATA transmission protocol, and the upper layer protocol must be AHCI. The SSD with these three combinations is generally 550MB/s.
NVMe protocol is bound to use PCI-E transmission protocol, although the interface can be M. 2, PCI-E, U.2. Its transmission speed can easily break through 1000MB/s, which is almost twice as much as SATA SSD' highest speed 550MB/s.
Some readers may think that M.2 SSDs must be faster than SATA SSDs. This is actually not correct, the interface will not affect the SSD transmission speed, but the protocol will.
We can learn from the figure that the M.2 interface can also be matched with SATA transmission protocol and AHCI upper layer protocol, or PCI-E transmission protocol and AHCI upper layer protocol. We call these SSDs as M. 2 AHCI SSD. In fact, it is a SATA SSD with M. 2 interface. It's highest speed is still 550MB/s.
SATA SSD and M.2 SSD are our the most common SSDs, how to choose?
Compared with traditional mechanical hard disk users, upgrading to M. 2 AHCI SSD or SATA SSD can get a rebirth feeling.
Some M.2 NVMe SSDs have up to 3500MB/s' sequential reading speed and up to 3300MB/s' sequential writing speed. Just like the Samsung 970 EVO Plus. M.2 NVMe SSD is very fast, but it's also hot and expensive.
In interface, M.2 SSD is more concise, it can be directly insert to the motherboard. SATA SSD needs to be connected with the power cable and data cable, finally it need to be fixed on the hard disk area. SATA SSD's connection and install are more troublesome.
3. Choose SSD by your mainboard
To avoid pitfalls, we should check the mainboaed before choosing the SSD.
From the perspective of hardware, if your computer does not have a M.2 interface, you do not need to consider the M.2 interface SSD. Of course, you can also buy a M.2 SATA adapter card to install forcibly. But you need to be clear, because the SATA interface must uses the AHCI upper layer protocol and SATA transport protocol, your NVMe SSD's maximum speed can't over 550MB/s.
If your computer has both M.2 interface and the SATA interface, please note that there are two versions of the M.2 interface. One is the B Key and the other is the M Key (for getting more introductions of these interfaces, please refer to this article "How to Choose the Right SSD for my PC"). You also need to know whether the motherboard supports the NVMe protocol or not.
Some old motherboards may not have SATA 3 interface, if you put SATA 3 SSD to SATA 2 motherboard interface, your transmission speed won't over 300MB/s.
For general users or even moderate game users, SATA SSD and M.2 AHCI SSD have been able to meet their requirements for higher loading speed. There is no needing to pursue M.2 NVMe SSD's expensive， extreme speed. SATA SSD's application scenarios are very rich, technology is also very mature, low heat, which for many users are quite friendly.
For users with sufficient budget and large data transmission task, M.2 NVMe SSD is a good choice. But if there is no large data transmission, using M.2 NVMe SSD and using SATA SSD won't make great difference in experience.
After reading these passage, do you have a clear plan to choose SSD? If you want to get more knoeledges about IT, please click iSunshare.
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