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everybody's heard of m.2 ssds these

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little tiny doodads that manage to be many times smaller and many times faster

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than traditional computer hard drives or even regular SATA ssds but there is

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understandably a ton of confusion that exists around how to choose one and

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install it in your existing system so let's figure that out shall we

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if you haven't seen nerd Sports yet check it out all the episodes are

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available now for free over at youtube.com/ channelsuperfun

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before we get started though we need to differentiate between physical standards

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and protocol standards this right here

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is a mini DisplayPort cable and this right here is a Thunderbolt cable but

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they look the same this USB type-c port is running at

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USB 2.0 speeds this one is USB 3 which

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can be 10 or even 20 times the speed and

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this one is Thunderbolt 3 which is

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faster still and comes with a host of

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other capabilities so backing up then

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because most cables are just a physical

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electrically conductive wire connecting point A to point B nothing would prevent

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a you know piece of cod hanger from connecting between a receiver and a home

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theater speaker or let's say an Ethernet

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cable from being used to carry an HDMI

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digital video signal in fact that product exists okay but back to computer

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drives again m.2 is one of several

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physical connector standards that allows an SSD to be attached

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internally to your computer this motherboard right here conveniently

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gives us a great example of all of them

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so what you're looking at right now is SATA or Serial ATA this connector

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suffers from more latency because of its indirect connection to the

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CPU right here is the basically dead

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SATA Express standard that uses two PCI

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E Lanes which are better because they're connected more directly to the CPU but

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has a very bulky connector and no drive

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support to speak of this one right here

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is u.2 which uses four PCI El Lanes

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twice as many as SATA Express but has all but disappeared outside the

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Enterprise space and finally this one

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right here is m.2 which has basically

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one out versus the other NextGen connectors at this point thanks to its

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performance it also uses a maximum of four PCI Lanes as well as its compact

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form factor that allows it to be used not just for desktops but also for ultra

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thin notebooks but and getting back to

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the whole lesson on protocol versus physical standards most of these

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physical connections support multiple

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protocols that is to say more than one way for the computer to communicate with

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the drive's controller over the physical wires and if you aren't using an NVMe

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protocol Drive in your m.2 slot you

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might not be getting the full experience so if your computer has a PCIe m.2 slot

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and you can see the difference here between an NVMe capable one and an ahci

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only one here they're usually labeled then it's simple you just plug it in

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maybe configure a couple settings in the BIOS and poof it's Off to the

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Races but then what if you don't have a

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PCI Express m.2 slot on your motherboard okay well step one make sure you don't

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have one some motherboards even hide

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this connector on the back and it's small enough that it can be pretty easy

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to miss then step two ensure that your

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motherboard actually supports booting to

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an NVMe Drive in general anything z97 or

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x99 chipset and newer will have that

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support and if it does and you still want to use a drive then you want to

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pick up one of these little guys these

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cards plug into a PCI E slot on your motherboard just like a video card sound

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card Etc consult your motherboard's manual to find out how many lanes each

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slot has and what speeds they operate at

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more is better and I've got a couple different versions here Silverstone has

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an NVMe only one and one that supports

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both an NVMe and ahci remember that's

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the same protocol as SATA over a slightly different m.2 connector that

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are reasonably priced then there are more premium options like the wings from

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angelbird that looks a little cooler and includes a thermal shield and pad to

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keep the drive from overheating we're going to use this sp500 fisen controller

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based NVMe SSD from Corsair for our demo

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here once everything is hooked up you can move the mounting screw around

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depending on the length of your NVMe drive and then you just need to make

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sure you're running the latest ufi BIOS on your board and go through the same

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steps as our previous board that supported it natively going back further

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than the last couple generations of boards things get a little dicey

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theoretically all the way back to p67 days you can install an NVMe SSD in one

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of these PCI Express cards just like this but you won't get the full benefit

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unless it's a newer one because you won't actually be able to boot from the

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drive and right now NVMe drives are a little bit too expensive for most people

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to want to use them as a steam library

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and there is yet another wrench to throw

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in the spokes of this whole ordeal while

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the connector on the motherboard may be

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capable of both NVMe and ahci operation

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I'm not aware of any NVMe m.2 drives

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that will work across either protocol so

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if you have an NVMe board you want to get an mvme drive or maybe you could run

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an ahci one and if you have an ahci only

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m.2 slot then you will need an ahci so

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more protocol overhead SSD just like

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this one and don't expect to get Earth shattering performance out of it we are

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working with rockat look at that it's like a spin move or whatever to give

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away their cross headsets designed for

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multiplatform multi-use multi-purpose use on

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multi-platforms some of its features include include large 50mm neodymium

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magnet drivers it comes with dual microphones one designated for PC and

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one designated for mobile the mics are detachable and plug into a port on the

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underside of the left ear cup and they've got quick access volume controls

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memory foam ear pads a light 185 G

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profile and to enter all you need to do is watch this video and enter through

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the link in the video description the giveaway will run for 7 days from today

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7 days so move fast so I hope that

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clears things up and you guys have a better understanding of m.2 now I sure

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do cuz I had to do all this research to make this

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video so thanks for watching guys if you disliked this video hit that dislike

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button but if you liked it hit the like button get subscribed maybe even

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consider checking out where to buy the drives or accessories we featured at

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Amazon at the link in the video description also down there is our merch

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store where you can buy cool shirts like this one wo like that or our community

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form which you should totally join now that you're done doing all those things you're probably wondering what to watch

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next so check out our latest video right there over on Channel Super Fun I think

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it's like RC car bowling or some nonsense like that pretty fun