Is M.2 the next new thing?

[DrewJKL]

So I recently purchased a new mobo and realized it had M,2 w hitch is 10gb/s instead of the normal sata3 6Gb/s witch means the M.2 is faster but what exactly is M.2 is it a slot I plug my hard drive into? Do I need a cable? How does it work? idk I just tried researching it but couldn't find anything.

Here's my mobo: http://us.msi.com/product/mb/Z97-GAMING-5.html#hero-overview
If you read the M.2 part it's very unclear all it says it it's faster, how do I use it and take advantage of it. lol

 

[i7Baby]

Its a slot. You need a cable. And a M.2 storage device eg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148799

They don't run much better than sata ssds. A pcie ssd is still way ahead.

 

[DrewJKL]

Its a slot. You need a cable. And a M.2 storage device eg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148799

They don't run much better than sata ssds. A pcie ssd is still way ahead.

What's a pcie ssd? I recently purchased a Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" SSD

 

[i7Baby]

Like this - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820785002

 

[synphul]

M.2 and pci-e sata are both somewhat new. M.2's haven't really caught up yet, it's new enough they're still trying to settle on standards. For now (it could change) M.2's are the same speeds as sata 3.0 - pci-e's are definitely faster, but not without a price. Looks like most pci-e sata at the moment are around 3x the cost of sata 3.0. Many 240-256gb models are running $350-$380. Near the 1tb size, they range from $1000-4000. Gotta pay to play 😛

 

[Prplxt]

This thread is a little uninformed.

Just to clear things up. Some of the current gen x4 PCIe SSDs are twice as fast as a current gen ~500 Gb/s SATA drives. Even if you only have an x2 m.2 slot (the more common kind) it stands to be 50% faster.

You don't need a cable. The drive slides right into the board.

Yes, it's more costly than SATA SSDs for now. But the price will drop soon.

Take care when choosing an m.2 drive they come in SATA and PCIe versions that fit in the same slot. Only the PCIe versions take advantage of the increased bandwidth.

A good one to look at is the Samsung xp941 if your slot is x4. Check out the plextor if it's x2.