Chris Szewczyk, Socket man
This week I’ve been principally taking part in No Man’s Sky.
When it first launched I cherished the sport’s ambiance. It actually felt such as you have been alone on some bleak planet. It nonetheless appears like that, however now there’s a lot extra to do! Full credit score to Hi there Video games for persevering with to carry updates through the years.
This month I’ve been principally testing a little bit of all the things! There’s the same old stuff, like a Thermaltake case, and re-benchmarking some older gen GPUs. However there’s some barely uncommon issues too, like G.Ability 24GB RAM sticks and liquid SSD cooling. Yep, AIO cooling to your SSD. Bizzarro.
As one in all PC Gamer’s {hardware} writers and reviewers, I deal with a whole lot of totally different PC elements. However there’s one half particularly that manages to irk me each time I exploit one. I am referring to M.2 SSDs. Actually, I hate them. They’ve so many pointless drawbacks. I will admit the shape issue is effectively suited to laptops, however for a desktop PC? Nope.
What’s actually irritating is that there is a ready-made various with all of M.2’s benefits, and primarily none of its drawbacks. It is known as U.2 (With U.3 ready within the wings). Sadly, regardless of fleeting inclusions on some boards a few generations in the past, U.2 by no means caught on within the shopper house. And I would like it again.
When the primary SSDs launched, it grew to become obvious that the ageing SATA and mSATA interfaces have been inadequate to deal with the growing speeds of those flashy new flash drives. A brand new commonplace was required. NVM Specific was developed particularly for non-volatile reminiscence (NVM), however NVMe is not a connector, it is a specification or protocol. NVMe gadgets are available in quite a lot of kind components with totally different connections. These embody PCI Specific add-in playing cards or they’ve SATA Specific, M.2, or U.2 connectors.
SATA Specific by no means caught on. Some high-end Intel Z97 and X99 motherboards got here with SATA Specific ports however I by no means examined every person help disappeared after a short while.
U.2—my champion—briefly made appearances on some high-end shopper motherboards just a few years in the past, however it’s all the time been extra of an enterprise-oriented answer. It lives on, and lots of workstation motherboards nonetheless embody U.2 ports.
M.2’s elevation
For some bono-headed cause, anyone determined that attaching an SSD on to the motherboard was the most effective path ahead. M.2 quickly grew to become essentially the most broadly adopted connection and to at the present time, nearly each performance-based shopper SSD is a 2280 kind issue NVMe M.2 drive.
So, why do I feel M.2 SSDs suck? The place do I start? A typical 2280 measurement drive is simply too small, each bodily and capability sensible. They run sizzling and are susceptible to throttling. They typically sit proper subsequent to (if indirectly beneath) a warmth dumping graphics card. Coincidentally, this week I reviewed a Teamgroup Siren Duo360 AIO cooler (opens in new tab) which additionally comes with an built-in SSD water block. Sadly, it highlights a rising drawback with SSDs. The truth that PCIe 5.0 SSDs require chunky motherboard mounted heatsinks, not to mention water cooling, is a reasonably unhappy state of affairs.
PCIe 4.0 and significantly PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots add complexity to motherboards making them costlier. They take up a whole lot of PCB house. They’re troublesome and fiddly to put in, generally requiring the removing of the GPU and the removing of a half dozen tiny screws—which I too typically drop and lose to the seventh circle of case hell. Then you have to put all of it again collectively, and hope {that a} weak, flimsy, or crumbling thermal pad aligns and the drive is definitely securely fitted within the M.2 slot. There is a handful of causes to begin with.
Why U.2 rocks
U.2 drives get rid of all of those issues whereas holding all the advantages. A U.2 drive can kind of be thought of a modernized 2.5-inch SATA drive with help for an NVMe PCIe connection. In my view, they’re superior to M.2 drives in mainly each means. Right here’s why:
A U.2 drive might be remoted from different warmth producing parts, significantly the graphics card. A bodily separate drive is simpler to chill. Most PC instances retain 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drive bays, and plonking three or 4 U.2 drives into an area cooled by a 120mm consumption fan will hold them cool always. That’ll forestall them from throttling, resulting in an extended life and therefore hold your information safer. The latter level can typically be missed.
A 2.5-inch kind issue drive can simply incorporate a large heatsink, both internally or kind a part of the drive’s housing (as seen in instance above). On prime of that, SSD producers aren’t restricted by the M.2 2280 kind issue PCB. Which means there’s extra PCB house accessible for extra dies and bigger capacities, or bodily bigger controllers with improved warmth dissipation properties. They may even use cheaper manufacturing nodes.
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And naturally, eliminating a bunch of M.2 slots frees up motherboard PCB house and removes the necessity to cowl half the motherboard with slabs of steel to maintain the drives cool.
It is simpler to route indicators from stacked connectors fairly than have electrically delicate traces operating each which means throughout the motherboard. I am sure {that a} motherboard with one M.2 slot and 4 stacked U.2 ports can be cheaper to fabricate. Is it any marvel {that a} high-end motherboard can price effectively over $500?
A lesser identified however necessary reality is that U.2 drives use 12V energy, whereas M.2 makes use of 3.3V solely. There’s some trade momentum in the direction of shifting PCs to 12V solely designs. Intel launched the ATX12VO commonplace in 2019 however it hasn’t caught on. A 12V solely PC is extra environment friendly, easier in design, and hopefully cheaper to fabricate. There’s one other level in U.2’s favor.
A 2.5-inch U.2 SSD is simple to put in and it is sizzling swappable. It may be put in in one of many million instances with toolless 2.5-inch drive bays. Plug the cable and energy connector in and also you’re good to go. Maybe some tiny techniques can be deprived, however it’s not like a 2.5-inch drive bay or three requires a monster sized case. Solely the smallest NUC kind techniques can be deprived, they usually’re extra probably to make use of customized motherboards and will nonetheless embody M.2 slots anyway.
Are there drawbacks to utilizing U.2 over M.2? Effectively, it’s good to use a cable to attach them. Some would say that M.2 drives are a extra elegant answer. No cables means a cleaner construct. However do I care about seeing an inch of cable protruding the facet of my motherboard earlier than it disappears by way of a gap and out of sight? Not. One. Bit. Somebody may make an RGB U.2 cable.
Oh, I can’t imagine I went there.
Sorry, however I can not fall in love with M.2 SSDs. They’re small, fiddly, sizzling, harder to put in, add price and complexity to motherboards they usually’re capability restricted. U.2 addresses all of those weaknesses at the price of requiring just a little extra case house and the usage of cables. Large deal. These are trade-offs I am greater than keen to just accept.
U.2 drives clearly have the sting. Give me the choice and I’ll comply with. However, no matter occurs, with or with out you, the insatiable need for quick flash storage is not going to go away. I simply hope that the long run is not all lemon M.2 drives. If U.2 makes a comeback, it’s going to be a fantastic day.