the neccessary socket (m.2 2880 / NGFF) ,
It having an M.2 2880 / NGFF socket does not guarantee that it will support M.2 NVMe SSDs, though. The "2880" is just the size of the PCB, 28mm × 80mm, so if the M.2 socket only supports "B Key", then you will still be stuck on M.2 SATA, which is typically not much faster than 500MB/s, albeit an M.2 SATA SSD that can max out the speed of the SATA interface both in terms of sustained (sequential) read speed and in terms of sustained (sequential) write speed is dirt cheap now. So if, for example, you have an older laptop with both a traditional 2.5 inch HDD and a small capacity (e.g., 128GB / 256 GB) M.2 SATA SSD, then it might still be worth considering to upgrade this SSD to a bigger capacity one (e.g., 512GB / 1TB) so that more programs and/or user data can then be moved from HDD to SSD. That is, if we can assume that the relatively much slower speed of the HDD is the real bottleneck to these programs and/or user data. Which isn't necessarily always the case, as this not only depends on the size of the specific part of the data that will be used by the specific task in question, but also it depends on
how this data will be used, just like it also depends on other performance related factors, like CPU speed and/or RAM size, for example.
For normal playback of video files you don't necessarily need to use your SSD. But the background noise from a typical 7200rpm desktop HDD (and some noisy 2.5 inch HDDs) may be a reason for doing it anyway. Laptop users with both an SSD and a HDD can also save on battery power if they can force the HDD to sleep, i.e. when only infrequently used programs and/or user data are placed on the HDD. The bottom line is, the total size of storage capacity of the SSD can have a bigger impact on performance, and on various performance related factors, than the actual
speed of the SSD. It all heavily depends on what exactly it is that is holding performance back, under what set of circumstances. If all you do is surf the web and read a few e-mails, it could also be that it isn't held back in any way that can be noticed. Unless money is no object, resource monitoring, chekcing the system requirements, analyzing/looking at specs versus prices
and looking at what you already have before deciding if/when/how to upgrade should always be the first logical step.
That being said, to be able to use an M.2 NVMe SSD, you need the specific type of M.2 socket that either supports "M Key" or supports "M+B Key", the latter is compatible with
both M.2 SATA
and M.2 NVMe. But motherboards that can only support M.2 SATA (i.e. instead of support M.2 NVMe or support both) are getting quite old anyway.
you will be limited to the speed of the PCI-E interface itself.
This still also applies to modern desktop motherboards and laptops, as a lot of them don't have PCIe Gen 4×4. My laptop doesn't, even though it uses an 11th Gen Intel CPU. But I went for the Samsung 980 Pro upgrade anyway, as it wasn't that much more expensive than the 870 Evo, and, even though it is held back to ~3,500MB/s by my laptop's PCIe bus, the 980 Pro still offers better write speed and runs at a slightly cooler temp.
