SSD options- PCIe vs NVMe vs USB

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rizzo183

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I want to add an SSD drive to my laptop. I'm guessing PCIe and NVMe are both internally connected, depending on what my computer allows. Whereas USB ones are external.

Apart from that and portability issues, what other differences are there? Is the external one slower than the internal ones? Can I match the r/w speeds if I get one that's USB3 compatible?

My laptop is a Dell XPS 15 9560
 
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atljsf
intenral hard disk and internal drives in general are meant to install and use apps, games, programs in general

external storage devices are menato to store files, movies, music, project folders, stuff like that

when you install a program on a external drive and you add other external devices, the letter can change and most installed programs will end up asking you to reinstall, all the time, if they even let you install on those external drives

as you mentioned, your best bet is remove the 32 gb ssd if it is removable, put a 240 or a 480 gbs ssd and then add a 2 or 4 tb hard disk instead the 1 tb hard disk you mention you have there

if you want faster speeds, then remove the ssd and install another hard disk there, set a nvme or a...
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jty0yt

jty0yt

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nVME doesnt correspond to the way it connects to your PC. You have four options, SATA, PCI-E, M.2 and USB.
PCI-E is the best but most expensive
M.2 is a great middle ground, up to 10gb/s and not too expensive.
SATA is up to 6 gb/s and is the cheapest.
USB is the slowest and will depend on what you're using, if it's USB 2 or 3 or 3.1.
 
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atljsf

atljsf

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the ssd will work as a internal hard disk

the same as the pcie and nvme

those are recogniced as hard disk inside the pc and are candidates to be used to install windows on them

the usb is a external unit, it will bot be usable for that same purpose withput some modifications and problems will arise

also, the usb device will be limited in terms of speed

right now, a usb flas drive can reach around 80m egabytes per second, a cheap decend ssd can reach easily 400megabytes per second

the other options can reach at least 1500 megabytes per second

the last options, on a laptop, are not always available, they depend on the existance of a slot in the laptop, so you can install them, if you don't have those connectors, they will not be a viable option for your laptop

your best bet now is to get a ssd, 240 gbs in size, bigger the better, and if you need fast external storage, get a good external hard disk and plug it when required

a last option is remove the optical drive and connect a hard disk drive bay in the space it leave behind, but if your laptop doesn't have one of those, it is not a option then

what laptop do you have ther? perhaps we can talk in terms of specific parts you can get or not

if your laptop is really a ultrabook, there is the chance you can't even change the hard disk, some comes with a soldered on board ssd
 
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rizzo183

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Yeah I've been looking around and PCIe ones are damn expensive. So assuming I'm using a USB 3.0 can you give me a comparison of speeds (USB 3.0 vs PCIe)? How bad is the trade-off?
 
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rizzo183

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It's a Dell XPS 15 9560. So storage modification will be pretty easy. I can swap out both the 1TB HDD and the 32GB SSD. It's got an array of ports on the outside too, including a USB-C thuderbolt one.

 
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atljsf

atljsf

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usb 3 can reach maximum in the best case, can reach 500 megabytes per second

that is with a ssd in a usb 3 case, and it has to be a really good ssd

a usb flashdrive, the best one, maximu, 400 megabytes per second

the best pci express, will reach iirc 2100 to 2500 megabytes per second

keep in mind that for most situations you only need around 200 megabytes per second to get a good experience using the pc

also that recent hard disk reaching around 100 - 150 megabytes per second will give you a quite decent experience using a laptop
 
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rizzo183

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Ah I guess USB is gonna be pretty useless for me then.
 
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atljsf

atljsf

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intenral hard disk and internal drives in general are meant to install and use apps, games, programs in general

external storage devices are menato to store files, movies, music, project folders, stuff like that

when you install a program on a external drive and you add other external devices, the letter can change and most installed programs will end up asking you to reinstall, all the time, if they even let you install on those external drives

as you mentioned, your best bet is remove the 32 gb ssd if it is removable, put a 240 or a 480 gbs ssd and then add a 2 or 4 tb hard disk instead the 1 tb hard disk you mention you have there

if you want faster speeds, then remove the ssd and install another hard disk there, set a nvme or a pci as your boot device with all your programs, there won't be much speed improvements in terms of boot speeds and loat times, you will be limited by the cpu and ram of the machine
 
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