M.2 or 2.5 SSD

Dave_Oz

So I'm a bit confused on this, but do I need M.2 and 2.5 SSD or just one of them. If I only need one of them, which one should I get M.2 or 2.5 SSD

ninja502

you only need one but can have both in the computer at same time. the M.2 would be better if you have a motherboard that supports it 

Ian

Ninja is correct, an m.2 typically provides faster speeds and I would recommend it over a regular 2.5" SSD if this is for a boot drive. 

PowerSpec_MikeW

Greetings @Dave_Oz

M.2 is potentially faster, but keep in mind M.2's can be either SATA or NVME, the latter which operates on the PCIe bus and is considerably faster. 4 times faster, even at x2, 6 or 7 times faster on x4, and could be 10 times faster or greater on PCIe 4.0 at x4. At least in regards to read speeds. So consider what you're buying and if it's an older board, what it supports, but on a new system, you do want an NVME drive.

LaCoff

How do you identify the bus? My motherboard has open slots labeled for sata and sata power. I don't see a label for PCIe. Can either type of connection work as a boot drive? The ssd is NVMe from Samsung MZVLV512

JS_MC

The connection type you're looking for here is M.2. NVMe drives typically use M.2 slots. What motherboard do you have?

Also, yes! Either type (SATA or NVMe) can be used as a boot drive. You would need to assign which drive would be the boot drive when you install the OS.