It is sure that Solid State Drive (SSD) configures the better performance than that of old mechanical Hard Drive. Every computers or server now configure in the SSD then that of HDD. As the market is going up in the field of memory, every year there comes a new type or we can say a new version of SSD, may or may not be of the same company in the market. With this reason, we are not sure about which SSD to be placed in our system. So, follow up the full blog, to know the difference between SATA SSD vs M.2 SATA SSD vs NVME SSD.

Benefits of having SSD over HDD

• One SSD delivers the performance 3x of an entire rack of 24 10k RPM hard drives
• Boot server, laptops, desktops or systems in seconds
• Load every application, comparatively faster than in HDD
• Provide a better battery life in the system
• SSD increases reliability as it has trusted and proven architecture qualified by top OEM’s and system integrators
• Communicate with the system data in a much quicker time
• and more and more benefits, which you feel as soon as you got the SSD in your system

Difference between SATA SSD vs M.2 SATA SSD vs NVME SSD

Before we head out to the differences, let’s clear about what are these term about.

What is SATA SSD?

It is the first type of SSD in the market, that challenges these old mechanical Hard Drive. This SSD comes with Quad-level cell (QLC) NAND technology. With this hardware, the workloads to the system get less pressure.  This form of SSD requires external SATA data slots & power cables to boot it up. It is the cheaper and decent form of SSD in the market, that is comparatively super fast than the HDD. This SSD transfer the data via SATA Lane and uses the AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) protocol to read and write data from/into it. These 4 Lane SSD has an only single notch in its hardware.

What is M.2 SSD?

This is the upgrade version of SATA SSD, that is 22mm tall and around 40mm to 120mm wide. So, depending on the slot in your motherboard, you can configure this M.2 SSD in your system. Compare to SATA SSD, this SSD now doesn’t require extra SATA data slots and power cables as maximum today’s motherboard got an in-built slot for it. Yes, it somehow expensive than that of SATA SSD.

If anyone says to me, which SSD would you prefer in my system, I will go with SATA SSD if it is for my desktop else, I will go with M.2 SSD. As on equipping this SSD in my system, I don’t need to eject out my graphics card. Also, in the working speed, both of these performs in an equal ratio.

What is NVME SSD?

NVME that stands for (Non-volatile Memory Express) is the better form of SSD till today’s date. With its higher bandwidth and fast storage solution, NVME is the preferred SSD in the market. These SSD were attaches via a PCI Express bus to communicate with the computer CPU. Maximum NVME SSD has two-lane for transferring the data, and this two-lane SSD has two-key in its top or some of them also has one-key. It is twice expensive than that of SATA SSD.

Another form of NVME SSD is of M.2 NVME SSD and is the popular form of SSD then that of PCI based NVME SSD. This is because PCI based NVME is of much wider than the M.2 based NVME and also this SSD sometime generates high heat sinks.

SATA SSD vs M.2 SATA SSD vs NVME SSD

SATA SSD	M.2 SSD	NVME SSD
Speed up to 550-600MB/Second	Speed up to 550-600MB/Second	Speed up to 3500MB/Second
SATA Protocol is used to read and write data	Either SATA or PCI-E protocol is used to read and write data	PCI-E protocol is used to read and write data
Less Expensive than M.2 and NVME SSD	Expensive than SATA SSD and cheaper than NVME SSD	Expensive than SATA and M.2 SSD
No need to configure with Motherboard	Need to Configure with Motherboard	Need to Configure with Motherboard
Can be configured in any system and server	Motherboard need to have M.2 slot to support	Motherboard need to have NVME slot to support
Need Extra data slot and power slot to read and write data	No need for Extra data slot and power slot to read and write data	No need Extra data slot and power slot to read and write data

So, these are the common and key differences between SATA SSD, M.2 SSD, and NVME SSD. With our recommendation, we recommend NVME SSD over any system or server.