Although solid state drives, that is, SSDs, appeared quite a long time ago, many users are just beginning to learn about them and use them on their computers. This may be due to the high price and small capacity, although they have higher performance than standard drives and are much faster.

Before delving into the types of hard drives, their manufacturing technologies, memory types and controllers, it is necessary to focus on the form factor (size). Each device is different in size, has its own connection connectors and is used in completely different ways. If a 2.5-inch SSD does not raise any questions, since it is similar in size and placement of connectors to conventional hard drives, then other types raise a lot of questions.

Today we will talk about devices such as SSD M.2 drives, what they are, what their features and advantages are. This is a relatively new standard, which, according to many experts, is a revolutionary solution. Let's take a closer look at this topic and find out as much information as possible.

Development of the SATA interface

The SATA interface has become a good replacement for PATA, replacing a wide cable with a more compact, thin and convenient option. The main trend in its development was the desire for compactness, and this is quite normal. Even the new interface required a variation that would allow it to be used in mobile devices and where there are special requirements for the size of components.

Thus, mSATA was created - the same interface, only with more compact dimensions. But it did not live long and was quickly replaced by a completely new one - the M.2 connector, which also had great opportunities. It is not by mistake that the word SATA is not in the abbreviation, since the new version does not belong to this standard. We will talk about this in more detail later.

The only thing that needs to be said is that the M.2 SSD drive is connected without power cables and cables, thanks to which its use becomes as comfortable as possible and allows the computer to be even more compact. This is one of its key advantages.

M.2 Interface Overview

M.2 is a connector on an expansion card installed in a PCI-Express slot, or on the motherboard itself. You can install not only M.2 SSDs in it, but other modules, including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The scope of application of this connector is quite wide, which makes it incredibly convenient and useful.

When upgrading your computer, be sure to pay attention to it and install a motherboard with this connector, even if you do not plan to install a solid-state drive with this interface yet.

However, if you have a fairly old motherboard and you don't want to change it, for example, "GA-P75-D3" with a missing M2 slot, but it has PCI-E 3.0, which has a video card and a PCIe x4 slot. IN in this case You can install an SSD on PCIe x4 through a special adapter, but its speed will be slightly lower.

Absolutely all M.2 SSD drives have recessed mounting in M.2 connectors. This form factor provides maximum performance with minimal resource consumption and is designed for technological improvements in hard drives in the future.

Moreover, as mentioned above, connection does not require cables and cables, which usually only take up extra space. To start working with the device, simply insert it into the connector.

M-key and B-key

Today's hard drives, including SSDs, are connected to the SATA bus. The maximum throughput of which is 6 Gb/s, that is, approximately 550-600 Mb/s. For a regular drive, such a speed is simply unattainable, but SSD drives can reach much higher speeds without any problems. But installing them is absolutely pointless if the interface cannot “pump” data from more high speed than that for which it itself is designed.

In view of this, it became possible to use the PCI-Express bus with greater bandwidth:

1. PCI-Express 2.0. It has two lanes (PCI-E 2.0 x2), characterized by a throughput of up to 8Gb/s, or about 800Mb/s.
2. PCI-Express 3.0. It has four lanes (PCI-E 3.0 x4), with a bandwidth of 32Gb/s, or approximately 3.2Gb/s.

Which interface is used to connect a particular device determines the position of the jumper.

Currently, M.2 SSD drives have the following key options:

1. B key “Socket2” (includes support for PCI-E ×2, SATA, Audio, USB and other modules).
2. M key “Socket3” (includes support for PCI-E ×4 and SATA).

For example, we take a motherboard with an M.2 connector with an M-key. That is, the PCIe ×4 bus is used. Can I install a SATA solid state drive in it? This is an interesting question that we will try to find an answer to.

You need to open the motherboard information and find out whether it supports M.2 SATA or not. Let's say the manufacturer says yes. In this case, you buy an SSD drive that was originally created for PCIe ×4, and absolutely no problems should arise when connecting.

When choosing a motherboard, be sure to pay attention to whether M.2 supports the SATA bus, so that you can use any hard drive.

Let's summarize all of the above and summarize:

1. M.2 is simply a different form factor (connector and size) of solid-state drives. All motherboards that are equipped with this slot use the PCI-E x4 bus.
2. The type of bus used by the drive depends on the keys. Typically the PCI-Express bus (M key) or SATA bus (M+B key) is used. The ability to connect an SSD with a SATA interface should be indicated in the specifications of the motherboard.

Size specification: 2260, 2280 and others

Often, when looking at the specification of a computer or laptop motherboard, you can come across the following line: “1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M Key, type 2260/2280” - this means that 1 M.2 slot with a type M key and size 2260/2280 is used. The first two digits “22” mean the width in “mm”, the second two digits “60” mean the length. Therefore, if you choose, say, Transcend TS128GMTS600, with a length of “60mm” and a width of “22mm,” then there will be no problems with its installation.

But even if you take the Kingston SHPM2280P2/480G with the “2280” type, and since the motherboard’s characteristics state support for this type of drive, installing it will not be difficult.

The motherboard can support many sizes of installed modules, and in this case, it has fixing screws that are designed for each length of the bracket.

NVMe technology

The older generation of conventional magnetic and SSD disks use the AHCI protocol, which was created relatively long ago and is still supported by many operating systems. But with the advent of more modern and faster SSDs, it does not cope with its task and cannot use all their capabilities to the maximum.

The NVMe protocol was created as a solution to this problem. It is characterized by the highest speed, lower latency and uses a minimum of processor resources when performing operations.

For the media to work using this technology, it must support it, so when choosing, pay special attention to this, just like the motherboard (it must support the UEFI standard).

Let's sum it up

After we reviewed SSDs with the M.2 standard, we can say that this is the most compact form factor of solid-state devices. And if supported motherboard, it is recommended to use it.

Let's look at a few that will help you do right choice. So, first of all, when purchasing, you should pay attention to the following points:

1. Does the motherboard have the required M.2 slot, and what size modules does it allow for use (2260, 2280, etc.).
2. The type of key the slot uses (M, B or B+M).
3. Does the motherboard support the SATA or PCI-E interface, and what version is used (for example, PCIe 3.0 4x).
4. Do the operating system, the SSD itself, and the motherboard support AHCI or NVMe protocols?

After all, answering the question of what is better, an SSD with a standard connector or M.2, it is clear that you should choose the second option with NVMe support and install it on PCIe 3.0x4.

This will not only free more space by reducing the number of wires, but will also increase transmission speed, system speed and performance. The main thing is that it will make working at the computer more comfortable, enjoyable and efficient.

I recommend purchasing an SSD drive with an optimal speed/reliability ratio of MLC or 3D NAND memory. Read/write speeds closer to 500/500 MB/s are considered quite high. The minimum recommended speed for more budget SSDs is 450/300 MB/s.

The best brands are: Intel, Samsung, Crucial and SanDisk. As a more budget option you can consider: Plextor, Corsair and A-DATA. Among other manufacturers, problematic models are more common.

For a work or multimedia computer (video, simple games), a 120-128 GB SSD will be sufficient here too excellent choice There will be an A-Data Ultimate SU900 on MLC memory.
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU900 128GB

For gaming computer middle class requires a volume of at least 240-256 GB; an SSD from the A-Data Ultimate SU900 or Samsung 860 EVO series is also suitable.
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU900 256GB

For a professional or powerful gaming computer, it is better to take a 480-512 GB SSD, for example Samsung SSD 860 EVO.
SSD Samsung MZ-76E500BW

For computers and laptops with an M.2 connector, a good option would be to install an ultra-fast SSD (1500-3000 MB/s) in the appropriate format.
SSD Samsung MZ-V7E500BW

When choosing a volume, be guided by your needs, but you should not neglect it for the sake of higher speed. If you doubt the correctness of your choice, we recommend reading reviews of specific models.

2. What is the difference between expensive and cheap SSDs

Inexperienced users may be confused why SSD drives of the same volume, with the same declared speed characteristics, differ so much in price, sometimes several times.

The fact is that different SSD drives can use different types memory, which in addition to speed indicators also affects reliability and durability. In addition, memory chips from different manufacturers also differ in quality. Naturally, cheap SSDs are equipped with the cheapest memory chips.

In addition to memory chips, the SSD disk has a so-called controller. This is a chip that controls the processes of reading/writing data into memory chips. Controllers also produce different companies and they can be either budget-friendly with lower speed and reliability, or higher quality. Cheap SSDs, as you understand, also have the worst controllers installed.

As a clipboard to further improve performance, many modern SSDs have DRAM cache based on fast memory (DDR3 or DDR4). Most budget SSDs do not have such a cache, which makes them slightly cheaper, but even slower.

But that's not all, it even comes down to saving on such important components of an SSD drive as capacitors, which are necessary to prevent integrity violations and data loss. In the event of a sudden power outage, the electrical energy stored in the capacitors is used to complete the write from the buffer to the main flash memory. Unfortunately, not all even high-quality SSDs are equipped with backup capacitors.

The layout itself and the quality of the wiring printed circuit board are also different. More expensive models have more sophisticated circuit design, quality components and wiring. Engineering solutions Most budget SSDs are based on outdated designs and leave much to be desired. The number of defects in cheap SSDs is also higher, which is due to assembly in cheaper factories and lower levels of production control.

And of course, the price depends on the brand; the more famous it is, the more expensive the SSD. Hence, there is an opinion that you should not overpay for a brand. But the fact is that often it is the brand name that determines the quality of an SSD drive. Most well-known manufacturers who value their reputation will not allow themselves to produce low-quality products. However, there are exceptions here, in the form of well-known and popular brands, which nevertheless cannot be purchased.

We will briefly look at the main differences between SSDs that you need to focus on in this article, and you can easily choose the model that suits you.

3. VolumeSSDdisk

Volume is the most important parameter of an SSD disk.

If you only need an SSD drive to speed up the loading of Windows, programs and increase system responsiveness, then a volume of 120-128 GB (gigabytes) is enough.

For a gaming computer, you need to purchase an SSD with a capacity of at least 240-256 GB, and if you are an avid gamer and want to store a lot of games on the disk, then 480-512 GB.

In the future, focus on your needs (how much space you need for your programs, games, etc.) and financial capabilities. It is not advisable to use an SSD for data storage; for this you need a more capacious and cheaper one. HDD(HDD) with a capacity of 1-6 TB.

4. SSD read/write speed

The main indicators of SSD disk speed are read speed, write speed and access time.

According to statistics, the number of read operations on ordinary user computers is 20 times greater than the number of write operations. Therefore, for us, reading speed is a much more important characteristic.

The read speed of most modern SSDs is in the range of 450-550 MB/s (megabytes per second). The higher this value, the better, but 450 MB/s is, in principle, quite enough, and taking an SSD with a lower read speed is not advisable, since the difference in price will be insignificant. But you shouldn’t blindly trust representatives of budget brands, since the speed of cheap SSDs can drop significantly as they write and the disk space fills up. The speed of a particular SSD drive model in real conditions can be found out from tests on the Internet.

The write speed of most SSDs ranges from 300-550 MB/s. Again, the faster the better, this is understandable. But due to the fact that write operations are performed 20 times less frequently than read operations, this indicator is not so critical and the difference will not be very noticeable for most users. But the price of discs with higher write speeds will be noticeably higher. Therefore, you can take 300 MB/s as the minimum recording speed. Purchasing an SSD with an even lower write speed will not bring significant savings, so it is not advisable. Please note that some manufacturers indicate the write speed for the entire line of SSD drives, which have different capacities. For example, Transcend has drives ranging from 128 to 1024 GB in its SSD370S line. The recording speed for the entire line is 460 MB/s. But in fact, only models with a capacity of 512 and 1024 GB have such speed. The photo below shows a fragment of a Transcend SSD370S packaging with a capacity of 256 GB with a real write speed of 370 MB/s.

There are also faster SSDs on the PCI-E bus, the speed of which can reach 2500-3500 MB/s, but they are much more expensive and in reality do not provide any advantages to the average user. They can only reveal themselves in professional tasks (for example, heavy design projects in Photoshop).

The real speed characteristics of SSD drives can be found out from tests on the most authoritative technical portals, which you will find in the “” section.

5. Access time

Access time determines how quickly the disk finds the required file after receiving a request from any program or operating system. For conventional hard drives, this indicator is in the range of 10-19 ms (milliseconds), significantly affecting the responsiveness of the system and the speed of copying small files.

SSD drives, due to the absence of moving parts, have access speeds 100-300 times higher.

Therefore, this parameter is usually not focused on; any SSD provides incredibly high access speeds, and even the most inexpensive SSD performs better than any HDD, significantly increasing the responsiveness of the system.

6. Memory types and SSD resource

SSD drives use several types of flash memory - MLC, TLC, QLC. One MLC cell can store 2 bits of data, a TLC cell can store 3 bits, and a QLC cell can store 4 bits. The more data is stored in one cell, the cheaper the memory turns out to be, but at the same time its speed and the number of rewrite cycles are significantly reduced.

So TLC can be rewritten about 3 times less times than MLC, and QLC memory can be rewritten another 3 times less times than TLC. Thus, MLC is the most durable, TLC is less durable (but costs less), and QLC is even less durable (but costs even less).

In addition, MLC is the fastest memory, TLC is somewhat slower, and QLC is even slower, which significantly affects the performance of SSD drives using this or that memory. Even if the maximum speeds are the same, there will be a difference in reality.

The first MLC and TLC chips were planar (single-layer), but now three-dimensional (multilayer) MLC 3D NAND, TLC 3D NAND and QLC chips are used almost everywhere. This allows you to increase the capacity of the chip and at the same time, such memory turns out to be somewhat more durable than its planar predecessors, which have become an anachronism, but are still found on sale.

So, the main types of SSD memory today include:

MLC 3D NAND– the most expensive, durable and fast memory with an estimated resource of 10,000 rewrite cycles, recommended for very loaded professional systems, where an SSD disk can be completely rewritten within a day.

TLC 3D NAND– cheaper type of memory with average speed and a rewriting resource of about 3000 cycles, found in most mid-class SSDs with an optimal price/durability ratio, recommended for ordinary home PCs.

QLC- the cheapest and slowest memory with a rewriting resource of about 1000 cycles, found in the most budget SSDs, which can only be recommended for cheap office PCs to speed up loading programs and overall system responsiveness.

There is also a myth that SSD drives wear out very quickly. Therefore, you need to choose models with the maximum possible resource and use all sorts of tricks in the operating system settings to extend the life of the SSD drive, otherwise it will quickly exhaust its resource and fail.

In fact, the resource of modern SSDs matters only when installing them in servers, where the disks work for wear and tear around the clock. In such conditions, due to the colossal number of rewrite cycles, SSDs actually last an order of magnitude less than their older brothers - mechanical hard drives. But you and I already know that in the computers of ordinary users, the number of write operations, which cause wear and tear, is 20 times lower than read operations. Therefore, even with a relatively heavy load, the resource of any modern SSD will allow it to last 10 years or more.

Despite the fact that data on rapid wear are highly exaggerated, you should not purchase an SSD based on the cheapest QLC memory. Today, the best option would be an SSD drive with TLC 3D NAND memory. And the actual service life of an SSD disk will depend more on the quality of production and. Pay more attention to the brand and warranty period.

7. Clipboard

A clipboard (cache) based on DDR3 or DDR4 memory speeds up the operation of an SSD drive, but makes it somewhat more expensive. The DRAM buffer is used primarily to store the address translation table, which increases the speed of accessing flash memory and writing files.

For every 1 GB of SSD capacity there should be 1 MB of cache. Thus, an SSD with a capacity of 120-128 GB should have 128 MB, 240-256 GB - 256 MB, 500-512 GB - 512 MB, 960-1024 GB - 1024 MB cache.

The cheapest SSDs without a buffer have the problem of significant performance degradation during long-term write operations of small files (for example, when installing a game). Moreover, the speed can become several times lower than that of a conventional hard drive. Therefore, it is better to purchase an SSD with a buffer based on DDR3 or DDR4 memory.

8. SSD controllers

The controller is a microprocessor that processes all requests to the SSD, manages read/write operations in flash memory, caching, and many internal service operations. Accordingly, the more powerful it is, the faster the SSD works.

The main characteristics of the controller include the number of cores (1-4) and channels (2-8). A controller with more cores will provide better performance when multiple applications load the SSD simultaneously. A controller with a large number of channels will provide a higher level of parallelism when working with a large amount of flash memory (500-1000 GB) and, as a result, a higher actual write speed.

There are many manufacturers of controllers for SSD drives. The most popular include Marvell, SandForce, Phison, JMicron, Silicon Motion, Indilinx (OCZ, Toshiba). However, many of them (SandForce, JMicron, Indilinx) are practically no longer used in modern SSDs, since their latest models were updated quite a long time ago, became obsolete and were supplanted by other manufacturers.

Traditionally, top controllers were produced by Marvell, but now they also have rather weak ones budget solutions. Many entry-level and mid-range SSDs are built on controllers from Silicon Motion. And Phison has both high-performance (S10) and rather weak (S11) solutions.

Samsung uses its own high-performance controllers (MJX, Phoenix). Also, recently SSDs with new controllers from Realtek have appeared, ranging from weak to very fast.

So now it’s difficult to single out any manufacturer (other than Samsung) and say that its controller will be the best. It is necessary to take into account the specific controller model and its capabilities. In addition to the read/write speed, the controller also depends on support for various technologies designed to improve the performance of the SSD drive.

9. Hidden SSD area

Each SSD drive has a fairly large amount of memory in a hidden (inaccessible to the user) area. These cells are used to replace those that fail, so that disk space is not lost over time and the safety of data that is previously transferred by the disk from “sick” cells to “healthy” ones is ensured. Also the hidden area is used as a cache and various controller needs.

In high-quality SSDs, this hidden volume can reach 30% of the declared disk capacity. Some manufacturers, in order to save money and obtain competitive advantage make the hidden disk space smaller (up to 10%), and the user-accessible one larger. Thanks to this, the user gets more available volume for the same money, but may lose a little in speed.

This trick of manufacturers has another negative side. The fact is that the hidden area is used not only as an untouchable reserve, but also for the operation of the TRIM function. Too small a volume of the hidden area leads to a lack of memory required for background data transfer (garbage cleaning) and the speed of the SSD disk at high capacity (80-90%) degrades greatly, sometimes several times. This is the price of “free” additional space and this is why high-quality SSD drives have a large hidden area.

The TRIM function must be supported by the operating system. All versions starting from Windows 7 support the TRIM function.

10. SLC cache

This is one of the most important indicators that greatly influences the actual write speed of the SSD. SLC caching technology borrows the recording principle from SLC type flash memory, which is no longer used due to its high cost.

The fact is that SLC flash memory allows you to store only 1 bit of data in one memory cell, but has a high write speed. MLC allows you to store 2 bits in one cell, but because of this it is slower, and TLC - 3 bits and even slower.

When using SLC caching, only 1 bit of data is written to an MLC or TLC flash memory cell. It turns out that flash memory operates in pseudo-SLC mode, which significantly speeds up the write speed. The controller then compresses the cells to 2 bits (MLC) or 3 bits (TLC), which is also quite fast.

As a result, slower MLC or TLC memory can write data at almost the speed of the faster, more expensive SLC. It is this speed that usually appears in the maximum linear recording speed declared by the manufacturer.

However, a limited amount of flash memory can be used as SLC cache. Some budget SSDs don't have SLC cache at all. Others have a very small static SLC cache of about 2 GB for every 250 GB of capacity, located in a hidden area. Drives with support for dynamic SLC cache can be used for this purpose free space SSD, but its size can vary significantly (from 3% to the entire free volume).

Thus, at the maximum declared speed, data can be written until the SLC cache is exhausted. The speed then drops to the write speed of the flash in its native mode (MLC or TLC). If the SSD is not the cheapest and has fairly fast flash memory installed, then the speed may drop by 2-3 times (from 450 to 150-200 MB/s). But in budget models with cheap chips, the drop in speed can be catastrophic (from 450 to 20-60 MB/s) and the SSD will write at a speed several times lower than a regular hard drive (HDD).

This is why the size of the SLC cache is so important for a budget SSD; the larger it is, the less often you will encounter a large drop in write speed. It is desirable that it be about 30% of the storage capacity or more.

For more expensive SSDs with faster flash memory, the size of the SLC cache is not so critical. For example, a good indicator for a SATA drive with a capacity of 250 GB would be an SLC cache of about 30-50 GB with a write speed of about 450 MB/s and 200 MB/s beyond that.

For a good SSD with a 500 GB SATA interface, due to the larger number of chips (parallelism), these figures should be about 450 and 400 MB/s, respectively. Here the size of the SLC cache does not play a special role, since direct writing to flash memory is already quite fast.

Unfortunately, manufacturers rarely indicate the size of the SLC cache and the write speed beyond it. This information should be looked for in reviews with tests and graphs like the one above.

11. Flash memory manufacturers

NAND flash memory chips for consumer SSDs are mainly produced by Toshiba, Micron and Samsung. It doesn't really matter who the flash memory manufacturer is. The main thing is what speed parameters they provide in conjunction with one or another controller, in a specific drive model of a certain volume.

12. Blackout protection

It is desirable that a disk with DDR3 or DDR4 cache memory have protection against sudden power outages (Power Protection), which is usually based on tantalum capacitors and allows you to save data from the buffer to the memory chips in the event of a power failure on the SSD.

But if you have or plan to use a drive in a laptop, then blackout protection can be neglected. SSDs that do not have a DRAM buffer do not require additional protection against power loss.

13. Supported technologies and TRIM function

An SSD disk, depending on the model and the controller installed in it, can support various technologies designed to improve its performance. Many manufacturers develop their own proprietary technologies that provide more marketing benefits than actual benefits to users. I will not list them; this information is in the descriptions of specific models.

The most important feature that should be supported by any modern SSD is TRIM (garbage collection). Her job is as follows. An SSD drive can only write data to free memory cells. As long as there are enough free cells, the SSD disk writes data to them. As soon as there are few free cells, the SSD disk needs to clear cells from which data is no longer needed (the file has been deleted). An SSD without TRIM support clears these cells immediately before writing new data, which significantly increases the time of write operations. It turns out that as the disk fills up, the recording speed degrades.

An SSD with TRIM support, having received a notification from the operating system about the deletion of data, also marks the cells in which they were unused, but clears them not before writing new data, but in advance in free time(when the disk is not used very actively). This is called garbage collection. As a result, the write speed is always maintained at the highest possible level, and now all SSDs can do this.

14. SSD manufacturers

The best manufacturer of SSD drives is Samsung, but they also cost more than everyone else. But they are the fastest, most reliable, and have a long and hassle-free warranty.

The next leader in terms of technology is Intel. Their SSDs cost higher on average than everyone else, but are different good quality. But among them there were also problematic models, so it is worth carefully studying the reviews and testimonials.

The best price/quality ratios are Crucial and Plextor SSD brands; they are almost as good as Samsung or Intel, but are slightly cheaper.

Also, as a compromise option in terms of price/quality, you can consider an SSD from the reputable A-DATA brand.

I do not recommend purchasing SSDs sold under the Kingston brand, since most of them do not meet the stated characteristics and their speed greatly degrades as they fill up. But this manufacturer also has SSDs from the top-end HyperX series, which are of higher quality and can be considered as an alternative to top-end expensive brands.

Some time ago, the well-known hard drive manufacturer Western Digital acquired the company SanDisk, which was engaged in the development and production of SSDs. Now drives from both WD and SanDisk brands can be considered for purchase. At the same time, WD has retained a convenient color division: Green (low-budget SSDs), Blue ( middle class) and Black (fast drives). SanDisk has these series: Plus (budget), Ultra (middle class) and Extreme (top).

In general, budget and unpopular brands are like a lottery, maybe you’ll get lucky, maybe not. Therefore, I recommend that you avoid purchasing them if possible. But it’s still better to look for reviews on models from recommended brands, since “even an old woman can get screwed.”

15. SSD form factor and interface

The most popular today are SSDs of the 2.5″ form factor with a SATA3 (6 Gb/s) interface connector.

This SSD can be installed in a computer or laptop. The motherboard or laptop must have a SATA3 (6 Gb/s) or SATA2 (3 Gb/s) connector. Correct operation when connected to the first version of SATA connector (1.5 Gbit/s) is possible, but not guaranteed.

When connected to a SATA2 connector, the SSD read/write speed will be limited to around 280 MB/s. But you will still get a significant performance boost over a regular hard drive (HDD).

Plus, the access time will not go away, which is hundreds of times lower than that of an HDD, which will also significantly increase the responsiveness of the system and programs.

A more compact SSD form factor is mSATA, which is based on the SATA bus but has a different connector.

The use of such an SSD is justified in ultra-compact computers, laptops and mobile devices (tablets) with an mSATA connector, in which installing a conventional SSD is impossible or undesirable.

The main compact SSDs today are models for the M.2 slot of the 2280 form factor (22x80 mm).

M.2 drives come with SATA 3, PCI-E x2 and PCI-E x4 interfaces with support for the NVMe protocol. M.2 SATA drives are simply more convenient, since they are placed in a slot on the motherboard and do not require wires, and PCI-E (NVMe) is also much faster. The M.2 connector on the motherboard or laptop must support the appropriate interface.

Well, one more SSD type presented in the form of a PCI-E expansion card.

Such SSDs have very high speeds, but are significantly more expensive and are therefore mainly used for very demanding professional tasks.

16. Housing material

The 2.5″ SSD case is usually made of plastic or aluminum. It is believed that aluminum is better because it has higher thermal conductivity. But since SATA SSDs do not heat up very much, when installed in a normally ventilated PC case this does not matter much. However, for installation in a laptop, it is better to prefer an SSD with a metal casing.

17. Equipment

If you are purchasing an SSD for a computer and the case does not have mounts for 2.5″ drives, then pay attention to the presence of a mounting frame in the kit.

Most SSDs do not come with a mounting frame or even screws. But the mount with screws included can be purchased separately.

The presence of a mount should not be a significant criterion when choosing an SSD, but sometimes a higher-quality SSD complete with a mount can be purchased for the same money as a budget SSD with a separate mount.

As for SSDs for laptops, now all are made 7 mm thick; sometimes the kit includes a thickening frame of 9 mm (depending on the laptop), but it can also be purchased separately.

18. Selection in the online store

1. Go to the “SSD drives” section on the seller’s website.
2. Select recommended manufacturers (Samsung, Intel, Crucial, Plextor, HyperX, WD, SanDisk, A-DATA).
3. Select the desired volume (120-128, 240-256, 480-512, 960-1024 GB).
4. Memory type (TLC 3D NAND).
5. Sort the selection by price.
6. Browse SSDs, starting with the cheaper ones.
7. Choose several models suitable for price and speed (from 450/300 Mb/s).
8. Read their reviews (is there a DRAM buffer, what is the size of the SLC cache and the speed beyond it) and buy the best model according to the test results.

Thus, you will receive an SSD disk that is optimal in size and speed, meeting high quality criteria, at the lowest possible cost.

19. Links

SSD Samsung MZ-76E250BW
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU650 240GB
SSD A-Data Ultimate SU650 120GB

While desktop hard drives have existed in the 3.5-inch form factor for many years, SSDs have been available in the 2.5-inch format from the very beginning. It was great for small SSD components. However, laptops were becoming thinner and thinner, and 2.5-inch SSDs no longer met the small size criterion. Therefore, many manufacturers have turned their attention to other form factors with smaller dimensions.

In particular, the mSATA standard was developed, but it appeared too late. The corresponding interface is quite rare today, in no small part because mSATA (short for mini-SATA) still operates at the comparatively low speed of SATA. mSATA drives are physically identical to Mini PCI Express modules, but electrically mSATA and mini PCI e are incompatible. If the socket is designed to accommodate mSATA drives, you will only be able to use those. On the contrary, if the socket is designed for mini PCI Express modules, mSATA SSD drives can be inserted, but they will not work.

The mSATA standard can be considered obsolete today. It gave way to the M.2 standard, which was originally called Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF). The M.2 standard provides manufacturers with greater flexibility in SSD dimensions, since the drives are much more compact, allowing eight length options, from 16 to 110 mm. Also M.2 supports different variants interfaces. Today, the PCI Express interface is increasingly used, which will dominate in the future, since it is much faster. But the first M.2 drives relied on the SATA interface, and USB 3.0 was theoretically possible. However, not all M.2 slots support all mentioned interfaces. Therefore, before purchasing a drive, check which standards your M.2 slot supports.

The M.2 standard is now spreading among desktop PCs; modern motherboards offer at least one corresponding slot. Another positive point– a cable is no longer required, the drive is inserted directly into the motherboard slot. However, connecting via cable is also possible. But for this, the motherboard must have a corresponding port, namely U.2. Previously, this standard was known as SFF 8639. Of course, it is theoretically possible to equip 2.5-inch drives with a U.2 port, but there are very few such models on the market, as well as drives with SATA Express.

The SATA Express interface is the successor to SATA 6 Gb/s, so it is backward compatible. In fact, the host interface even supports two SATA 6 Gb/s ports or one SATA Express. This support was added more for compatibility, since SATA Express drives are electrically connected to the PCI Express bus. That is, SATA Express drives on “pure” SATA 6 Gb/s ports do not work. But SATA Express relies on only two PCIe lanes, meaning the bandwidth will be half that of M.2.

Compact and very fast: M.2 SSD drives with PCI Express interface, photo with adapter card

Of course, most desktop computers have regular PCI Express slots, so it's possible to install an SSD directly into a slot like a graphics card. You can purchase an adapter card for M.2 SSD (PCIe), and then connect the drives in the “traditional” way in the form of a PCI Express expansion card.

M.2 SSDs with PCI Express interface demonstrate throughput of more than two gigabytes per second - but only with a suitable connection. Modern M.2 SSDs are usually designed for four third-generation PCI Express lanes, only this interface allows them to unlock their performance potential. With the older PCIe 2.0 standard and/or fewer lanes, SSDs will work, but you'll lose a significant amount of performance. If in doubt, we recommend checking your motherboard's user manual for the M.2 lane configuration.

If the motherboard does not have an M.2 slot, you can install such a drive via an expansion card, for example, in a slot for a second video card. However, in this case, most often the video card will no longer be supplied with 16, but 8 PCI Express lines. However, this will not affect the performance of the video card so seriously. The following table summarizes information about modern interfaces:

One way to improve laptop performance is to replace the mechanical hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD). Let's try to figure out how to make the right choice of such an information storage device.

• A high degree of reliability, in particular, shock resistance and a wide operating temperature range. This is especially true for laptops, where cooling conditions leave much to be desired;
• Low power consumption;
• High level of productivity.

Features of choice

First, you need to decide on the purpose of the SSD, whether it will be used as a system drive only or whether it will also store large files, modern games of 40-50 GB. If in the first case a volume of 120 GB will be enough, then in the second you need to pay attention to models with a larger capacity. The best choice here may be disks with a size of 240-256 GB.

• Installation instead of an optical drive. To do this, you will need a special adapter, when choosing which you need to know the height (usually 12.7 mm). In some cases, you can find a device with 9.5 mm;
• Replacing the main HDD.

After this, you can already make a choice according to the remaining parameters, which are worth considering further.

Memory type

First of all, when choosing, you need to pay attention to the type of memory used. Three types are known: SLC, MLC and TLC, and all the rest are their derivatives. The difference is that in SLC one bit of information is written to one cell, while in MLC and TLC two and three bits are written, respectively.

From here the disk resource is calculated, which depends on the volume of overwritten memory cells. The operating time of TLC memory is the lowest, but it still depends on the type of controller. At the same time, disks on such chips show better read speed results.

Form factor, interface

The most common SSD form factor is 2.5 inches. mSATA (mini-SATA), PCIe and M.2 are also known, which are used in compact laptops and ultrabooks. The main interface through which data reception/transmission operations are carried out is SATA III, where speeds can reach up to 6 Gbit/s. In turn, in M.2, information can be exchanged using both standard SATA and the PCI-Express bus. Moreover, in the second case, the modern NVMe protocol is used, developed specifically for SSDs, which provides speeds of up to 32 Gbit/s. Disks of mSATA, PCIe and M.2 form factors are expansion cards and take up little space.

Based on this, we can say that before purchasing you need to familiarize yourself with technical documentation to the laptop on the manufacturer's website and check the availability of the above connectors. For example, if a laptop has an M.2 connector with support for the NVMe protocol, it is recommended to purchase an appropriate drive, since its data transfer speed will be higher than what a SATA controller can provide.

Controller

Parameters such as read/write speed and disk resource depend on the control chip. Manufacturers include Marvell, Samsung, Toshiba OCZ (Indilinx), Silicon Motion, Phison. Moreover, the first two from the list produce controllers with high level speed and reliability, therefore they are mainly used in solutions for the medium and business segment of consumers. Samsung also has a hardware encryption feature.

Silicone Motion and Fison controllers are different good combination price and performance, however, products based on them have such disadvantages as low random write/read performance and a drop in overall operating speed when the disk is full. They are intended mainly for the budget and mid-range segments.

There may also be SSDs on the once very popular SandForce and JMicron chips. They generally show good results, however, drives based on them have a relatively low resource and are presented mainly in the budget segment of the market.

Disc rating

The main drive manufacturers are Intel, Patriot, Samsung, Plextor, Corsair, SanDisk, Toshiba OCZ, AMD. Let's look at a few drives that are the best in their category. And as a selection criterion, we will highlight volume.

Note: The list below is based on average prices at the time of writing: March 2018.

Drives up to 128 GB

Samsung 850 120GB presented in 2.5″/M.2/mSATA form factors. average price per disc is 4090 rubles. It features best-in-class performance and a 5-year warranty.

Options:
Sequential reading: 540 MB/s
Sequential recording: 520 MB/s
Wear resistance: 75 TBW
Memory type: Samsung 64L TLC

ADATA Ultimate SU650 120GB has the best price in the class, 2,870 rubles to be exact. It contains a unique SLC caching algorithm, for which all available space is allocated to the firmware. This ensures good average performance. Models are available for all major form factors.

Options:
Sequential reading: 520 MB/s
Sequential recording: 320 MB/s
Wear resistance: 70 TBW
Memory type: TLC 3D NAND

Drives from 128 to 240-256 GB

Samsung 860 EVO (250GB)- This newest model from the company of the same name for 2.5″/M.2/mSATA. At the start of sales it costs 6,000 rubles. According to the tests carried out, the disc has best-in-class wear resistance, the value of which increases with increasing volume.

Options:
Sequential reading: 550 MB/s
Sequential recording: 520 MB/s
Wear resistance: 150 TBW
Memory type: Samsung 64L TLC

SanDisk Ultra II 240 GB— despite the fact that the manufacturing company was acquired by Western Digital, models under this brand are often found on sale. This is the SanDisk Ultra II, which uses a controller from Marvell, now selling for about 4,600 rubles.

Options:
Sequential reading: 550 MB/s
Sequential recording: 500 MB/s
Wear resistance: 288 TBW
Memory type: TLC ToggleNAND

Drives with a capacity of 480 GB or more

Intel SSD 760p 512GB is a representative of the new line of SSDs from Intel. Available only in the M.2 form factor, it has high speeds. The price is traditionally quite high - 16,845 rubles.

Options:
Sequential reading: 3200 MB/s
Sequential recording: 1670 MB/s
Wear resistance: 288 TBW
Memory type: Intel 64L 3D TLC

Price for SSD Crucial MX500 1TB is 15,200 rubles, which makes it the most affordable disc in this category. IN this moment is available only in the SATA 2.5″ form factor, but the manufacturer has already announced models for M.2.

Options:
Sequential reading: 560 MB/s
Sequential recording: 510 MB/s
Wear resistance: 288 TBW
Memory type: 3D TCL NAND

Conclusion

Thus, we looked at the criteria for choosing an SSD for a laptop and got acquainted with several models that are on the market today. In general, installing a system on an SSD has a good effect on its performance and reliability. The fastest drives are the M.2 form factor, but you need to pay attention to whether the laptop has such a connector. Despite the fact that almost all new models are built on TLC chips, it is recommended to also consider models with MLC memory, which have a significantly higher resource. This is especially true when choosing a system drive.

The mSATA standard, unfortunately or fortunately, is living out its last days in the retail segment; it has been replaced by a new, more productive M.2 connector. The newcomer M.2 has more bandwidth when compared to mSATA, but the first devices with M.2 support are practically no different in terms of performance from regular SATA III SSDs. The market is gradually expanding, and manufacturers are increasingly teasing users with high speeds of new M.2 products. A lot has been said about M.2, but let's get back to our conversation about mSATA.

This standard is used by many OEM manufacturers, and mSATA is also popular in industrial solutions, so it’s too early to give up on it; you need to take into account that many have found use for it in compact systems. But all this is sometimes out of reach for most users. For now, let's return to the situation around us. As many can observe, over the past three years, PC performance has been marking time, there has been no jump. This means that among consumers there are many owners of motherboards and laptops that have an mSATA connector, and I believe that they, in turn, have thought more than once about how to rationally use this opportunity for expansion. Let's get closer to our today's hero; we got a fairly capacious SSD drive with a capacity of 480 GB of tiny size, mSATA standard, Kingston SMS200S3/480G.

The drive itself is very small, in the photo you can see it in comparison with a regular 3.5" solid state drive. SSDs in the mSATA form factor exist in nature in two sizes Full Size 51x30mm and Half Size 26.8x30mm. Our today's hero is Kingston SMS200S3/ 480G refers to the dimensional representatives of Full Size.

Packaging and equipment

Like the Kingston SM2280S3/120G that we tested, this drive is also an OEM representative, a product for assemblers. But despite this, it can be found on free sale. So its packaging is quite modest and looks like a box for a SODIMM memory module.

The contents of the package are a brochure and a memory stick.

Appearance and structure

On one side of the drive there is a sticker with information about the product. Under the sticker there are two memory chips, the sticker is quite difficult to remove intact, so I will leave it in place.

The drive uses the very popular SandForce controller from Kingston; it is soldered on the reverse side of the printed circuit board with a pair of memory chips.

Marking of the SandForce SF-2281VB4-SPC controller, as I said, these controllers are very popular with Kingston. And if we talk specifically about the SF-2281VB4-SPC, it supports the SATA III interface and has an eight-channel architecture.

The drive is equipped with memory chips manufactured by Micron labeled 3ZA22 NW605, there are four chips in total. In total, the total volume is 512 Gigabytes, part of the memory is allocated for the needs of the controller, so the total is 480 Gigabytes.

Testing

To test the mSATA SSD, I used two adapters, ESPADA HD2590 and ESPADA PCIE020B. The ESPADA HD2590 is a regular adapter from mSATA to SATA, it is made in the form of a box for a 2.5” drive, no speed restrictions were found while working with it.

During testing, it turned out that the ESPADA PCIE020B connected via PCI-E 1X, although it has declared support for SATA III, the actual read and write speed does not reach 330 MB/sec. Therefore, the use of this controller was not advisable. This note is provided for general information.

The internal structure of the ESPADA HD2590 is very simple; in principle, for an adapter, unnecessary complexity can only lead to inconvenience

The drive is inserted into the connector, secured with screws, then the case is closed with a lid, which is fixed in a similar way.

The opponent of the Kingston SMS200S3/480G will be a representative of a completely different type of 2.5” SSD 512Gb Crucial m4 CT512M4SSD2 based on the Marvell 88SS9174 controller.

Test configuration

• Processor: Intel Core i7 4960X @ 4000 MHz (HT - enabled);
• Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Gene mATX LGA2011 X79;
• RAM: 4x8Gb Kingston KHX24C11T3K2/16X 32Gb 2400Mhz 11-13-13-30 t1;
• Disk subsystem:
• Plextor PX-256M5S 256Gb (System);
• Crucial m4 CT512M4SSD2 512Gb;
• Power supply: Corsair HXi 750 750W;
• Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional + latest updates.

The following applications were selected for comparison: PCMark 8, AS SSD Benchmark 1.7 and CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64 (Random and sequential testing modes). The results can be found in the diagrams, and below are screenshots of AS SSD Benchmark 1.7 with subtests and CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64 in random and sequential operation with data.

Testing in CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64 in random and sequential data processing modes

Kingston SMS200S3/480G 480Gb (ESPADA HD2590)

Crucial m4 CT512M4SSD2 512Gb

Kingston SMS200S3/480G 480Gb (ESPADA HD2590)

Crucial m4 CT512M4SSD2 512Gb

Conclusion

For a drive of a tiny size, the SF-2281 controller has very good performance indicators. Very important advantage Kingston SMS200S3/480G will have a capacity of 480Gb. If you have a need for an mSATA drive, then you can safely take a closer look at the hero of today’s review.

As for the confrontation between the Kingston SMS200S3/480G and the Crucial m4 CT512M4SSD2, I was surprised that the Kingston representative was not only able to compete on an equal footing with the Crucial m4, he was even able to outperform it in some places. But let's get back to reality. Both drives participating in the review are owners of fairly old controllers, which themselves will no longer be able to compete with the newcomers on the market, but on the other hand, they show very good results, so it’s too early to write them off.

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Almost every technology that appears on the market for the first time does not always turn out to be popular and in demand immediately. First, users wait for the first reviews or reviews. Then, many people launch long stage in anticipation of a reduction in prices, because if the technology is worthwhile, they will not ask for little for it... And even after the appearance various devices, and the reduction in their cost, some users of our vast country simply cannot wait for the new product to hit the shelves of local stores. And only after a certain period of time, which can usually be called significant, overcoming all barriers, the technology enters the masses and fills all possible niches.

I think this rhetorical introduction can be fully used when describing the history of the emergence of solid-state drives. Of course, SSD drives very quickly conquered the enthusiast market, but unfortunately, they did not reach the point of being installed in every computer. Even now, at the time of the next stage of SSD development, yes, we are talking specifically about M.2 PCIe format drives (NGFF SSD), most of my friends do not use SSDs in their systems, even the most ordinary ones...

Of course, manufacturers have long learned to actively use the main advantages of solid-state drives, such as: compactness, noiselessness, low level energy consumption. Admit it, there are situations when performance is not the main indicator. So, mobile devices- tablets and convertible laptops are very limited in size, and I would like to make compact HTPCs silent...

Today, we will get acquainted with two representatives of a special class among SSD drives. They are intended for use in mobile technology, which is developing more and more every month. As many might have guessed, we will talk about compact mSATA drives.

The first drive will be from Kingmax. The KM120GMMP30 model came to us in a fairly compact blister-type package. On its inner liner there is a description technical characteristics for four series of drives at various volumes- universal solution :-).

The dimensions of the drive itself are 50.8x29.85x4.81mm, with the naked eye you can mistake it for a regular one Wi-Fi module from a laptop. Looking ahead, I will say that when we turned it on, we discovered the presence of two LEDs indicating the operating mode of the drive; they showed the presence of power and the disk circulation periods. In our opinion, the solution is quite strange, since LEDs, although not much, do increase the overall energy consumption, which in the case of mobile equipment can be very critical.

Almost on the entire area of ​​one side of the board, a product sticker is pasted; thanks to its presence, we can find out the code and dimensional characteristics of the disk that is in front of us. By removing this sticker, we of course lost the warranty, but we learned that the drive is based on the SandForce SF-2241VB2-SPC controller. This controller is quite often used in budget-class drives.

On each side of the board there are two KIC32G-ACBMMTLF MLC flash memory chips.

In the screenshot of the CrystalDiskInfo utility, you can see disk data.

After consideration, we can say that it’s time to move on to testing the drive. This is true, but first, I suggest we get acquainted with the second participant in the review, it was the TS128GMSA720 from Transcend.

Unlike the first option, TS128GMSA720 came to us in OEM packaging. Having studied the manufacturer's website, we can say that in retail the drive should appear in a more secure and colorful box J.

Both visually and during measurements, we did not find any differences compared to the first participant; only the presence of stickers helped not to mix up the disks. As in the first case, we didn’t wait long and removed the sticker.

In this case, an older controller SF-2281VB1 from the same SandForce company was used. The main difference between controller versions 2241 and 2281 is the presence various numbers channels, so the older model has eight channels, and the younger one has four. Otherwise, even the manufacturer combines the description of these controllers into one document; the testing section will show what the real differences will be.

And in this case, four memory chips were used, however, completely different ones: SDZNPQCHER-032GT from SanDisk.

The CrystalDiskInfo utility was able to tell us the following details about the TS128GMSA720.

During preparations for testing, we encountered the problem of having an mSATA connector with a SATA 6 Gb/s interface. As a result, it was decided to use an adapter from SATA to mSATA.

By the way, the adapter itself is made in the 2.5 form factor; some users may take note of this fact. Otherwise, we used our permanent testbed with the following configuration:

• Processor: Intel Core i7 4770K @ 4400 MHz (HT enabled, Turbo disabled);
• Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z87;
• RAM: Transcend aXeRam DDR3-2400;
• Hard drive: Transcend Half-Slim SSD TS64GHSD740 (for system), Seagate ST3250410AS for data;
• Power supply: Seasonic X-1250 GOLD (SS-1250XM);
• Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional.

An integral part of almost every review of SSD drives is a section on updating the standard software, but it seems that this review is an exception J, on the websites of both manufacturers there were no images/utilities for updating, so the drives were tested with standard software. The following applications were selected for comparison: PCMark 8, AS SSD Benchmark 1.7 and CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64. The results can be found in the diagrams.

As you can see, there are final differences between the disks, and sometimes they are significant. Thus, the Transcend TS128GMSA720 drive was able to achieve almost twofold superiority in access time, and left its competitor far behind in all respects in the random data reading and writing mode. But in the test simulating the performance of everyday tasks, both participants showed almost identical, good, results.

Considering the fact that each drive is based on related controllers, it seems that the difference between them stems from the degree of optimization of the internal software. It looks like Kingmax needs to work on this factor better...

Speed ​​performance is good, but let's not forget about the cost of the devices. According to Yandex.Market, at the time of publication of the article in the Moscow difference, the Transcend TS128GMSA720 is asking 5800 rubles, while the Kingmax MMP30 120GB will cost the buyer only 2900 rubles. Considering this difference in price, the Kingmax drive comes out ahead in the combination of price/quality factors.

To summarize, we once again want to draw your attention to the fact that when choosing components, you need to balance the system as much as possible. So, on motherboards with a SATA 2 interface, or even SATA, the differences will not be so significant and the Kingmax MMP30 120GB drive will be more justified. But if you are trying to assemble the most productive system, it is better to take a closer look at the Transcend TS128GMSA720, or its analogues on more modern controllers, which we want to tell you about in the following materials.

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