PC Build – Types of SSDs - DIY in 5 Ep 71

There are different types of SSDs (solid state drives ). The first SSD we’ll talk about is the two and a half inch (2.5”) form factor. It’s been around as long as notebooks have been popular. When you think of a notebook hard drive, this is probably what you imagine, because it’s the most popular size. If you’re upgrading your laptop that isn’t one of those super-thin Ultrabooks, this is probably what you’ll need. For you desktop PC builders, most cases today have handy mounts that will easily fit a few of these drives in your system.

For ultra-thin laptops (Ultrabook) M.2 size SSDs sometimes referred to as gum-stick SSDs because of their shape. They come in a few standard lengths: 60mm, 80mm, and 110mm. Just make sure you don’t get one that’s too long for your system, as certain sizes won’t fit in certain builds. Then there are two main types; SATA and PCIe. Most older systems only accept SATA SSDs, but some of the newer systems take PCIe or even both options. The main takeaway between the two is that PCIe SSDs are generally faster, but typically at a higher price.

There are a few other sub form factors like half-height half-length or HHHL for PCIe desktop. If you know you have extra PCIe slots, (they’re usually used to host video cards), this might be a good option. The good thing is these SSDs aren’t as big and bulky as video cards so they can usually fit in whatever open PCIe slots you have available. Next is mSATA that looks suspiciously similar to M.2, but they’re not interchangeable. If you’ve got a notebook or one of those smaller media center PCs from a few years ago, you might have mSATA inside. U.2 is the disk format of the future. These look like normal 2.5” drives but are a little thicker. Only servers and high-end systems currently support this form factor, but the systems that do should notice incredible speeds above and beyond other SSDs.

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