Going a little more backward, if you own a PC or a laptop that is old enough to have a 3Gbps interface, then Kingston A400 is a quick fix to your slow and laggy system.

Although it also works fine with a 6Gbps interface as well. However, it is low power consumption, supports better and improved loading times of applications and files.

It contains a maximum sequential 500/450MBs/s read and writes respectively. Besides it has low endurance and has chances of wearing out, this could be a good option for affordable or budget PCs or simply adding more space to your computer keeping the HDD together.

[su_button url=”https://amzn.to/3tfDI2L” style=”3d” wide=”yes” center=”yes”]View On Amazon[/su_button]

How to choose the best SSD for your system? Buyer’s Guide

Upgrading your system storage leads to a significant improvement in the overall performance of the PC or a laptop. Replacing the HDD or adding an SSD; reduces the starting time or quickly boot up your system, improves program initializing, Apps become lag-free, it read and writes the data much faster, games start quickly than before, files and music are becoming super accessible at lightning speed.

But if your head is buzzing with different types of SSDs in the market and which is compatible with your system then here are the three basic types of SSDs you have to educate first.

Types of SSDs (Solid State Drive)

There are three most popular drives you have seen many times while looking for the right SSD for your computer. They are:

a. SATA SSD or SATA III SSD

1. SATA 2.5 SSD
2. SATA M.2 SSD

b. NVMe SSD/ PCIe NVMe SSD

Now many of us encounter the most confusing phase which revolves around the form factor (called the shape of the drive), size of the drive (in terms of GB i.e. the Gigabyte and TB i.e. the Terabyte), and most importantly the connection interfaces. This evaluation might spin your head badly but learning about these drives and interfaces will shed those clouds confusing you.

What is an SSD?

SSD is called a Solid State Drive, it has unmoveable parts unlike HDD (Hard Disk Drive with moveable parts). It is so much faster than the HDD that if you ever have switched from HDD to SSD, you must find a significant speed of processing than before.

SSD retrieves data very quickly and passes it on further to your CPU or GPU, as a result of which you can switch between the applications/programs or files in a blink of an eye and get your work done without waiting for it it it the processing of the machine.

SATA SSD and NVMe are two main protocols or in simple language two types of SSD regarding the different slots or lanes available on your PC or a laptop.

SATA SSD

SATA 3 or III which is often written as mSATA SSD, is the most commonly found SSDs in the market today. Its speed is a maximum of 600GB/s (though for higher bandwidth, you can go for PCIe NVMe SSD that will come next in the section). SATA SSD is further categorized into two types; SATA 2.5 and SATA M.2.

SATA 2.5

This drive comes in a rectangular shape. It gets connected with your motherboard with a cable passing through them. SATA 2.5 usually comes into consideration as a replacement for HDD. This not only takes less space with ease of fixing but is also an affordable option to upgrade the storage.

Where SATA 2.5 is used?

This drive is particularly built for old desktops or laptops in which the motherboard has a SATA port instead of an M.2 port or PCI or NVMe port. So keep in mind, this drive will only work with SATA lanes to transmit the data, otherwise, you may check other drives according to the compatibility of the system. When you search for a drive, this one will pop up with the name of the brand and “SATA III 2.5” right before it.

SATA M.2

This drive comes in a long and splendid shape, unlike the SATA 2.5 rectangular shape. It is more identical to NVMe SDDs.

This SATA M.2 is extremely easy to connect directly with the motherboard and has no wire or cable to pass through them. It is a little pricey and has better bandwidth compared to the SATA 2.5.

Where SATA M.2 is used?

This type of drive is used when the motherboard has either M.2 SATA port or has M.2 NVMe port. But remember, an NVMe SSD wouldn’t connect with M.2 SATA port because of the different pin alignments.

This M.2 is a modern interface of the motherboard leaving behind the SATA port in old computers. Now this will be identified by the name written as “M.2 SATA” next to the company name.

NVMe SSD or PCIe NVMe SSD

This drive is sometimes referred to as PCIe M.2 as well. It is the newer form factor concerning the modern motherboards that come with a PCIe interface.

Back to SATA 2.5 and SATA M.2, both have no difference in speed and performance but it’s worth noting that NVMe SSD is three to four times faster and has much-improved read and write speed compared to SATA SSDs, consequently are much pricier too.

If you are buying an NVMe SSD with PCIe Gen 4.0 and your motherboard has PCIe Gen 3.0 it’s perfectly fine because PCIe Gen 4.0 is backward compatible with Gen 3.0 and has no difference in speed or bandwidth.

Moral of the lesson

Deciding over the type of SSD relies on the system or the motherboard of your desktop or laptop. The secondary thing that affects your decision is the budget you have dedicated. The cheapest SSD or budget SSD is the SATA 2.5, SATA M.2 is with little cost increment and NVMe SSD is the most latest, fastest, and at the same time an expensive option.

How much SSD do you need for a particular task?

However, the type of SSD is also determined by the scope you are trying to buy for. For instance, SSD for gaming, SSD for PS5, or other game consoles. Similarly, if you are a student, then you might need to upgrade the storage of your PC or laptop concerning the field software and its demand.

Other than that, a slow desktop could be the biggest bottleneck to achieve the required results of editing photos or videos, animation or 3D modeling, etc.

How much SSD for gaming?

Let’s start with the popular PC games that might interest you. Firstly, you must be aware that PC games, whether it’s First Person Shooter (FPS) or Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games occupy a huge amount of space when downloaded.

Take an example of Call of Duty: Black Ops III with a file size of 113GB, Borderland 3 with 116GB, Microsoft Flight Simulator with 127GB, Rainbow Six Siege with 131GB, these are very few games with less than 200GB files.

If these titles fancy you then a minimum 150GB SSD would be sufficient enough.

Although games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with file size 231 GB is nearly impossible to get into an SSD with 250GB because there are other applications as well, that might be more important to be downloaded on your PC especially for students or professionals.

Therefore, before you decide on an SSD size for gaming, check online the size of the files and other possible applications that need to be there simultaneously when you are not gaming. Thus roughly calculate the amount of space you must need in your PC for gaming and other activities.

Despite all estimations, if you fail to decide the amount of SSD you might require at present and in the future, then go for 256GB with closed eyes. This SSD will be a good fit even if you want to keep up to three popular games side by side, plus useful applications and photos, and videos altogether.

How much SSD do you need as a student?

If you are an engineering student, college-going or want to become an architect, you need to cross the 128GB limit of an ordinary computer and think over the hundreds of assignments, online lectures, recordings of webinars, multiple CAD/CAM software, editing tools, eBooks and documents and so much more coming in your whole academic year.

Following this, it is recommended to get at least 256GB SSD along with HDD if possible. This will prevent you from application crashes we often encounter while working on more than one application at a time together with several other tools and programs.

How much SSD is sufficient enough for a standard PC or a laptop?

Now here comes a standard yet sufficient storage you might require if not entirely dedicated for gaming. In this case, still, you have plenty of applications to store, for instance, Microsoft Windows, and the frequent updating takes almost 25GB of your drive.

Further, you need to deal with emails, photos, videos, Zoom, PDFs, Word, Excel, music player, and so on, which just make a computer-usable for everyday computing. In this case, a 128GB SSD at least is recommended.

Does SSD need a heatsink? Does this drive get hot for real?

The SSD does get hot for real and yes it does require a heatsink but this is in a rare case to happen. In the situation of intense gaming, too many applications running at a time, too overloaded, and intensive multitasking can cause the drive to get heated.

In some areas, if that’s not the case, then the other neighboring components might cause the drive to get hot, this happens with the gaming desktops and especially when the hardware of your PC are very close to each other.

The hot air generated and then passed out from the tower sometimes reasoning the drives to get hot.

Remember, this is not a very frequent case to happen, though if you have experience working with such a PC then the SSD you chose must be wisely picked.

Try to get a drive with an integrated or built-in heat sink. There are many SSD drives out there that come with their heat dissipation mechanism based on the aluminum base and copper pipes, these types of SSD are pretty handy in such situations.

Conclusion

The most common option for slow PC systems is to add an external SSD. But that’s not always an ideal pick for every one of us, that’s where internal SSDs come into consideration.

Where there is portable SSD seems easy to use, internal SSD is way complicated comparatively. It requires your full attention and knowledge of the system interfaces, if not, then it probably counts as a waste of money for you.

You need to be cautious enough of the type of SSD and its compatibility with your laptop or PC desktop the way we have guided you earlier.

Moving forward quickly, once you know which type of interface your motherboard is having you can easily get through the SSD form that might suit your system.

Thus thoroughly inspect the configuration of the SSDs and their suitability with the PC, if you still find it difficult to decide, just shoot a comment, and leave things for us to handle.