Confused with SSD's

[djgcruz]

Hello all,

I'm planning on buying SSD this coming weeks and i'm confused to which i should buy.

This is my motherboard:
GIGABYTE H170M D3H mATX

And upon looking at the specifications of my motherboard, it has an M.2 slot beneath the cpu socket. However, I'm confused if the socket is an NVME or an M.2?

Also, what are the pro's and con's if i chose the M.2 or SATA SSD vice versa.

I have done research however im still confused with their differences.

Thanks guys!

 

[TJ Hooker]

M.2 is just a form factor. An M.2 drive can be SATA or NVMe, your motherboard supports either. An M.2 SATA drive is no faster than a regular 2.5" SATA drive though, so there's no advantage there. The benefit of choosing an NVMe drive is that they're faster, the downside is they're more expensive.

 

[usr1235]

M.2 is really more like a form factor. The interface is what is important; a drive connected to a m.2 slot MAY have a NVMe interface. Or, it may not, and still have a SATA III interface. Compare the M.2 Samsung 850 (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147398 - note that it's a SATA III card) to the Samsung 950, that is advertised as NVMe or PCIe (PCI Express).

For your purposes, NVMe and PCIe mean the same thing, but if you want to be technical NVMe is the interface that allows the SSD to be used over the PCIe bus. A SATA III M.2 SSD will have the same limitations as a normal 2.5 inch SSD connected via a SATA III cable.