I kind of agree with this article! (Not a question)

BrianInEngland · Aug 16, 2023

M.2 drives - very fast but inconvenient when needing to remove/replace as normally removing the GPU is required. Also get warm when GPU is in use.
SATA SSDs - fast-ish but sooooo easy to remove.

I have three M.2 drives in my board but recently put a 4TB Samsung SSD in. If I never need to take my PC to the shop I just unplug the drive, all my personal files are on it so no one in the shop can access anything.

You know M.2 SSDs suck, right?

U.2 has The Edge.

www.pcgamer.com

Ghot · Aug 16, 2023

My mobo has 2x M.2 and 1x U.2
I don't use any of them.

cereberus · Aug 16, 2023

Ghot said:
My mobo has 2x M.2 and 1x U.2
I don't use any of them.

Wrong emoji. Here is correct one

.

BrianInEngland · Aug 16, 2023

Ghot said:
My mobo has 2x M.2 and 1x U.2
I don't use any of them.

I've never seen an actual board with a U.2 slot

Flashorn · Aug 16, 2023

BrianInEngland said:
I've never seen an actual board with a U.2 slot

iko22 · Aug 16, 2023

BrianInEngland said:
I've never seen an actual board with a U.2 slot

The Asrock Taichi series used to support U.2 interface. If your mobo doesn't support U.2 and you would like one, how about a M.2 to U.2 converter kit?

ASRock > U.2 Kit

By the looks of the spec, the U.2 interface is only supported on Pcie 3 buses. That could be a limitation of the card rather than the standard.

Ghot · Aug 16, 2023

BrianInEngland said:
I've never seen an actual board with a U.2 slot

Looks like it may be time to... dust. Or plant potatoes.

These new fangled smart phone cameras show... everything. LOL

Yes, that's a full size ATX motherboard. It's just a really big case. (22" x 24" x 10")

Ghot · Aug 16, 2023

Well, it took a compressor and about 40 minutes, but it's "feeling much better now".

The dust on the floor, after I blew it all out... made little sand dunes, there was so much of it.

It's about 3C cooler than before I dusted.

pparks1 · Aug 16, 2023

I love my M.2 drives for their speed and the simple fact that I don't have to cable manage a power cable or data cable to the drive. Even more lovely when I use fully modular power supplies and don't have to have more of a rats nest of cables coming out of the PSU.

I dislike the fact that M2's, are always a bummer to get to. On my particular board (Rog Strix X570-E Gaming), I have to not only remove the GPU, but I have to remove the chipset shroud on the mobo to get out the drives. Back when I used 2.5" SSD's and 3.5" HDD's, it wasn't uncommon for me to have 2-3 drives in a PC, each with a different OS or substantial config change for testing. I would just unplug the power and data cable from one, and plug it into the other one and be off to my tests. Made it super easy to go from one system to the other, with absolutely no concern for the ability to screw up the drive which was unplugged. This isn't feasible anymore with using the M.2 slots.

Ghot · Aug 16, 2023

pparks1 said:
I dislike the fact that M2's, are always a bummer to get to

Yeah, that's the part I love about SATA drives. Easy to get to.
If the common M.2 drives were like vid cards or sound cards, then I might be tempted.

I think there comes a point when always making stuff smaller.. gets a bit ridiculous.
It's like the difference between working on a modern Toyota and working on a 1970 Ford.
I'll go for the 1970 Ford (if I have to work on it), any day.

Now when they get to the point where they have credit card size computers that can play triple A games at huge resolutions... then that will be worth something. Until then, I'm happy with the desktop form factor.

Flashorn · Aug 16, 2023

pparks1 said:
I dislike the fact that M2's, are always a bummer to get to

Just a thought here. Could there be an adapter to relocate the drives so you don't have to
remove all that equipment that's in the way?

Ghot · Aug 16, 2023

Flashorn said:
Just a thought here. Could there be an adapter to relocate the drives so you don't have to
remove all that equipment that's in the way?

Yeah there are. But there's no need.
Motherboard manufacturers could just make an M.2 backplane.
However it connects to the motherboard... it would just have sockets for M.2 SSDs.

They could them anywhere, except... on the motherboard.

Flashorn · Aug 16, 2023

Ghot said:
They could them anywhere, except... on the motherboard.

That was my thought. Like SSDs that can be mounted on the back of the case.

Scannerman · Aug 16, 2023

Ghot said:
Well, it took a compressor and about 40 minutes, but it's "feeling much better now".
The dust on the floor, after I blew it all out... made little sand dunes, there was so much of it.

View attachment 67990

It's about 3C cooler than before I dusted.

View attachment 67993

This old unit handles M.2, U.2, and NVMe just fine. I really don't know what the benefit of standard M.2 is over standard SATA SSDs. That's why I removed my M.2. SATA is so much easier to remove and install. You can use cards to plug it into PCIe like a sound card or GFX card but it will result in slower performance if you use these cards to extend your NVMe. (It could also cost you a couple of SATA ports.)

Scannerman · Aug 16, 2023

Flashorn said:
Just a thought here. Could there be an adapter to relocate the drives so you don't have to
remove all that equipment that's in the way?

Yup. Cheap too.

https://www.amazon.ca/Valuegist-Adapter-Controller-Expansion-MKeyBkey/dp/B08M3VTY6D/ref=sr_1_7?crid=1DTAI5CGF0SKH&keywords=m.2%2Bsata%2Bexpansion%2Bcard&qid=1692224309&sprefix=m.2%2Bexpan%2Caps%2C196&sr=8-7&th=1

Scannerman · Aug 16, 2023

Ghot said:
Yeah, that's the part I love about SATA drives. Easy to get to.
If the common M.2 drives were like vid cards or sound cards, then I might be tempted.

I think there comes a point when always making stuff smaller.. gets a bit ridiculous.
It's like the difference between working on a modern Toyota and working on a 1970 Ford.
I'll go for the 1970 Ford (if I have to work on it), any day.

Now when they get to the point where they have credit card size computers that can play triple A games at huge resolutions... then that will be worth something. Until then, I'm happy with the desktop form factor.

At the rate they're going PC builders are going to need to invest in microscopes if they want to DIY.
I agree 100%. Components should be scaled to human hand access. But you see the powers that should not be don't want that. No, they want computers to build computers to keep us all at the mercy of the Consortium. If it breaks just buy another prebuilt.

Ghot · Aug 16, 2023

I wouldn't let that guy in the video, anywhere near a PC.

Scannerman · Aug 16, 2023

lol I do all the time! :winkt:

MisterEd · Aug 16, 2023

BrianInEngland said:
M.2 drives - very fast but inconvenient when needing to remove/replace as normally removing the GPU is required. Also get warm when GPU is in use.
SATA SSDs - fast-ish but sooooo easy to remove.

I have three M.2 drives in my board but recently put a 4TB Samsung SSD in. If I never need to take my PC to the shop I just unplug the drive, all my personal files are on it so no one in the shop can access anything.

You know M.2 SSDs suck, right?

U.2 has The Edge.

www.pcgamer.com

To more precise M.2 drives can be either NVME or SATA. The SATA drives you refer to are 2.5-inch SATA SSDs.

I have 5 computers with SSDs:
#1 Desktop: 2 x M.2 NVME SSDs. One on motherboard connector while other on PCIe card.
#2 Desktop: 3 x 2.5-inch SATA SSDs.
#3 Desktop: 1 x 2.5-inch SATA SSD, 1 x 3.5-inch HDD
#4 Laptop: 2 x M.2 NVME SSDs
#5 Laptop: 1 x M.2 SATA SSD

For desktop I agree it it is harder to access M.2 SSDs because you have to remove the GPU. However, I find that to be a minor inconvenience. I have done it enough now it is no big deal.

For laptops it is rather easy to remove M.2 SSDs whether they are NVME or SATA. The difficulty is the same as with a 2.5-inch SATA HDD or SSD.

Regarding the article you refer to...I agree with much of what he said. As M.2 NVME SSDs get faster they run hotter. Cooling is not much of a consideration with laptops. I have 2 x M.2 NVME SSDs in one laptop. It scared me when I ran CrystalDiskMark on them because the temperatures exceeded 100C. I assume they thermo-throttled to protect them.

It is different for the 2 x M.2 NVME SSDs in my desktop. They have no cooling at all beside the air from the case fans. Their temperature stay 35-45C so I don't worry about the temperatures. No I have an NVIDIA RTX 3060-Ti GPU so that doesn't seem to affect the SSD temperatures.

I find it strange that the article author spends so much time talking about U.2. Maybe its nostalgia. As far as I know U.2 is dead with no hope for a comeback.

The way things are going M.2 NVME SSDs may totally replace all other drives in a few years. That has accelerated as they have reached price parity with both 2-5inch and M.2 SATA SSD drives. If that comes true then get used to it, You may not have a choice.

I am perplexed why you would want to remove a drive before you take the computer to a shop. If you remove the drive when it may contribute to the problem then you are not doing yourself or the tech a favor. In fact it wouldn't make any sense at all if the drive you removed was the boot drive.

Scannerman · Aug 16, 2023

Installing M.2 and M.2 NVMe drive on a system board can be a bit of a pain when the board is already populated. It's that leetle tiny set screw that freely falls off the end of the magnetic screwdriver to disappear into oblivion that gets me. With standard SATA SSDs this is not an issue. That's why I don't see any advantage with SATA powered M.2 drives. In most cases they're not even faster than regular SSDs. I suppose they might have some use in some laptops. I used to think SSDs would replace mechanical hard drives in a few years but nope... People are still buying them and they're still selling like hotcakes.

I wouldn't send a PC to a computer shop unless it was already under warranty and the shop covered it; but then I build my own computers so I'm the shop. I did send my Dell PITA touch screen back to Dell because it was under warranty and before I did that I factory reset the the drive. I didn't pay for shipping and I didn't pay for repairs. It had a battery issue. The silly thing is a dust collector.

I'm convinced that standard SSDs are still going to be around for another ten years.

I kind of agree with this article! (Not a question)

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