[Music]
hello
everyone and welcome to diy in five i'm
trisha hershberger and today
we are going to decode all the
terminology around
ssd technology and how you can choose
the optimal
upgrade for your system so that when you
say
i'd like a two terabyte m.2 pcie gen 3
nvme
ssd you know exactly what you're asking
for
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when shopping for ssds the first thing
you'll want to know is which form factor
fits in your system
ssds come in many shapes and sizes for
example
two and a half inch is the most common
type of ssd it has a similar shape to a
traditional hdd hard drive
and connects over sata cables so it
offers a very familiar experience to
what many are already used to
you could also choose an ssd that's an
add-in card or aic
operating over the pcie bus rather than
sata this results in a much faster
experience but the pcie slots on your
motherboard are often needed for other
things like graphics cards wi-fi cards
and raid cards so choose wisely
you have probably also heard the term
m.2 thrown about when talking ssds
m.2 has become the standard type of
storage for slim laptops and
convertibles
because the form factor is so slim and
tiny
it's also super easy to install right on
the motherboard in most cases
finally there's u.2 which looks like a
two and a half inch drive but is a bit
thicker
it uses a different connector and sends
data through pcie interface
again making it faster just like the
add-in card u.2 ssd tech
is a beast and typically reserved for
high-end workstations and servers
once you've figured out what form factor
you'd like for your ssd
then it's time to talk interface aka how
the storage
communicates with your pc there are two
main types
sata versus pcie nvme
the sata interface is more affordable
more commonly found and offers good
performance for common applications
pcie is the standard interface for nvme
which is three to ten times faster than
sata ssd
most high-end m.2 ssds launched in the
last few years support nvme
nvme is so much faster because it
provides much more bandwidth than sata
models which improves performance and
heavier productivity applications
if daily tasks consist of heavier work
like say
video editing large file transfers etc
then nvme ssd would be a good choice
okay so we've got form factor and
interface
next let's talk capacity how much
storage do you need
most consumer ssd drives range from 120
gigabytes to 2 terabytes
and while ssd storage has come way down
in price over the last 5 to ten years
it can still be a hefty investment so
figure out your budget and needs ahead
of time
if you're looking to put your operating
system and maybe a few apps on the ssd
but plan to keep your other data on a
different drive
then 120 gigabyte to 240 gigabyte may be
enough for you
keep in mind drives at this capacity
might be a bit slower than their higher
capacity counterparts
for a nice mid-range approach you may
consider 480 gigabytes to one terabyte
enough to house your operating systems
some pc games and a large media library
this is a great choice between price
performance and capacity for most users
finally for the power users out there
drives that are 2 terabytes and above
are expensive but allow you to store
just about
everything you want on your super speedy
high-end ssd drive
now if you're looking specifically for
an nvme ssd for a laptop or convertible
tablet
the ssd design can have a big impact on
if it works in your system
many ssds are built with nand chips on
both sides and there are quite a few
ultra-thin systems that don't support
these types of drives
if that's the case for your system
you'll need to find a single
sided design also when considering an
ssd upgrade for ultra thin systems
efficiency will be super important both
for heat
and battery life often higher speed ssds
use more energy
and can run hotter than their more
efficient counterparts
so choosing something that won't keep
your laptop running at the temperature
of the sun
or draining battery faster than it
charges
will be important here keep in mind that
any ssd upgrade will be an improvement
over a traditional hard drive
they're faster smaller run cooler and
more able to withstand
movement and accidental droppage
whatever you decide you should notice an
instant step up in speed right away if
you have more questions
not answered in this video please let us
know in the comments and the team
at kingston will do our best to
periodically jump in and answer them
thanks for watching everyone and i'll
see you next time with more diy in 5.