[SOLVED] What are the differences among Gen 3.0, 3.0 x4 and Gen 4.0?

[Manuel Jordan]

For a PC Desktop to be buy it in these weeks, there are the following SSD options:

• SSD HP EX950, 512GB, M.2, 2280, PCIe Gen 3x4, NVMe 1.3.
• SSD HP EX950, 1TB, M.2, 2280, PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3.
• SSD Samsung 970 EVO PLUS, 250GB, M.2, PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3
• SSD Samsung 980 PRO 1TB SSD M.2 2280, PCIe Gen 4.0 NVMe 1.3c
• SSD Samsung 980 PRO 2TB SSD M.2 2280, PCIe Gen 4.0 NVMe 1.3c

To do the correct choice, I want to know

• What are the differences among Gen 3.0, 3.0 x4 and Gen 4.0?

Note just in case - the PC Desktop is going to be used for Development and Server purposes with Ubuntu - is not going to be included other OS directly in the same PC. But yes other OS through Virtual Box is going to be included.

 

[Math Geek]

pcie 3.0 and 4.0 are how fast the data can be transfered. the x4 is the fact that 4 lanes of pcie can be used by the drive. they are all x4 and only the pcie 3 or 4 is the difference. you need to look at your motherboard to see what generation pcie it supports and go from there. real world speeds are the same with either 3.0 or 4.0 and 3.0 drives are a lot cheaper than 4,0 versions.

in short, grab the 970 evo if your mobo only supports pcie 3.0 and the 980 pro if it can handle pcie 4.0. you also need a lot more than the 250 gb you listed. especially if you need to install multiple vm's through virtual box. the more space the better so you can house all those vm's. you also want as much ram and cpu cores as possible. every vm reserves cores/ram that can not be used anywhere else while it is running. you need enough to run the host OS, all the vm's and overhead so it wont bog down

 

[hotaru.hino]

Gen 3.0 can transfer about 1GB/sec per lane, while Gen 4.0 can transfer about 2GB/sec (the actual values are slightly less). The "x4" refers to how many lanes the SSD can use. Since most NVMe SSDs use 4 lanes, this means that a Gen 3.0 will go up to 4GB/sec and a Gen 4.0 will go up to 8 GB/sec.

Note however, the motherboard must also support the number of lanes for full effect. For example, my motherboard only has 2 lanes available and it's Gen 3.0 only for the secondary NMVe slot, so it can only go up to 2GB/sec regardless if the SSD can go faster.

 

[USAFRet]

You're referring to SSD drive speeds?

Here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YoRKQy-UO4

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DKLA7w9eeA

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ9LyNXpsOo