Drive Buying Guide
Drive Buying Guide
Things to Consider
- Form factor - The size of a drive (ie: 2.5" laptop drive, 3.5" desktop drive, M.2 SSD)
- Interface - the connecting part between a drive and the computer
- Performance - how fast data can be transferred
- Capacity - how much storage a drive has and the amount of data needed
- Longevity - how long a drive is expected to last
- Pricing - what price point makes sense for the application needed
- Manufacturer reliability - manufacturer's failure rate and warranty
Types of Hard Drives
- SATA Drives
- 2.5” HD SATA
- 3.5” HD SATA
- 2.5 SSD SATA
- M.2 SATA
- mSATA
- 1.8” Micro SATA
- SSHD – SATA/SSD Hybrid Drives
- 2.5” & 3.5”
- 2.5” & 3.5”
- M.2 NVME
- SFF8784
Interface
- SATA / IDE-PATA
- Form Factor
- 2.5” / 3.5” / 1.8”
- Height
- Laptop Drives
- 7mm / 9mm / 12.5mm / 15mm /17mm / 19mm
- Desktop Drives
- 1” / ¾”
- Speed
- 7200rpm
- 5900rpm
- 5400rpm
- 10k rpm
- Cache buffer
- 2MB / 8MB / 16MB / 32MB / 64MB / 128MB / 256MB
- Transfer Rate
- SATA I Generation – 1.5Gb/s
- SATA II Generation – 3.0Gb/s
- SATA III Generation – 6.0Gb/s
- Laptop Drives
Types of Solid State Drives
- 2.5” SSD
- M.2 SSD
- M.2 NVME SSD
- Form Factor
- 2.5 SSD – height 7mm / 6.8mm / 5mm
- M.2 SSD – length 2280 / 2260 / 2242 / 2230 / 2210
- M.2 Interface
- SATA – 6Gb/s
- PCIe
- PCIe NVME
- PCIe Generation
- PCIe – 2 X 2
- PCIe - 2 X 4
- PCIe - 3 X 4
- PCIe – 4 X 4
- PCIe Generation
- M.2 Key
SATA – B & M Key
PCIe NVME Key – M or B/M
Solid State Drive Specifications
- Endurance
- Workload Capability
- Longevity
- NAND – Type / Manufacturer