M2 SSD vs SATA SSD on Z170 chipset? Any benefits going M2?

[malice19]

Hi

I am looking at building my new skylake gaming rig soon and one of the things im buying is a larger SSD but as my new motherboard has M2 on it would i see any faster speeds or benerfits by buying a M2 SSD over just getting another SATA SSD?

Thanks for your help.

[R9 295X2]

M.2 SSDs are generally a lot faster than SATA III ones. But they come at a higher cost. The cost to performance isnt awful as most ones ive seen can do 2000-2500MBps (read) which is a huge leap over 500MBps SATA ones. A good example is the Samsung SM951, but they are getting replaced soon by 950s (if they arent out already).

If you have extra money then sure go for it as im sure you'll enjoy booting your OS up in 2 seconds

[EndlessWaves]

M.2 is a form factor that takes both SATA and PCI-E drives. An SATA drive in M.2 form factor is no faster than the same drive in a 2.5" or mSATA form factor.

PCI-E drives in M.2 form factor do tend to be the entry level PCI-E drives but as R9 says they can be a reasonable amount faster. It's not a big difference in practice but similar to other premium components like i7 branded CPUs.

[Blackbod]

m.2 ssds can have a 2000/2500 read write speed in megabytes if they are nvme based but if they are an m.2 version of a conventional sata 3 ssd then they will have a conventional sata 3 speed