M2 SSD vs SATA SSD?

irishluck

irishluck

Member
So I was looking at getting another SSD for my computer (with a new mobo and processor. I7-8700)
And I jut noticed this M2 SSD. Never heard of it before. been doing alot of readong on it tonight.

I was getting ready to purchase another Samsung 860 EVO 250GB for $95 but It looks like I could get a Intel 760p 256GB TLC 3D NAND PCIe NVMe 3.1 x4 M.2 2280 for $100.

My question is, is this M2 SSD worth it? or should I stick to a regular SSD?
New build is for a 5k video editing machine.
 
Agent Smith

Agent Smith

Well-Known Member
You will most likely not see a difference in speed at all between the two. M2's are very fast, but so is SATA III SSDs, especially a Sammy. Also note that depending on your OS, it may take some tinkering to get M2 to work. I know this is true for Win 7. I have a computer forum with accompanying Facebook page and I made a post on how to do it in Win 7 actually. But I can't remember what was involved. I'm not sure how complicated it is to get a M2s in Win 8 either. If you have Win 10, then there shouldn't be an issue.

I'm not really sure where one would benefit from the increased speed of a M2. With video editing you want a fast CPU, RAM and GPU. Not so much HDD dependent. SSD would be plenty fast enough.

I suppose if you want to add as much storage as possible and used all of the SATA ports, then M2 could be the option. But if you look at your MOBO manual it will say where the M2 shares bandwidth and possibly cutting of a SATA port or two. I think it's the controller actually.
 
Laquer Head

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
If you have a new 8th gen then your 300-series motherboard will have, likely 2 M.2 slots.. with at least one being pcie rather than sata. If you buy a x4 nvme pcie drive like a samsung 960 then yah, its a whole different league of performance than anything sata based. What exact motherboard do you have?

I wouldnt bother with anything sata based now as far as M.2 format goes.
 
Intel_man

Intel_man

VIP Member
@irishluck, please don't be confused with the name that describes the form factor and the type of controller it uses.

M.2 describes a form factor or the size of the product. 2.5" is the other form factor that SSDs come in. 3.5" ssds do exist but they're typically not found in consumer products.

SATA describes the general controller the drive uses, which is what determines the speed of the drive. NVME is the other controller specification that is relatively new in comparison and is typically quite a few times faster than the SATA specification.
 
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