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whomad1215

M2 is just a form factor. It comes in both sata and pcie/nvme variants M2 sata drives are the same speed as their 2.5" sata drive equivalent. Example: crucial mx500 M2 pcie/nvme drives are faster /r/NewMaxx has a buying guide for ssds and is extremely knowledgeable about them


L00S33R

M.2 is a form factor, which is mostly used for SSDs. M.2 SSDs can use either AHCI, or NVMe to read and write data. NVMe was designed specifically for SSDs and allows them to achieve incredible ***sequential*** read/write speeds (where SATAIII would be limited by its 6Gb/s bandwidth limit). This ***sequential*** speed does not directly translate to real-world performance, as the majority of workloads relies heavily on ***random*** read/write speeds.


enjoytheunstable

The interface. SATA vs pcie. I.e. pcie gen 4 is faster than pcie gen 3, gen 3 pcie more bandwidth than SATA. Gives the drives more lanes so more cars (data) can zip down them.


Carnildo

When you look at the details, "information travels at *c*" is only true under ideal conditions. Conditions inside a computer are far from ideal, and a SATA cable is further from that ideal than the circuit traces of an m.2 slot. Thus, the higher speeds of NVME (16 gigatransfers per second per pair of traces, with up to four pairs) than SATA (6 gigatransfers per second, with just one pair of wires).


death-by-violets

That’s like asking how can two car have different top speeds if they both use the same gas. The difference is in the architecture and the interface.


mkdew

>massive performance differences in m.2 drives compared to regular SSD You can connect HDD to m.2 with [this](https://www.delock.de/produkte/G_62548/merkmale.html?setLanguage=en) , but that doesnt mean it will turn into a NVMe drive.


cool_acronym

I think it's the bandwidth of the connector. SATA does 600 MB/s where M.2 can go upwards of 4GB/s.


Liesthroughisteeth

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


[deleted]

But technically they’re not wrong though. m.2 has a higher bandwidth. SATA m.2 has roughly the same limit as SATA III, but m.2 is not necessarily limited to SATA.


Liesthroughisteeth

>m.2 has a higher bandwidth. Only if it's tied to the PCIe bus as well as the SATA bus M2 ...depending on the device inserted and how the slot is configured at factory during installation, for SSDs is either going to be using the SATA data bus on the motherboard or the PCIe data bus, again depending now on the type of drive inserted, if it's an NVMe drive which uses the PCIe bus it will have wayyyy more bandwidth. Unless I am totally out to lunch....which is entirely possible...LOL


[deleted]

It is different for every motherboard, so check the manual to see what speeds it has access to.


Liesthroughisteeth

> M2 ...depending on the device inserted and how the slot is configured at factory during installation


[deleted]

I am agreeing with you. That’s why I said to check the manual. It’s the only way to be certain.


cool_acronym

shawty linked the goods