Solid State Drives

Available in 1.9TB, 2TB, 4TB and 5TB capacities these SATA III 6Gb/s SSDs may no longer be the fastest around thanks to emerging PCIe SSDs, but they're the most cost-effective and are still easily fast enough for most users. You'll need a spare SATA 6Gb/s port to get the most from them, and a 2.5" capable drive bay - an adaptor may need to be bought, but most cases have at least one. These drives are the highest capacity ones available, suitable for holding an operating system, as well as numerous programs and a healthy collection of media and games.

M.2 replaced the older mSATA standard. Available in 120, 128, 240, 256, 480, 500 and 512GB sizes the M.2 SSD connects to your device via an M.2 socket using the newer PCI Express NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) controller variant designed to fully utilise the capability of high-speed PCI Express storage devices to perform many I/O (in/out) operations in parallel. These SSD's can achieve read speeds in excess of 3000MB/s and write speeds over 2000MB/s making them the fastest available.

M.2 replaced the older mSATA standard. Available in 960GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB & 8TB sizes the M.2 SSD Connects to your device via an M.2 Socket using the newer PCI Express NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) controller variant designed to fully utilize the capability of high-speed PCI Express storage devices to perform many I/O (in/out) operations in parallel. These SSD's can achieve Read speeds in Excess of 3000MB/s and Write speeds over 2000MB/s making them the fastest available.

While the M.2 connector can be used for PCIe SSDs, the ones here are SATA 6Gb/s only, so the benefits over standard 2.5" SATA drives are to do with space-saving, not speed. Available in 120, 240, 256, 480, 500 and 512GB sizes they're perfect for small form factor systems and laptops, but make sure your M.2 slot works with SATA devices, and that it supports the SSD's size, both in length (2280 means 80mm long) and thickness.

While the M.2 connector can be used for PCIe SSDs, the ones here are SATA 6Gb/s only, so the benefits over standard 2.5" SATA drives are to do with space-saving, not speed. Available in 1TB and 2TB sizes they're perfect for small form factor systems and laptops, but make sure your M.2 slot works with SATA devices, and that it supports the SSD's size, both in length (2280 means 80mm long) and thickness.

The current pinnacle of SSD performance, PCIe SSDs are capable of reaching far greater speeds than the SATA SSDs limited to 6Gb/s. These particular SSDs are of the HHHL (Half Height Half Length)/ FHHL (Full Height Half Length) AIC (Add In Card) Form Factor, slotting into an available PCIe Slot on your motherboard in the same way as you would with a graphics card or other expansion card. Offering capacities of 240, 400, 480, 960, 800GB, 1.2TB, & now even a mind-blowing 1.6 Terabytes, with the higher bandwidth provided by the PCIe Interface, these models feature much higher speeds than other Solid State Drives. Although these SSDs come as a single-slot PCIe expansion card, they are aimed at larger high-end desktop PCs, so ensure your motherboard has an appropriately sized slot spare with the Correct PCIe Bridge and Port Version to get optimum performance.

External SSDs are ideal for users looking for lightweight, portable and speedy storage. Their pocket-friendly enclosures are significantly smaller and lighter than external hard drives, and with no moving parts they're also silent, more robust and less prone to physical shock damage. They use the USB 3 interface, which is 10 times faster than and backwards compatible with USB 2.

Combining Super Speed USB 3.0 with a SATA hard drive interface results in an external hard drive with high data transfer rates. A 1.8" to 2.5" internal SATA hard drive fits into these enclosures. Power to these enclosures are either via the USB 3.0 connection or a separate power lead, check specifications of the individual product to confirm.
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M.2 SSDs are compact small form drives that connect directly to a slot on the motherboard. Their small dimensions makes them an ideal choice for a boot drive, leaving the 2.5in or 3.5in bays on the front of your server free for bulk storage drives.

Maximise the performance of your HDD or SSD. Coolers allow you to keep high performance SSDs or HDDs operating at their best.

Here you will find various adaptors and other miscellaneous equipment for internal hard-drives to help adapt them to your requirements.