Question about storage drives

Hi guys,

Hoping you might be able to answer a couple of quick questions for me:

If I had 3 drives - a 1st storage drive hdd, a 1st M2 SDD, and a 2nd M2 SDD, which drive would be my main storage drive?

And please can you tell me, what kind of M2 SDDs the following drives are:

* 1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)

* 512GB ADATA SX6000 Pro PCIe M.2 2280 (2100 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)

Are they NVME or SATA?

Thanks in advance!

Sarah
 

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Your storage drive would usually be the largest drive, and is why PCS recommend a small/fast M2 PCIe SSD for the OS (256/512GB) and a larger, slightly slower M.2 or SATA SSD for game storage (M2 if your motherboard has 2 M2 slots available, SATA if not).

M.2 SSDs can be AHCI or NVMe or SATA as they're describing different things - see diagram below.

ktc-article-solutions-servers-data-centers-understanding-ssd-technology-en.jpg
 

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
With a 3 drive setup like you describe the HDD is used as general storage for things like documents, videos etc that don't benefit from fast speeds, you then have a small (500 GB) but very fast M.2 such as the samsung 980 pro for your system drive, then another slower but larger M.2 (1TB) such as the intel 670p for your games drive
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Hi guys,

Hoping you might be able to answer a couple of quick questions for me:

If I had 3 drives - a 1st storage drive hdd, a 1st M2 SDD, and a 2nd M2 SDD, which drive would be my main storage drive?

And please can you tell me, what kind of M2 SDDs the following drives are:

* 1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)

* 512GB ADATA SX6000 Pro PCIe M.2 2280 (2100 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)

Are they NVME or SATA?

Thanks in advance!

Sarah
There are two components related to each storage drive; the connector type and the protocol used to access the drive.

All HDDs use the SATA connector and the ACHI protocol.

The slowest SSDs use the SATA connector and the ACHI protocol.

The two SSDs you reference use the M.2 connector and the ACHI protocol. Of these the fastest (the ADATA) should be your OS drive and the other a data storage drive.

The very fastest SSDs use the M.2 connector and the NVMe protocol.
 
There are two components related to each storage drive; the connector type and the protocol used to access the drive.

All HDDs use the SATA connector and the ACHI protocol.

The slowest SSDs use the SATA connector and the ACHI protocol.

The two SSDs you reference use the M.2 connector and the ACHI protocol. Of these the fastest (the ADATA) should be your OS drive and the other a data storage drive.

The very fastest SSDs use the M.2 connector and the NVMe protocol.
Thanks UBUYSA, this is just what I wanted to know.

Much appreciated!
 
There are two components related to each storage drive; the connector type and the protocol used to access the drive.

All HDDs use the SATA connector and the ACHI protocol.

The slowest SSDs use the SATA connector and the ACHI protocol.

The two SSDs you reference use the M.2 connector and the ACHI protocol. Of these the fastest (the ADATA) should be your OS drive and the other a data storage drive.

The very fastest SSDs use the M.2 connector and the NVMe protocol.
Just to check, are the SSDs mentioned above, that you said use the ACHI protocol, not NVMe or SATA then?

I'm wondering, if I got these, how I would be able to read the data from them if my computer ever stops working; I know that external enclosures can be bought to transfer data for NVMe and SATA SDDs, but can't find anything for ACHI.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Just to check, are the SSDs mentioned above, that you said use the ACHI protocol, not NVMe or SATA then?

I'm wondering, if I got these, how I would be able to read the data from them if my computer ever stops working; I know that external enclosures can be bought to transfer data for NVMe and SATA SDDs, but can't find anything for ACHI.
SATA SSDs are ACHI. You rarely see people talk about the ACHI protocol by name, it's 'the one that's not NVMe'.

Neither of the drives you mentioned are SATA nor are they NVMe.
 

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I've got a 1TB PCS M.2 in one of these

 
I've got a 1TB PCS M.2 in one of these

Thanks Martinr36, this is a big help :)
 
SATA SSDs are ACHI. You rarely see people talk about the ACHI protocol by name, it's 'the one that's not NVMe'.

Neither of the drives you mentioned are SATA nor are they NVMe.
If they are neither SATA nor NVMe, how would I be able to transfer the data to a different computer from them should my computer ever stop working? Because this would usually involve purchasing an enclosure to connect via USB wouldn't it, and it only seems that these can be purchased for NVMe and SATA drives?
 
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ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
If they are neither SATA nor NVMe, how would I be able to transfer the data to a different computer from them should my computer ever stop working? Because this would usually involve purchasing an enclosure to connect via USB wouldn't it, and it only seems that these can be purchased for NVMe and SATA drives?
I know of no M.2 caddies only SATA ones. If you backup your data regularly you won't have to worry about your PC breaking down.
 
The one i posted is an M key
Thanks Martinr36,

So the link to the UGREEN one is for M key SDD cards.... but it says that is an NVMe enclosure, and UBUYSA said that the SDD drives I mentioned aren't NVMe.

So, would it still work for the SDD drives I mentioned?

For the 1TB PCS M2 SDD, I mean.
 

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Thanks Martinr36,

So the link to the UGREEN one is for M key SDD cards.... but it says that is an NVMe enclosure, and UBUYSA said that the SDD drives I mentioned aren't NVMe.

So, would it still work for the SDD drives I mentioned?

For the 1TB PCS M2 SDD, I mean.
I've a 1TB PCS M.2 in mine at the moment

1627503834230.jpeg
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Thanks Martinr36,

So the link to the UGREEN one is for M key SDD cards.... but it says that is an NVMe enclosure, and UBUYSA said that the SDD drives I mentioned aren't NVMe.

So, would it still work for the SDD drives I mentioned?

For the 1TB PCS M2 SDD, I mean.
You're not listening. As I was at pains to explain, not all M.2 drives use the NVMe protocol. When an M.2 drive does use NVMe it says so in the description.
 

Bhuna50

Author Level
Just to check, are the SSDs mentioned above, that you said use the ACHI protocol, not NVMe or SATA then?

I'm wondering, if I got these, how I would be able to read the data from them if my computer ever stops working; I know that external enclosures can be bought to transfer data for NVMe and SATA SDDs, but can't find anything for ACHI.

One of the reasons computers fail is also the hard drive so basically you’d be screwed anyway

Just always ensure you have a daily back up routine too then that way if anything fails you can restore from your backup image.

If the computer fails for any other reason then you may be (depending on what you replace it with) be able to get a new one and just move your current drive over into your new machine.


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