As a shortcoming in the barrel effect, mechanical hard drives are obviously hindered in computers, and have become a bottleneck for the development of read and write speeds. This is one of the main reasons why new installations or upgrades of computers will use solid state drives. There are two popular and common interfaces for solid-state drives, SATA interface and M.2 interface, both of which can provide high-speed read and write capabilities for solid-state drives. So which is better for solid-state drives with SATA interface and M.2 interface? Let’s share the difference between SATA interface and M.2 interface, let’s take a look.

As we all know, SATA interface is very common. It can be said that every motherboard has SATA interface. The current highest version is SATA3.0, and mechanical hard drives also use this type of interface. The current mainstream SATA 3.0 channel has a maximum transmission speed of 6Gbps, and the actual maximum speed is 560MB/s. SATA channels can no longer meet the increasing read and write speed of solid state drives, so M.2 solid state drives came into being.

M.2 is a new interface for solid-state drives. It is a new interface specification introduced by Intel to replace MSATA, which is the NGFF we often mentioned before, the full English name: Next Generation Form Factor. The M.2 interface is divided into two types, which respectively support SATA channel and NVME channel . SATA3.0 has only 6G bandwidth, which is not much different from ordinary SATA solid-state hard drives in speed, but the interface is different. The latter uses PCI-E channel, which can Provides bandwidth of up to 32G. NVME, as a new generation storage specification, has sufficient PCI-E channel bandwidth, which can increase the space and transmit faster, but the price is a lot more expensive, so everyone buys M.2 solid state drives. Be sure to pay attention.

In addition to different channels, M.2 also has a difference in size. The interface width of M.2 is the same, but there are three lengths of 2242, 2260 and 2280. The longer the PCB, the more particles and the larger the capacity. Mainly depends on the motherboard. What specifications does M.2 support? The current commonly used specification is 2280.

The difference between SATA interface and M.2 interface

The advantage of the M.2 interface solid state drive is that it is smaller than ordinary SATA and has a faster reading speed for the following reasons.

SATA ：

With the SATA channel, when we perform data operations, the data will first be read from the hard disk to the memory, and then the data will be extracted into the CPU for calculation, and then written into the memory, and finally stored in the hard disk.

M.2 SATA ：

Compared with ordinary 2.5-inch solid-state hard drives, there is not much difference in speed, just the difference in the interface.

M.2 NVMe：

With the PCIE channel, the data is directly connected to the CPU through the bus, which is close to the maximum transmission speed and the maximum amount of data, directly eliminating the process of memory calling the hard disk, so the speed is faster.

Which is better, SATA interface and M.2 interface solid state drive?

In terms of interface, the M.2 interface solid state drive is undoubtedly better, and it is light and can be flexibly connected to various ultrabooks. However, the motherboard needs to support the M.2 interface. When purchasing an M.2 interface solid state drive, you need to pay attention to which channel to use, whether it is a PCI-E or a SATA channel. Pay attention to the speed and choose the PCI-E channel first. You can’t just care about the price. There is not much difference in the speed of the solid state drive with the channel M.2 interface and the ordinary SATA interface.

The above is the difference between the SATA interface and the M.2 interface shared by the installation home. Judging from the current trend, the M.2 interface solid state drive is bound to be the future trend, especially the M.2 NVMe solid state drive. However, for ordinary users, ordinary SATA interface solid state and M.2 interface solid state SATA channel have been able to meet the needs of the public, and M.2 NVMe is recommended for the pursuit of ultimate performance. Of course, the price is more expensive.