More information about Hiksemi M.2 SATA & PCIe SSD

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M.2 SSD

M.2 is now supported by various motherboards. These SSDs are capable of much faster speeds than SATA3. It must be noted that M.2 that have been designed for SATA3 will not be faster than a normal SATA3 SSD on a SATA3 cable.

M.2 is not hot-pluggable and the system must be completely off before attempting removing the M.2 module.

A M.2 socket 2 type id required to use SSD as caching and a M.2 socket 3 type id required for full SSD usage.

M.2 speeds

M.2 connect through the PCIE3.0 x4 are capable of speeds of up to 32Gb/s / 4GB/s  (theoretically but 3.9GB/s in real world) whereas SATA3 is limited to 6Gb/s / 750MB/s (theoretically but 600GB/s in real-world)

To take advantage of these enhanced speeds, check the specifications of the M.2 before buying, and check where your motherboard does in fact support the M.2 and those speeds.

M.2 sizes - 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280, 22110

Check the correct size for your motherboard as these cards come in many sizes.

There are many different M.2 module sizes because of the different types of M.2 cards ranging from SSDs to Wide-Area Network (WAN) cards.

For SSD-based M.2 modules, the most commonly occurring sizes are 22mm wide x30mm long, 22mm x 42mm, 22mm x 60mm, 22mm x 80mm and 22mm x 110mm. The cards will be called after their dimensions above: The first 2 digits define Width (all 22mm) and the remaining digits define Length from 30mm up to 110mm long. So, the M.2 SSDs are specified as 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280 and 22110.

PCIe lanes - purchasing a PCIe x4 M.2 for a M.2 motherboard

The PCIe M.2 SSD would only be able to operate at PCIe x2 (2-lane functionality) speeds within that motherboard. If you purchase a motherboard that supports PCIe x4 speeds, your x4-capable M.2 SSD should work as expected within that environment. In addition, there are PCIe limitations on system boards where the total number of PCIe lanes could be exceeded, limiting the PCIe M.2 x4 SSD to either have 2 lanes or even none.

M.2 Keys

M.2 SSD is keyed. These are nothches that determines if the SSD will fit into a socket and prevents incorrect installation of modules.

Specifically for M.2 SSDs, there are 3 commonly used keys:

• B
• M
• B+M (so both keys are on the M.2 SSD)

• Socket 1 is designed for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, NFC and WI Gig
• Socket 2 is designed for WWAN, SSD (caching), and GNSS
• Socket 3 is designed for SSDs (both SATA and PCIe, up to x4 performance)