I'm trying to select an SSD, but I have no experience or understanding of M.2. sockets and feel lost.

[Amywalker730]

Hello, I'm a bit confused about M.2. sockets and what I should buy.

My motherboard, Hero vii, has one free slot left to connect a storage drive to, but it's an M.2. socket and I don't know much about them. According to the manual, it's an 'M.2. Socket 3' type, and on PC part picket there appears to be selections for two specifications of M.2. - M.2. (m) and M.2.(M+B)

Could someone please tell me what I should be looking for?

 

[Lutfij]

According to this image, you should have access to the M.2 slot at the middle of the board:

and can accept any of three lengths
type 2242/2260/2280. The lat two digits in those 4 numbers denote the length.

How much are you looking to spend on an M.2 SSD? Can you buy a 2.5" SSD instead?

 

[SkyNetRising]

1 x M.2 Socket 3, black, with M Key, type 2260/2280 storage devices support (PCIE mode)
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VII_HERO/specifications/

 

[Amywalker730]

According to this image, you should have access to the M.2 slot at the middle of the board:

and can accept any of three lengths
type 2242/2260/2280. The lat two digits in those 4 numbers denote the length.

How much are you looking to spend on an M.2 SSD? Can you buy a 2.5" SSD instead?

Ah, thank you. I think I have a better understanding now. My motherboard can fit 22x60mm and 22x80mm, so as long as any potential M.2. card I purchased fits that I should be fine?

I have always seen that I had x8 SATA ports on my motherboard, but I could never find more than 4. After looking at the picture and reexamining it, I finally discovered that they are on top of each other. I feel foolish for being so blind, but also relived to have finally found them. It does give me a new question, though.

Benchmarks and comparison that I have seen show that M.2. cards are significantly faster than SATA3 cards, but also twice as expensive. Is the increased performance practical, or is it a 'looks nice on paper but doesn't perform much differently in reality' thing?

Hm, going into this I expected to spend around $150 - $300 for a 500GB storage drive, but I never considered it to be a concrete budget. I am a bit open-ended if I should be.

 

[SkyNetRising]

so as long as any potential M.2. card I purchased fits that I should be fine?

You need PCIE M.2 SSD drive. Sata M.2 drives are not listed as supported.

Is the increased performance practical, or is it a 'looks nice on paper but doesn't perform much differently in reality' thing?

The difference is mainly in benchmarks. In real life situations difference it's not that impressive.

 

[Amywalker730]

so as long as any potential M.2. card I purchased fits that I should be fine?

You need PCIE M.2 SSD drive. Sata M.2 drives are not listed as supported.

Is the increased performance practical, or is it a 'looks nice on paper but doesn't perform much differently in reality' thing?

The difference is mainly in benchmarks. In real life situations difference it's not that impressive.

I see, thank you for the help!

 

[failboat]

The M.2 is only the form factor. The interface to the cpu/chipset and the transfer protocol is what matters. PCIE 2.0 is an outdated interface and boards in that gen didn't always support boot under NVME protocol. If you want full speed from some of the newer ones you could probably run a storage drive from an available PCIE 3.0 16 lane with a form factor adapter to fit your ssd. Research NVME support. It might be available with a BIOS upgrade. Either way it won't run as fast from the M.2 slot and you can't boot from the addin card slots. You can play it safe with a samsung 850 evo/pro sata ssd.