Everywhere we do not stop reading that buying a solid state drive is a much better option than a hard drive in terms of performance, which is true, however, there is a type of drive that in the short term could become extinct and disappear from the world. Map. We are talking about the SATA SSD 2.5-inch form factor. A piece of hardware that in a few years you will no longer see in stores.
In the world of hardware we have been able to see how many peripherals and components have appeared and disappeared over time. Mostly due to the fact that they have been replaced by devices that perform the same function more efficiently. An important case has been that of the M.2 form factor SSDs, which have completely replaced the 2.5-inch form factor. Not surprisingly, there are few laptops that come with a slot for this type of unit, which in most cases is not even used.
Why will the SATA SSD disappear?
We don’t want to call bad weather, but things are as they are, but we have to give arguments for it.
- They take up more space on the laptop motherboard than an M.2 SSD.
- Its bandwidth is lower, 6 Gbps, which is the limit of the SATA port, look at the lowercase b, which means that it can transmit 10 times less data in the same period of time than one with a PCIe interface.
- Storage is no cheaper on a SATA SSD than it is on an M.2. The memory chips are the same, what changes is the interface.
- No application makes use of the capabilities of a SATA SSD, on the other hand, with DirectStorage we will see how M.2 SSDs can be used in games and multimedia creation applications.
- All current laptops have a replaceable M.2 drive and an extra slot of the same type. The same can be said for motherboards.
Although for old laptops replacing the DVD reader or hard drive with a SATA SSD is a good idea to improve their performance, little by little there will be fewer laptops that can mount them. In the end they will be a niche component located between two worlds. Not fast enough and not with enough storage capacity. Players of everything, masters of nothing.
It is a standard that stopped evolving
The controller for a SATA SSD does not require a lot of power to transmit data from the drive to RAM. It is special if we take into account that one of an NVMe is going to manage several between 4 and 20 times more data in the same period of time. Therefore, despite the annual launch of models with more capacity, its technology is stagnant.
As if that were not enough, USB 3.1 drives and above have already exceeded them in bandwidth for a long time and can be used on any system. Not surprisingly, SATA SSDs will soon be replaced by USB SSDs, with the same performance and much more in line with people’s needs.
