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    M.2 SSD vs. SATA SSD? Which One Is The Best?

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    Sing Peng
    M.2 SSDs use either the SATA or PCIe interface, while SATA SSDs only use SATA. The PCIe interface in M.2 SSDs supports much higher bandwidths than SATA, allowing for greater speeds when using the NVMe protocol instead of AHCI. Therefore, an M.2 SSD using NVMe can vastly outperform a SATA SSD or an M.2 SSD using the older AHCI protocol, making the PCIe/NVMe combination the best option for performance.

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    M.2 SSD vs. SATA SSD? Which One Is The Best?

    Uploaded by

    Sing Peng
    73 views3 pages
    M.2 SSDs use either the SATA or PCIe interface, while SATA SSDs only use SATA. The PCIe interface in M.2 SSDs supports much higher bandwidths than SATA, allowing for greater speeds when using the NVMe protocol instead of AHCI. Therefore, an M.2 SSD using NVMe can vastly outperform a SATA SSD or an M.2 SSD using the older AHCI protocol, making the PCIe/NVMe combination the best option for performance.

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    M.2 SSDs use either the SATA or PCIe interface, while SATA SSDs only use SATA. The PCIe interface in M.2 SSDs supports much higher bandwidths than SATA, allowing for greater speeds when using the NVMe protocol instead of AHCI. Therefore, an M.2 SSD using NVMe can vastly outperform a SATA SSD or an M.2 SSD using the older AHCI protocol, making the PCIe/NVMe combination the best option for performance.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    73 views3 pages

    M.2 SSD vs. SATA SSD? Which One Is The Best?

    Uploaded by

    Sing Peng
    M.2 SSDs use either the SATA or PCIe interface, while SATA SSDs only use SATA. The PCIe interface in M.2 SSDs supports much higher bandwidths than SATA, allowing for greater speeds when using the NVMe protocol instead of AHCI. Therefore, an M.2 SSD using NVMe can vastly outperform a SATA SSD or an M.2 SSD using the older AHCI protocol, making the PCIe/NVMe combination the best option for performance.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 3

    M.2 SSD vs. SATA SSD?

    Which One is
    the Best?
    Keywords: MiniTool, SSD, Windows 10, M.2, SATA, drive

    What Is SATA SSD?

    SATA SSD is an SSD with SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) interface. So far, SATA
    interface has three versions. The currently popular version is SATA III, which was published by
    Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) in 2009.

    SATA interface mainly uses AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) protocol. The Throughput
    (Transfer Rate) value of SATA III is 6 Gb/s (600MB/s).

    What Is M.2 SSD?

    M.2 SSD is an SSD with M.2 interface. M.2 interface is also called Next Generation Form Factor
    (NGFF), which is a new generation interface standard tailored for Ultrabook to replace the mSATA
    interface. Compared with mSATA SSD, M.2 SSD has advantages of smaller size and better
    transmission performance.

    M.2 interface has two types of forms: B-key (Socket 2) and M-key (Socket 3). B-key interface can
    support SATA bus standard or PCI-E3.0X2 bus standard, and therefore it may support AHCI
    protocol or NVMe protocol.

    When it supports AHCI protocol, its throughput can only reach 6 Gbps at most. When it support
    NVMe protocol, its throughput can be up to 16 Gbps.

    As for M-key interface, it only supports PCI-E 3.0X4 bus standard and NVMe protocol. The
    theoretical read-write speed can be up to 4 GB/s (32 Gbps).
    M.2 SSD vs. SATA SSD

    SATA and PCI-E Bus Standard

    A Bus is a common communication trunk that transmits information between various functional
    components (such as CPU, memory, hard disk, and various input and output devices) of a
    computer.

    A hard drive Bus standard stipulates hard drive's technical specifications like pin location, etc.
    Thus, manufacturers can produce hard disks according to the bus standards and specifications.

    SATA Bus standard is an external bus standard for hard disk, which adopts serial connection
    mode to make the interface have advantages of simple structure, fast transfer speed, high
    execution efficiency, stronger error correcting capacity, and support for hot plug.

    PCI-E Bus standard is an internal local bus standard, which is put forward to replace PCI
    (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus. It is a high-speed serial point-to-point dual-channel
    high-bandwidth transmission.

    PCI-E Bus standard mainly supports active power management, error reporting, end-to-end
    reliable transmission, hot plug, quality of service (QOS) and other functions. Above all, it has a
    very high transfer rate. PCI-E bus standard is superior to SATA bus standard in read-write speed.

    Alt= bandwidth and transfer rate of different bus standards

    However, the read-write speed is not only related to bus standard, but also is affected by data
    transfer protocols such as AHCI and NVMe.

    AHCI and NVMe Protocol

    AHCI and NVMe are data transfer protocols, which work above interface to determine data
    transfer method.

    AHCI is a technical standard made by Intel Corporation, which stipulate a hardware mechanism
    that allows software to communicate information with SATA storage devices. AHCI can make SATA
    storage device activate advanced SATA functions such as support for 32 ports, elimination of
    master / slave handling, hot plug, etc.

    In other words, AHCI protocol can realize the most potential of SATA interface. However, AHCI
    protocol is designed for traditional HHD, so it can't realize the potential of SSD. Even if the M.2
    SSD uses PCI-E bus, the read-write speed can't still exceed 600 MB/s when it uses AHCI protocol.
    Hence, NVMe protocol comes out.

    NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory express) protocol is first published in 2011. Compared with AHCI, it
    can reduce latency time greatly owing to no need for accessing register when giving a command.

    Besides, it can support 64 queues and each queue can carry 64000 instructions, so that the IOPS
    ability is improved greatly. In a word, NVMe can extremely activate the potential of SSD.

    Alt= bandwidth and transfer rate in AHCI mode and NVMe mode

    Let's make a conclusion. If an M.2 SSD only supports AHCI protocol, its read-write performance is
    same as that of SATA SSD. If an M.2 SSD uses NVMe protocol, its performance will be much better
    than that of SATA SSD. Therefore, if you want to buy an M.2 SSD, please pay attention to the data
    transfer protocol.

    Switch from AHCI to NVMe Protocol

    If you have installed an M.2 SSD in your computer, you should switch the data transfer protocol to
    NVMe. Here is a brief tutorial on how to change data transfer protocol in BIOS to improve
    computer performance.

    Step 1: Restart your computer and follow the guide that appears on your computer to enter
    firmware. Please concentrate on your computer screen because that guide just appears for a
    short time.

    Step 2: Please find an item with "Bus" or "SATA" and then change this item from SATA to NVMe
    Protocol.

    To know more information about M.2 SSD vs. SATA SSD, please click the original text: M.2 SSD vs.
    SATA SSD: Which One Is Suitable for Your PC?

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