USB 3.1 Gen1 vs Gen2

[knowledge2121]

I am looking at several laptops, all of them support 3.1 Gen1 except the Thinkpad E480 which has 3.1 Gen2...

I intend to use the laptop for web browsing(lotsa tabs) , programming and compiling among other things. I want the boot-up time to be fast too.

I want to install Linux on an external USB SSD , Will I notice a difference between Gen1 and Gen2 ?
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part two of my question:

It is confirmed that the M.2 slot on the E480 supports PCIe NVMe x2, and not x4. I am not sure the HP or Dell models I am looking at support x4 since it is not mentioned anywhere in the manual...Do you think that they do support x4 ?

Will I see a difference in performance between x2 and x4 PCIe NVMe SSDs for the above mentioned tasks ?

if you were me, would you buy the thinkpad, HP or DELL ?

 

[drtweak]

Gen 1 is pretty much just USB 3.0. They added a few things in there but not a speed bump. Still at 5Gbps
Gen 2 is the speed bump. 10Gbps. 3.1 cables don't work on 2.0 ports (3.1 Gen 2 is USB Type-C so you will need an adapter to make it work with the other USB ports)

Some Gen 2 Products that get powered by the USB port won't be able to be powered by USB 2.0 ports more than likely as USB 3.0+ is double that of USB 2.0