I have been waiting for it to go the way of sata express but it keeps appearing on new boards.
NVME has 3 ways to be used.
PCI Express ports.
U.2
M.2
Out of the three M.2 is the worst as it requires the drive to be attached in what is usually an awkward spot on the board, manufacturers are struggling to find locations to place these ports with often one in a horrible location above the GPU. Drives also tend to be prone to overheating with this method.
U.2, uses cables like sata which would mean drives can utilise drive bays and this is my second preferred solution.
PCI Express utilises a tech thats already deployed on board the PCI Express sockets, on consumer boards these are typically under utilised with most people only having a GPU and nothing else, some may also have a soundcard. This solution is still a lot more convenient than M.2, and also has the benefit lanes dont need to be diverted/shared from other components. e.g. on many boards if you use M.2 then you lose the use of some SATA ports. This is my preferred solution because of the lane issue.
The only reason I think M.2 is been taken up by the consumer board vendors is pressure from drive manufacturers so that they dont have to make U.2 or PCIE consumer drives which would potentially decimate enterprise drive sales in same format.
Thoughts?
NVME has 3 ways to be used.
PCI Express ports.
U.2
M.2
Out of the three M.2 is the worst as it requires the drive to be attached in what is usually an awkward spot on the board, manufacturers are struggling to find locations to place these ports with often one in a horrible location above the GPU. Drives also tend to be prone to overheating with this method.
U.2, uses cables like sata which would mean drives can utilise drive bays and this is my second preferred solution.
PCI Express utilises a tech thats already deployed on board the PCI Express sockets, on consumer boards these are typically under utilised with most people only having a GPU and nothing else, some may also have a soundcard. This solution is still a lot more convenient than M.2, and also has the benefit lanes dont need to be diverted/shared from other components. e.g. on many boards if you use M.2 then you lose the use of some SATA ports. This is my preferred solution because of the lane issue.
The only reason I think M.2 is been taken up by the consumer board vendors is pressure from drive manufacturers so that they dont have to make U.2 or PCIE consumer drives which would potentially decimate enterprise drive sales in same format.
Thoughts?
