The device what I’m talking about is your computer’s hard disk and a lot of people don’t know but all the process what you do on your computer, all the things mainly processed from the hard disk drive because all your softwares, media files, and operating system are saved all on your system’s hard disk.
So, now why don’t we need to upgrade our computer system’s storage device too, and believe it or not but using an SSD instead of a hard disk drive can double your old system performance without upgrading anything else like ram or processor.
Even those people who are using SSD’s in their computer or laptop they don’t wanna to move back to the hard drive because the reason is, huge 20 times better storage performance difference.
So, if you’re going to buy a new solid state drive for your new or maybe old computer then that’s the best thing what to can do for your computer to cut the storage performance bottleneck out from its way.
So, Let’s See How To Buy A Solid State Drive For All Your Super-Fast Storage Needs
Actually, buying an SSD for your computer or laptop isn’t that simple like buying a hard disk drive because even a lower performer SSD can give you the greatest speed as compared to the HDD but not all SSD’s are same and you see the huge price difference in SSD’s which even having same storage capacity.
And not just that even there are 4 different sizes of SSD’s are available in the market which makes buying an SSD more complicated, but the thing is, now don’t have to worry about it because by this article I’m gonna make clear about every little detail about SSD’s which you can’t find in any other single article. And yes, you can thanks me later in the comments below.
So, to buy an SSD first you’ll need to understand the three main characteristics of a storage device which are:
- Storage Capacity
- Physical Size
- Real Time Performance
So, let’s starts with;
#How Much Storage Do You Need For Your New SSD Drive?
Determining the storage needs is all depending upon your use. So first, you’ll have made clear about how much storage actually do you need for your computer because a normal SSD is 2 times and some are 4 times expensive than a normal hard disk drive and that’s the reason why people buy SSD storage more wisely as compared to other storage devices.
For a normal user, around 250GB of SSD
storage is enough according to my experience and to actually calculate
how much capacity do you actually needs for yourself, you’ll need to sum
all your storage space and then decide how you really needs.And it’s be like, suppose you’ll gonna install Windows 10 in your SSD which takes around 30GB of storage and you also wanna to save your own bunch of photos and videos collection which maybe takes around 100GB of storage and with that suppose you also need to store 1000+ Songs and around 20+ movies which can take up to 50GB of more storage and by combing all your storage space you can see actually how much storage do you actually needs for your computer or laptop.
So, according to my example adding 30GB for windows + 100GB for photos and videos + 50GB for movies and songs is going be equal to = 180GB, and just like I said 250GB going be enough for a normal computer user.
If you don’t have a big budget for buying a big storage SSD and mainly you need big storage to storage all your huge amount of data then the second best option what you still have to choose is to use two different storage devices, and the first one is smaller storage SSD for your boot drive to get the great performance and the second on is big storage HDD for all you extra storage and those who don’t know about what boot drive is, then it means your operating system drive like a C: drive where windows or other software is installed.
And a lot of people also sending me an email asking about how much SSD storage do they really need for their boot drive and the according me for a normal user 64GB drive is enough and if you are a gamer and need a budget SSD for gaming then 120GB is going to be really beneficial for you.
#What Size Of SSD Going Be Fit Into Your Computer Or Laptop?
Just like I said there are 4 different sizes of SSDs are available in the market and every different SSD have its own different interface to make using SSD for reliably as compared to a normal hard disk drive. And not just that, every different SSD also having its own different physical size so now you just use an SSD in almost every computer system, laptops, mini notebooks, and even latest tablets also using SSD’s in it to performance faster and better than the old ones.List of 4 different sizes of SSD’s:
- 5 Inch SSD
- PCI Card SSD
- mSATA SSD
- 2 SSD
So, now I’m gonna talk about every available SSD what you can use in your computer or laptop and I’m also suggested some tips and helpful suggestion to use those different types of SSD with a hard disk drive to make computer super-fast with having heavy storage capacity supports.
@1st Type – 2.5 INCH SSD
About It: “2.5 inches” SSD is exactly the same looking as laptop’s hard disk drive and it’s the best replacement of a normal hard disk and yes you can use it easily on your every computer or laptop because it uses the same interface just like a normal hard disk does.
Size: 2.5 inch is just the dimension of this type of SSD but actually there are also two different height of SSD’s are available in the market which is 7mm and 9.5mm. MM means millimeter and 9.5mm SSD is the one who used the most in all laptop or desktop computers and if you are using a slim laptop model for yourself then the 7mm 2.5inch SSD is the one which you’ll gonna need for your upgradation.
Interface: Mainly there are three types of different interface are available in this 2.5 inch SSD’s category which are SATA 2.0, SATA 3.0 and at last U.2, all three interface have its own performance where the U.2 is the one who performs amazingly well as compared to the SATA.
- SATA 2.0 – is the old fashion Sata interface which only gives you the half performance as compared to the new SATA 3.0 version SSD’s but the thing is that nowadays not a single latest SSD comes in SATA 2.0 interface because it’s too slow and nobody wants slow speed when it comes to buying a new Solid State Drive for their computer or laptop.
- SATA 3.0 – is the latest Sata interface available in all latest motherboard which can gives you the 6Gb/s of transferring speed while processing the data and if you’re looking to buy a new SSD for your computer or laptop then the Sata 3.0 will be going to be the best replacement for your system’s hard Disk drive.
- U.2 – is the best performer 2.5 inch Solid State Drive available in the market and the bad thing about U.2 SSD is that you can’t use this SSD in any desktop motherboard because there are only limit amount of motherboards are available in the market who supports U.2 SSD and the second most bad or unacceptable thing about the U.2 SSD is that you can’t even use it on your laptop too. Nowadays nobody uses U.2 SSD’s because the latest M.2 SSDs is the one who actually takes the place of U.2 by providing the exactly same performance which also can be used in the latest laptops too.
#At Last, How To install 2.5 Inch SSD?
As you can see there are three different types of 2.5-inch SSDs are available and it’s all depending upon your computer’s or laptop’s motherboard to support which one, because your system’s motherboard need to have an SATA connector to connect the Sata Solid State Drive or it needs a U.2 connector to connect U.2 SSD.
Normal every computer or laptop’s motherboard having SATA connector built in it to add storage drive but I can’t say that every motherboard’s having SATA 3.0 connector because both SATA 2.0 and SATA 3.0 connector looks exactly same but work differently and to confirm what type of Sata version does your motherboard is having on it, you’ll need to check your desktops motherboard specification or laptops specification to find out what type of SATA what your motherboard is supporting.
If you have SATA 2.0 connector on your motherboard then you can also use SATA 3.0 SSD on your computer or laptop both because the physical interface connector is identically same. But by using the 3.0 SATA SSD on SATA 2.0 connector, the problem what you’ll gonna face is in performance because SATA 2.0 only supports 3 Gb/s Speed and that’s the reason why you’ll actually face half performance difference while analyzing the interface speed.
If you wanted to use 2.5 inch SSD in the place of big 3.5-inch desktop hard disk’s cabinet casing then you’ll need to buy an extra “2.5 to 3.5-inch converter bracket” for your SSD to fit the drive into your big desktop’s cabinet just like shown in the picture given below.
If you are going to buy a solid state drive for your laptop and don’t even know about, what size of a drive your laptop supports then you’ll need to take out your old hard disk drive from your laptop and then measure its height by using a measuring tape because you can’t able to fit the 9.5mm SSD into a small space where only 7mm SSD can fit in.
@2nd Type – PCI Express SSD Card
About It: SSD uses Non-Volatile Memory NAND Chips which is more power than a physically moving disk drive and mainly hard disk drive comes in SATA interface because its performance only limited and stays under the SATA transferring speed and to replace hard disk drive, engineers made SSD which can utilize the full performance of SATA interface and even lot of new SATA SSD’s uses full 6Gb/s transferring speed what an SATA 3.0 can deliver but the thing is SSD can perform way more powerful than an SATA 3.0 and that’s the part where SATA becoming bottleneck when it comes to performance and that’s the time where engineers start to think and come up with a new product by combining the PCI card with SSDs.
And for those who don’t know about why I use “bottleneck” word in above paragraph then Bottleneck literally refers to the top narrow part of a bottle. In engineering, it refers to a phenomenon where the performance or capacity of an entire system is limited by a single or a small number of components or resources, like you have a racing bike and tank full of gas but you are riding on a road full of sand and dirt where sand and dirt becoming bottleneck.
PCI 3.0 generation slots can give 64 Gb/s of speed where a higher powerful SATA 3.0 can only deliver 6 Gb/s and I think now you know what I’m talking about.
Size: Actually for PCI SSD’s size doesn’t matter but before buying it you’ll have to make sure about one thing which is, does your computer’s cabinet do have enough space to add a card in it because some compact size cabinet only supports small PCI cards and if you do have a compact size cabinet on your side then it’s hard to find a half size PCI SSD card in the market and in that condition the only option what you left with is to buy a NVMe M.2 SSD which will provide you great performance because of its same data transmission like PCI SSD’s and to use it you’ll need to an M.2 to PCI converter and an M.2 SSD which can provide you to attach half-size bracket for small cases just like shows in the picture given below.
Interface: is the main thing when it comes to buying a PCI SSD because there are two different type of PCI SSD’s are available in the market which are PCI X4 and PCI x8 and both PCI x4 & x8 also available in two different generation which “PCI 2.0 Generation 2” and “PCI 3.0 generation 3”, where generation Gen 2 PCI x4 2.0 can deliver 16Gb/s and Gen 3 PCI x4 3.0 can deliver 32 Gb/s of transferring speed, and if you need more speed then you can buy PCI x8 SSD’s which can gives you 2 times faster speed as compare to the PCI x4 which is specified for 32Gb/s in Gen 2 PCI x8 2.0 and 64Gb/s in Gen 3 PCI x8 3.0, and that become gen 3 x8 SSD is the faster SSD ever made in the computer history and mainly it used in data centers and servers where the actual performance is needed the most .
Normally most of the PCIe SSD card comes with M.2 Card built in it because M.2 uses the same interface and speed just like the PCI SSD do and it’s fast, cheap and can be converted to use even in small M.2 slots. To know more about M.2 SSD just stay and continue with this article because I did write about it, down in this guide.
#At Last, How To install PCI SSD?
First of all you can’t use this type of SSD on your laptop because a laptop don’t have that kind of space to fit the card in it and to use a PCI SSD on your computer’s motherboard you do need a PCI Express X4 or x8 series of PCI slot on your motherboard in order to connect or fit the PCI SSD card on your computer’s motherboard.
Size of both x4 and x8 are different from each other and yes you can’t use big x8 SSD in small X4 PCI slot but the thing which I what you to make care about it is that, normally nowadays almost every computer’s motherboard have at least one big PCI x16 slot even if it won’t have any X4 or x8 slot on it and great thing is that you can use x4 or x8 in that PCI x16 slot only if you are not using any graphic card in that x16 slot which mainly it uses for.
Here’s the picture is given below which shows using PCI x4 SSD in PCI x16 Slot:
At last, do make sure about what generation of PCI Express X series slot does your motherboard is having because every generation has twice of bandwidth difference.
@3rd Type – mSATA Mini PCI Express SSD Card
About It: Mainly mSATA SSD’s introduced for laptops, mini Notebooks, and tablets PCs because of its size. And I actually also use an mSATA SSD on my laptop too. If you are going to buy a new SSD for your laptop then the mSATA will going be the best option for you to buying it because it won’t require the space where actually your laptop’s hard disk is installed and just because of that you can use both SSD and HDD in your laptop and make your portable device super-fast with plenty of extra HDD storage for extra storage needs.
And nowadays even 1 Terabytes of storage capacity holding mSATA SSDs are also available in the market.
The best part about these mSATA SSD’s is that it actually won’t use that much power supply and if you can give up your hard disk and only use big storage mSATA SSD drive in your laptop by removing the old HDD and by doing that you can pretty good boost the laptops battery backup and that’s the reasons which make manufacture use mSATA in most of the ultra-book laptops to deliver the best performance and battery power backup in it.
Size: Mainly there are only two different sizes of mSATA SSD’s are available in the market as according to the small size bracket of mini PCIe slot which mainly found on almost all laptop’s motherboard.
The first one is full size “59.6mm mSATA mini PCIe card” which is the default size card but in some laptops big size can’t able to get fit in because of small bracket space and that’s where the second one came out which is only “30mm mSATA Mini PCIe card” long to fill that compact space, and by using “mm” I means millimeter which I used to define the height.
Interface: The reason why these Mini PCIe card type SSD’s called “mSATA” because it uses SATA interface technology for data transferring interface and for the physical interface it needs a mini PCIe slot to get attached to your laptop.
Just like SATA these card types SSD’s also have two different interface which is SATA 2.0 and SATA 3.0 just like a 2.5 inch SATA SSD’s do and both 2.0 and 3.0 are compatible with the mini PCIe slot and nowadays all new mSATA SSD’s comes only in SATA 3.0 version to deliver the best performance out from their circuit board.
#At Last, How To install mSATA SSD?
Actually that’s not compulsory you can only use that mSATA SSD only on your laptop or tablet but the thing is you can also use it on your desktop’s motherboards too only if your motherboard’s do having a Mini PCIe slot on it and if you have one then fitting the PCIe card in it won’t get complicated for you because you’ll just have to slide the card in and tighten the single screw.
Installing this card in this laptop is also easy because you’ll just have to remove the back panel of your laptop and then find the free Mini PCIe slot to install the card in it, here’s the given picture below to show you how a free Mini PCIe slot looks like.
The one thing which I again wanted to clear about is that please make sure your laptops do have a space for a full-size card or maybe it only having a small half-size bracket for small cards. And more thing, not every laptop having free mini PCIe slot because normally a normal laptop have only one mini PCIe slot which mainly already used for WIFI Adaptor Card to use Wi-Fi on your laptop and if your laptop doesn’t have any more than one mini PCIe slot then there are only two wicked options you have now to choose and those are, you can give up your Wi-Fi Card and use SSD in the place of that Wi-Fi card OR don’t use mSATA and try to use 2.5 Inch SSD.
Tip: If you are having hard to find mini PCIe slot on your laptop then watching the disassembly video of your laptop on YouTube might be a great idea what you can try because some of the laptop models having its Mini PCIe slot covered under the main casing.
@4th Type – M.2 SSD Card
About It: M.2 is also the another great invention in SSD’s market because of its multi-device compatibility and yes we can’t ignore its compact size which actually taking over the mSATA or PCIe SSD’s because of its compact size like mSATA and works fast like PCIe cards.
Not all laptops or desktops is having an M.2 slot on it but I bet this technology will be going to be viral in future and every motherboard will start to having at least one M.2 slot on it just like now we have SATA and PCIe slots on our current motherboard.
Size: Normally M.2 cards comes in 8 different sizes which are actually really annoying but the best part is the M.2 SSD only comes in three different sizes which is 42mm, 60mm and 80mm in height and just like mSATA you have to confirm what size of M.2 SSD going to be fit into your laptop, and for desktops I think actually you don’t have to worry about the size because normally most of the desktop’s M.2 slot bracket supports all size SSD’s and you’ll just need to fit the card in it and tighten the screw in suitable screw holder.
Interface: Maybe understanding the interface is going to really typical for you because M.2 Slot have different keys which define different connection pins pattern by using a notch to connect different types of M.2 card in that M.2 slot and mainly for M.2 SSD’s use only two different keys slot which you can see in the picture given below.
And actually, both “B-Key” and “M-Key” data transferring speed is different from each other because mainly B-Key M.2 slot uses PCIe X2 interface where the M-Key M.2 Slot uses PCIe x4 interface which is actually provides double bandwidth as compared to x2.
The great part about the M.2 SSD is that most of SSD’s come in the dual physical interface which includes B and M key both together to use a single card in two different key slots which actually makes it less complicated and more compatible using it. Here’s the picture is given below of an SDD who actually use dual compatible interface.
Just like I said understanding the M.2 interface is might get complicated because understanding different keys aren’t the only thing which you’ll only need to learn about it because there is one more factor who is actually responsible for the whole SSD performance by using two different data processing interface.
And the two different things what I talking about is SATA 3.0 and the main NVMe interface.
Yes just like small mSATA SSD’s, M.2 also uses the SATA technology interface for data transmission which is mainly made for using in the M.2 B-Key slot interface but the great part about the SATA 3.0 M.2 SSD’s is that most of SSD’s comes in dual physical interface which I’m all mention above in the article and not just that it’s cheaper than the NVMe SSD’s and works great just like an SATA 3.0 mSATA SSD.
NVMe means Non-Volatile Memory Express and that’s the same technology what PCIe SSD’s uses and actually that’s the main reason to buy M.2 SSD because SATA becoming bottleneck again for laptop users and you can’t use big PCI SSD’s card in your laptop too and that’s the part where NVMe M.2 SSD was introduced. The reason why M.2 SSD’s is fastest because it used M.2 M-Key slot interface which actually uses PCIe x4 Generation 3 data transmission speed interface which can provide you up to 32Gb/s of transferring speed and that’s the main reason why NVMe M.2 SSD’s don’t comes in dual physical interfere just like SATA 3.0 M.2 SSD’s do.
M.2 SSD also becomes the key hardware uses in PCIe SSD nowadays because of the same interface and to use the M.2 SSD on the PCIe slot you’ll just need an M.2 to PCIe converter or maybe you can buy a PCI SSD which already comes with built in M.2 SSD, just like shows in the picture given below.
#At Last, How To install M.2 SSD?
Installing M.2 SSD guide is same for all the device and the important thing what you’ll need to focus on is that, look out the M.2 connector on your computer or laptop and see what size of M.2 SSD can be able to fit in it because not all desktop’s or laptop’s motherboard supports big size M.2 SSD card in it because of its small bracket size. Mostly size can’t be problematic for desktop but it really does for laptops because of the compact laptop’s internal design.
M.2 is the latest SSD’s in the market and it’s possible that your old laptop or desktop don’t have any M.2 slot in it and in that case for laptop user you can use mSATA which is actually most common slot in all laptops and for desktop users, you can use M.2 to PCIe adapter converter like the picture given below.
#What’s the performance difference in different SSD’s?
When you go out for SSD shopping you’ll see there are lot of different price range SSD’s are available who having the same amount of storage capacity in it and actually there is sensible reason why some are cheap and some are expensive and to describe this different I only use one word answer who tells everything and that word is “performance”.
Actually, performance is the main thing why we use SSD’s because nobody wants to lose their money for slow speed and yes there are a lot of different factors which decided the SSD’s speed and yes also the price range too.
Here is some major tech performance specification what you’ll have to look over while buying a Solid state drive for yourself:
#1 Read And Write Speed – is the core performance of every storage device because that describe how fast your data going to be written or may be read from those memory cells which basically built on the SSD’s motherboard circuit.
Actually, there are two different ways to calculate the performance of a storage device and those are:
- Checking Sequential Access Speed
- Checking Random Access Speed
Mainly in storage devices, we calculate the Sequential Access Speed in Megabytes per Second and for Random Access Speed we use numbers of IOOPS (Input/output Operation per Second). The thing which you’ll need to focus on is that the higher number is better whatever you are looking for better sequential or random access performance.
If you need my opinion, then I highly recommend you to look for higher IOOPS SSD because in our daily day to day life we actually need fast random access performance for all our operating system and other programs general duties because when an operating system or maybe a programmer starts to get in process it needs to access files from different files which mainly saved in different memory cell’s location and that’s the reason why I give importance to Random Access Speed more than Sequential Access Speed.
#2 Type of NAND Chips – Everybody knows SSD’s is fast and works on memory chips what we mainly called NAND chips and I think for past 7 years SSD becoming more powerful and getting bigger as what we all seeing and the core reason why these SSD’s working wonderfully and starts to holding bigger storage capacity is mainly the unlimited developed memory chips.
And yes those chips are the one who actually origin the 2GB/s of reading speed while processing the sequentially stored data and isn’t that wonderful. Just because of that I really what you to looks over to the SSD’s specification to know what type of chip is that SSD’s is running on which you’ll getting to buy for yourself.
Believe me, you’ll really gonna impress when you see the real-time performance while you working and that’s only gonna happen when you buy a great performer type of chips holding SSD and to know all about those I actually described all chips below in this article to make your SSD shopping extra intelligently.
Here’s the list of types of NAND flash technology which are available in the market:
- Single-level cell (SLC): is the one who actually stores 1 bit of data per cell which offers you the highest performance what you can ever get from a solid state drive, but the bad part about the SLC SSD’s is that those are really expensive and you’ll have to extra lose your pocket if you only need the extra performance.
- Multi-level cell (MLC): SSD’s can stores multiple bits of data per cell which is mainly two 2 bit and actually it’s also the one with lower endurance chips as compared to SLC but the best part about it that, even a low budget buyer can afford it and feel the great power fast processing speed and not just that the MLC SSD’s also becomes the highest selling SSD’s nowadays.
- Triple-level cell (TLC): SSD’ can actually stores 3 bits of data per cell which mainly slow down its performance but the great thing is that its ultra-cheap and now even a low or maybe very low budget user can buy an SSD for their computer and the person like me who only like fast things can also use a TLC SSD for their fast backup storage drive.
#Lets Answer The Main Questions Now
Question 1. – How to Buy a Solid State Drive for Desktops Computers?
Answer. If you’re looking for a replacement for your computer’s hard disk without paying any extra money then TLC 2.5 inch SSD will gonna fit perfect for your budget condition or maybe you can buy MLC 2.5 inch SSD and that also the good option for gamers and heavy load Software users.
If you’re willing to take performance out from your computer system then you’ll also go for NVMe M.2 SSD and you’ll definitely gonna feel ultrafast speed for all your multitasking work and if your computer don’t have any M.2 Slot to fit the SSD card in it, then buying NVMe M.2 PCIe Card is also the good option which will works like a charm in your computer system.
If you need SSD for your home server or maybe data center server then the PCI x8 SSD card will be really gonna make you feel like using a supercomputer.
Question 2. – How to Buy a Solid State Drive for Laptop Computers?
Answer. Just like desktop TLC 2.5 inch SSD is also good for all budget buyers and if you need more speed then you can also go for MLC 2.5 inch SSD. If you don’t wanna to give your laptop’s hard disk drive then using mSATA SSD in your mini PCIe slot is the great option what you can still choose to do in your laptop and if you are hungry for performance then using NVMe M.2 SSD is the best what your laptop can get these days and it will definitely gonna fulfill all your performance needs but the main thing is that it requires free M.2 slot which actually isn’t famous in all laptops motherboard but you can check your laptops specification to check did your laptop have one or not.
So, I did my best and it’s all upon you to buy whatever the type of product you want for your laptop or desktop PC.
