Is an M.2 SSD drive or a PCI-E NVMe SSD drive better?

[JacoFett]

Is an M.2 SSD drive or a PCI-E SSD drive with NVMe better because I am confused as to how the M.2 actually works? I've seen some things saying M.2 is just either a x2 or x4 PCI-E connector but if that was so why not just call them PCI-E drives instead? Also, are there M.2 drives with NVMe and would they be faster? One more question. What is the different between M.2, Ultra M.2 and Turbo M.2??

 

[Someone Somewhere]

M.2 is a physical standard. It can be PCIe (with varying numbers of lanes), SATA, USB, and maybe some other protocols - or several at once.

A SATA M.2 drive will be slower than a PCIe M.2 drive.

 

[JacoFett]

M.2 is a physical standard. It can be PCIe (with varying numbers of lanes), SATA, USB, and maybe some other protocols - or several at once.

A SATA M.2 drive will be slower than a PCIe M.2 drive.

What do you mean USB and SATA? I thought M.2 has its own port? If not, what is an M.2 port on a motherboard mean/do?

 

[TbsToy]

Do your research and learn what the m.2 connector is is.
W.P.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2

 

[JacoFett]

Do your research and learn what the m.2 connector is is.
W.P.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2

I have, even gone through specifications, I just don't understand how the USB or DP can allow a M.2 to plug into it..

 

[Someone Somewhere]

M.2 is the port, and only the port.

USB has both a port (actually, lots of types of them), and a 'signal'. Even though the connectors are different, the USB port on your laptop, your phone, your external HDD - they're all talking the USB 'language'. That can be sent down an M.2 port, as well.

Same goes for SATA - there's the SATA port, or you can use mSATA (same signal, different plug), or SATA over M.2 (again, same signal, different plug).

Same goes for PCIe - all those different size PCIe slots, and mPCIe (used for WiFi cards in laptops a lot, though that's now moving to M.2), and there's standards for external PCIe. They all talk PCIe language. There are probably chips soldered to your motherboard that are talking PCIe - even though they don't have a port at all.

 

[JacoFett]

M.2 is the port, and only the port.

USB has both a port (actually, lots of types of them), and a 'signal'. Even though the connectors are different, the USB port on your laptop, your phone, your external HDD - they're all talking the USB 'language'. That can be sent down an M.2 port, as well.

Same goes for SATA - there's the SATA port, or you can use mSATA (same signal, different plug), or SATA over M.2 (again, same signal, different plug).

Same goes for PCIe - all those different size PCIe slots, and mPCIe (used for WiFi cards in laptops a lot, though that's now moving to M.2), and there's standards for external PCIe. They all talk PCIe language. There are probably chips soldered to your motherboard that are talking PCIe - even though they don't have a port at all.

Oh so you mean they use the USB controller for example or do you mean they can have usb ports on it like a PCI-E card?

 

[Sakkura]

An M.2 slot can carry either a SATA or a PCIe signal (depending on what the controller and SSD support). With PCIe, it can additionally support NVMe.

So the question of whether M.2 or PCIe NVMe is better is nonsensical; they can literally be the same thing.

 

[JacoFett]

An M.2 slot can carry either a SATA or a PCIe signal (depending on what the controller and SSD support). With PCIe, it can additionally support NVMe.

So the question of whether M.2 or PCIe NVMe is better is nonsensical; they can literally be the same thing.

So why is this (https://www.pccasegear.com/products/31355/samsung-850-evo-m-2-250gb-ssd) not just marketed as this (https://www.pccasegear.com/products/31517/intel-750-pci-express-1-2tb-ssd)?? I don't understand why they would call them different if they are the same

 

[Someone Somewhere]

You posted the same link twice.

 

[Sakkura]

An M.2 slot can carry either a SATA or a PCIe signal (depending on what the controller and SSD support). With PCIe, it can additionally support NVMe.

So the question of whether M.2 or PCIe NVMe is better is nonsensical; they can literally be the same thing.

So why is this (https://www.pccasegear.com/products/31355/samsung-850-evo-m-2-250gb-ssd) not just marketed as this (https://www.pccasegear.com/products/31517/intel-750-pci-express-1-2tb-ssd)?? I don't understand why they would call them different if they are the same

They are not the same. The 850 Evo M.2 is a SATA drive using the M.2 slot. That Intel 750 is a PCIe drive using a PCIe slot.

It is possible to make an M.2 drive that uses PCIe. An example would be the Samsung 950 Pro, which competes with that Intel 750 for the title of fastest consumer SSD. The 950 Pro looks almost identical to the 850 Evo M.2, but works very differently and is much faster.

 

[JacoFett]

An M.2 slot can carry either a SATA or a PCIe signal (depending on what the controller and SSD support). With PCIe, it can additionally support NVMe.

So the question of whether M.2 or PCIe NVMe is better is nonsensical; they can literally be the same thing.

So why is this (https://www.pccasegear.com/products/31355/samsung-850-evo-m-2-250gb-ssd) not just marketed as this (https://www.pccasegear.com/products/31517/intel-750-pci-express-1-2tb-ssd)?? I don't understand why they would call them different if they are the same

They are not the same. The 850 Evo M.2 is a SATA drive using the M.2 slot. That Intel 750 is a PCIe drive using a PCIe slot.

It is possible to make an M.2 drive that uses PCIe. An example would be the Samsung 950 Pro, which competes with that Intel 750 for the title of fastest consumer SSD. The 950 Pro looks almost identical to the 850 Evo M.2, but works very differently and is much faster.

So out of the 2 links I posted above, which one do you think is faster? Because doesn't the Sata interface create a bottleneck of 6Gbps and the NVMe on the PCI-E makes it so that it can have 65000 queues?

 

[Sakkura]

So out of the 2 links I posted above, which one do you think is faster? Because doesn't the Sata interface create a bottleneck of 6Gbps and the NVMe on the PCI-E makes it so that it can have 65000 queues?

The Intel 750 is WAY faster. The SATA interface is indeed bottlenecked to a raw 6 Gbps, which turns into a maximum usable bandwidth of 600 MB/s. SATA doesn't allow NVMe (NVMe requires a PCIe interface), which means the older AHCI storage protocol will also slightly reduce random IOPS even though the 600 MB/s bottleneck isn't a limiting factor.

 

[Zer0b1ade]

M.2 is a physical standard. It can be PCIe (with varying numbers of lanes), SATA, USB, and maybe some other protocols - or several at once.

A SATA M.2 drive will be slower than a PCIe M.2 drive.

What do you mean USB and SATA? I thought M.2 has its own port? If not, what is an M.2 port on a motherboard mean/do?

There are 3 different types of m.2 slots. The m.2 for legacy sata, pcie for adhi and for nvme.

M.2 being directry connected to the mobo has access to SATA 3.0, PCIe x3/x4, and USB 3.0 all at the same time so any chip that uses those buses can be used in a m.2 slot. Hybrid drives like the wireless/bluetooth chip and Multicard reader/USB 3.0 combo devices all go into a m.2 slot.

All in all the PCIE NVMe is the faster slot for ssd because it was designed for a PCIE ssd, although all the m.2 slots can accept ssd they won't be as fast or as stable as the NVMe.

Oh and one final thing the ssd in the m.2 slot using adhi acts more like dram so, that's why it's often used for usb 3.0 slots.