This channel is far better than Linus' channels. No annoying overacting just raw information. Thanks a lot for all the information.

Life is simple. You see the title in the video. No click-baits, bs music, straight up content. You hear the exact same thing. You listen to this man attentively and you’re good.

This is the best explanation of M.2 technology I’ve seen. Well done.

>I see old man explaining computers, >I sit and listen quietly

Another great video :) although I'm far from a serious "tech guy" I am doing my first PC build for electronic music / home studio production, and I'm including a Samsung 970 Evo Plus with 1TB of storage as my main boot / daily apps drive plus a 6TB Western Digital Black HDD for main storage. I know "just enough" about computers, and have been alive for enough of the home PC generation, to just.. have my jaw drop at what we're able to put into our personal computers these days and how rapidly it has all evolved. Imagine NASA of the 1960s seeing these components we have! Just think, the entire US government's best computers, backed by millions and millions of federal funding, probably had less power than a few off-the-shelf components we can all buy for under $1000 and have delivered in 24 hours by Amazon Prime - with KZfaq videos on high speed internet delivered for FREE to teach us how to put everything together. We truly live in an incredible, amazing time. Hope everyone reading this comment takes a moment to appreciate it :)

You deserve a million subs

Probably the best channel on KZfaq, clear presentation, no silly loud background music, clear graphics, accurate information.

I like the clear, rock-solid video and clear well-pronounced audio with no distractions. I subscribed. Well done!

Great video, thanks! It's worth pointing out that the normal ssd drives are mostly empty, and have the same sized chips as in the M.2 drives, it's just the form factor that is different, and they have the advantage of an extra layer of protection from dust and accidental damage. The transfer speeds for M.2 can be much faster when using PCIe over SATA, depending on motherboard support.

i did a TON of reasearch before buying an m.2 and i still learned a lot from this video! i went directly from a 7200rpm HDD to a gen 3x4 m.2 and on my first boot up it blew my effing mind! i kept hitting restart just to marvel at the speed. now i just have to wait for the tech to advance a little more so that 1TB sata SSD prices begin to dip so i can transfer all of my games and other files onto one (of course by the time i will be able to afford that the tech will be so much better and i will feel like im lagging behind again...)

I'm amazed that you actually made this video without even having a PciE device to show, and without discussing or measuring the speed differences between the two M.2 for factors! A brave man end an early adopter! Time for an update methinks.

6:13 One simple detail that you've allowed to slip on your brilliant (as usual) presentation: That motherboard allows for the installation of 2242, 2260 or 2280 drives, and that is marked on the motherboard with the digits and the screw holes for mounting. I wish you were my teacher back in the 90s when there were no computer classes in Portugal yet for my age and we used to learn by gathering all the gang together and had fun opening someone's computer, messed up with the cables and fiddled up with the motherboard jumpers, hoping to get the thing running without burning. Trial and lots of errors but a chaotic fun way to learn anyway. Now in my 40s I watch your videos and recognize a good professional when I see one. Kudos for all your lifetime work, Sir!

This is like an old BBC program.

God!!! so clean & clear ExplainingComputers. Thank you. Wish you were my maths & science teacher. So that I could have passed with better marks, which would have enable me for better job & buy a M.2 Nvme 2TB.

Probably the best explanation of M.2 SSDs. No BS. Clear, straightforward and to the point. Good quality video as well. Well done!

Powerful! Just bought a laptop with a missing M.2 and my technological expertise only goes as far as SSD. Thanks!

You're so gentle with hardware man!

Great, informative video. I did not understand that there were PCIE and SATA M.2 hard drives. I learned something new today that I'll use for a long time in the future. And as another user said, it's nice that you do a straight-forward video, no stupid music or other BS.

God, I love this channel. No bullshit, just pure information. And best of all, no annoying, shreaking and obnoxious music made by a kid with his DJ app. Sir, thank you for explaining computers :D

This is the best video explaining PC tech. Straight to the point

ExplainingComputers : Thanks Sir ! ~ For explaining M.2 compared with traditional 2.5" SATA SSDs , plus your hands on tutorial on how to install a M.2 SSD onto a motherboard PCB , for use in a Desktop / Laptop computer ! Thanks Scarboro

Fyi, M.2 ssd's of any variety tend to become quite hot during operation so you need to be careful in how you handle these devices. Specifically it is not recommended to directly touch the surface of these devices with your fingers because there are residual oils on a person's skin that can become transferred onto the integrated circuits (chips) of the device resulting in "hot spots" or area's where the heat can become concentrated and not radiate away properly which can and often does result in poor performance and/or permanent damage to the device. Best if you use a new pair of latex gloves when installing, unless you can be careful enough not to touch the surface of the device with your fingers (hold the drive by the edges, the green part of the card) and don't touch the black "chips". It doesn't matter how much you wash your hands you can never get them so clean as to wash away these oils and salts which are constantly produced by your skin. Just wanted to add this little bit of info which is also true for computer memory and any sort of peripheral add on card. I didn't even mention that you should, just to be totally on the safe side, avoid touching the gold contacts because these oils can easily result damage to them and impede the electrical connection. Also you should wear a grounded wrist strap to avoid causing damage to the device from static electrical charges, etc. This video, though quite informative, can show a person enough bad habits to result in an unnecessary RMA situation, that is if you don't say enough to the vendor during the process to result in a totally voided warranty.... Most devices, these days, will arrive to the final consumer untouched by human hands. I will generally assume, however, that someone along the chain of custody has been careless and handled the device in an "unsafe" manner and use isopropyl or ethyl alcohol and a clean cotton cloth to clean the surfaces before installation as this situation can result in damage to these modern, hot running devices.

I've been wanting to upgrade my laptop's SSD drive since it has a free M.2 slot, but was really confused about different interfaces. This video clears up a lot for me. Thank you

Strewth! I remember when I found a guy locally producing circuit boards for adding a massive new-tech 10 MEG hard drive to my then Z80 computer (initially Tape Storage). That was a real hoot back in those days... what, wow, 10 meg, jeez. Now I read this excellent presentation about current trends and hardware and will never stop being in awe of the speed of tech change these days. Boxes are becoming yesterdays hardware before one gets them out of the shop. Thank you for passing on the knowledge.

I enjoyed the entire presentation; very informative and interesting--I hope to see more from you soon!

My laptop has an M.2 SSD and boots up amazingly quickly, even compared to a previous 2.5" SSD. Definitely worth any extra cost.

Thanks for a excellent explanation of the M.2. technology. It hard to imagine how far secondary storage device technology has changed since the days of IDE and SCSI.

I see so much rubbish on KZfaq but this is a really good video. Explained by someone in English that clearly knows what they are talking about. Well done, and keep up the good work Chris.

You are an excellent teacher. Well done. THANKS.

Love when people have original normal human outros that you remember and don't get tired of

I understood everything that was not well explained on other channels and web pages with this video alone... Great work!

Thank you very very much for this content. I’m just starting out exploring the possibility of being able to build my own computer and try and understand the complexities of doing it. Thank you for helping me gain confidence and knowledge.

technology is getting its sense, the M.2 SSD is an amazing thing uses less power, occupies very small space, zero noise and even more memory capacity this is great but i hope they will make it more small and big in its capacity, thank you for your video

I actually _like_ having the storage separate. Makes upgrades more convenient. Though, I suppose a M.2 drive being easily removable by just taking out a screw if the motherboard dies wouldn't be too bad. Still, the fact that dedicated drive bays are physically larger does allow more functionality to be fit in there, and there are lower limits to how small you can make certain devices. You're not going to fit a blu-ray drive into anything smaller than the 120mm diameter of the discs, after all. All this integration is a bit annoying, though. Really limiting how much you can control what's in your machine and forces you to make compromises ("If I want that network chip, I have to have this drive controller" sort of stuff). What would be better would be if the motherboard was just for supplying power and passing signals around, and the actual functionality, such as network, USB, SATA, etc was handled by dedicated cards. The form-factor of the M.2 drives could be great for all the little stuff that's built into the motherboard chipset now. USB, Ethernet, and SATA could be covered by mini PCIe cards and audio by a regular card, like it used to be back in the ISA and PCI days.

Another brilliant video. I am getting a lap top with M.2 PCIe and was told it was faster than SATA but didn't know why, and now I do now. Thank you. Fascinating thoughts also about the future of PCs, etc.

A variety of lengths and widths, insertion into slots... this is gold. Subscribed. In all seriousness though: I needed this information and it’s very clear. Thanks.

I learned a lot, thanks John Lennon!

Finally, someone cleared up my confusion. Thank you!

Wow when simple well narrated video on a rather complicated subject makes sense to wide audience. Subscribed instantly!

Excellent explanation. Straight up data with no blah blah about history of disk drives.

You are really good at explaining things! Thanks for the videos!

Small note this video missed which is still true even today is that not all PCIe SSD's they come in both 2 and 4 lane versions the former is only 16 Gb/s (2 lanes * 8 Gb/s/lane) also some motherboards that have multiple M.2 slots wont support 32 Gb/s if all of them are used or will only do so if certain PCIexpress slots are not used etc so do check both your drive and motherboard specs to be sure.

Chris Thank you for the explanation of the M.2. This answers many questions, especially about the bus and speed changes. The evolution of computers as you know will be much about the end of the moving disk drive. This fills in many blanks I had in fully understanding how that technology will work. Thank you, sir, for all you do! Rich

Hi you are a great person explaining on computer. I like seeing your video's. You teach people on computer and we learn from you. I am not a profession, I am green learning from your video. Thanks for your help. I hope that people would appreciate the work that you are doing

I have one laying around, I really need to buy one of those adapter cards, my MoBo doesn't have any m.2 ports! :(

Good Job.... very informative. I happen to think that these M2 boards could have been available shortly after the SSD's and SD's were released..... just to save the spinning rust drives from a total collapse they extended the development and release of M2 over the course of a decade.... Otherwise these M2 technology drives would have been available in 2007-ish.

Very informative, a great source for someone who is trying to pass the comptia A+ certification.

Thank you very much. Listened carefull for 6:16 minutes, when you git to physical mounting SATA 2280, I was 5" from my 15" monitor. It's not exactly intuitive whether it's green side up or not. My first assembly, Raspberry Pi mini Tower Desktop Ubuntu Mat`e, of any computer in 20 years. Was surprised the image of Ubuntu Mat`e didn't recognize git from got. I'm at my wit's end. Disk Mounting widgit says nothing to mount. Neither fdisk -l, nor gParted showed an installed SSD.🥴 That upward spring of SATA board is a sure tell tale sign its mounted right. I didn't just get what I came for and leave, I stayed for the entire show. Highly agree on the advancements the M.2 form factor, it is a game changer. Very educational thoughout.' Purchased a UPS, for Pi 4B 4GB, with 4000mA Lithium battery. It and replacement were returned to sender, "not as described", they flat didn't work. 2nd one powered the Pi4 less than an hour and quit, while on a charger. Just killing the power is a No No with Pi as it is constantly accessing micro SDHC; and, hence my need for UPS. Product mini-box carried a label. A specific printed attribute was the presence on the back of the unit a swatch of nano material. Is that size enough to make a pointed notation of. My eyes must have changed to bionic; I could see that shiny sheen and simply couldn't help myself, while pulling that thin film off the double sided tape .

Imagine while you're installing it it slips and falls into the abyss from which only the great knight Artorias returned... I shudder to think of it.

Spot on, no BS and clear concise information. Whoever gave a thumbs down for this video must be off dragging their knuckles as they go look for banana's!

Man you are the best computer geek. Old school style videos, very informative!

Just found your channel, I work in IT, and I can say I absolutely love the format of your videos, you explain things clearly and in perfect detail, keep up the great work!

Computer with sata ssd: "ZOOOOMM!!!" Pc enthusiasts :"NO!! , IT MUST BE FASTER!!!!"

Thanks for the informative video Now that you have covered the m.2 drive, do you have plan to cover nvme drive or comparison video?

My last computer dated back to 2009 and to this day is still working despite integration issues with today's technology, because of this, I recently purchased a premium i7, 16 GB, 4K ultrabook and I knew it had m.2 but I had no idea what was meant by that, but now I do. :) Excellent video. Very simple to understand and well filmed. Thanks for helping to bring me up to date with today's tech! Oh Boy, have hard drives evolved!

Another great video. Thanks Chris for making all the terminology so clear.

Question : What is the Compared Durability of an SSD SATA vs the M.2 ?

good info, well presented. Thanks.

These things just amaze me, not because of the speed. But on how you can make 'em blend in with your motherboard and sometimes forget it's ever there.

I like the way you explain and get to the point. Al though for these tech one if you did it like your PCIE video where you gave people suggestions on how to configure their bios, aka the speed variants it would be a a bit better. Really loved your PCIE video. :D

God damn it, I love this channel.

Participation medal goes to me!

As always, your descriptions are 100% correct, and 100% helpful. thank you.

Even though I already know what all of the devices you talk about are, their tech specs, advantages, disadvantages and optimal use cases; I really still enjoy your videos. Additionally, unlike many other channels, the people that follow you seem to be much nicer and more civil to each other. Thank you for the videos. :-D

Great video explaining the technology

Excellent video. I didn't read all 837 comments but whoever decided to use those teeny, tiny screws to hold them in place needs to be severely beaten.

And yet in 2020, this news just touch me for the first time. 🥺

Thank you for this video. Suggestion: Although you gave about a minute explanation of M.2, I feel it would helped clear confusion in people's minds if you had started with a picture of a M.2 connector and said something like "M.2 is a specification for a physical "connector" to which you can attach a memory module or device module, like SSD cards, wireless cards, etc. An M.2 connector is the newest technology to replace mSata which replaced Sata which replaced Pata." Then lead into your particular m.2 SSD device. The reason being, m.2 supports PCIe bus, Sata 3.0 and USB 3.0 bus and it is up to the manufacturer of the M.2 host or device to pick which interfaces are supported, depending on the desired level of host support and device type. This confusion is causing people so much trouble when they buy a device that is not supported on their motherboard despite the m.2 connector being present, example; buying an m.2 NVMe stick and installing in an m.2 Sata only capable connector or USB 3.0 capable. Been there, seen that. Just a suggestion.

It's like watching a documentary

141k subs!!!!!!! looking forward to 150k the 200k then a huge jump to 1m subs!!! great I subscribed you when you are at only 35k nice progress

Excellent explanation, no music, I understand m.2 now. Thanks

Professional the way it should be. You've earned a another Subscriber here.

Awesome video!! Please do a video on RAID!!! :)

great video as always

What a great vid explaining how it works. Do love how simple and straight to the point you are... THUMBS UP!!!

Been into computers all my life, but screw it, I'm subscribing. Your stuff is excellent. Seriously, someone should be paying you to present. It's like Tomorrow's World but with actual information, rather than surface level entertainment.

Great info. thanks.

Excelent video and explanation

Thanks for this, building a new PC on a website and it asked about a M.2 SSD Drive so i wondered what it was

Second video in your series that I've watched. Very informative. I am getting ready to buy a new laptop and am going with the 500 GB M.2 NVMe (PCIe) boot drive. (Along with a 1 TB HDD for extra storage) I have subscribed.

Thanks. I have found M.2 a bit confusing.

We need to fit one of these on a raspberry pi!😂😂

It's amazing how large in capacity drives are become all the while reducing their overall physical size. This is something to watch out for in the future. I remember back in the 80s when Sir Clive Sinclair was talking about Wafer scale integration which was supposed to revolutionise the way we used computer memory chip into small wafers taking up far less space than their predecessors. I don't really know how far Sinclair got with that, however the way today's technology is going will lead to very exciting times.

Nice vid. One thing to mention, there are SFF cases without any drive bays, that allow mounting of one or more 2.5" SSDs at the other side of motheboard mounting plate, hence a PC without drive bays was possible before M.2 slot introduction.

Thanks for the information although it brings up the seemingly eternal problem of obsolescence. I've got a ton of IDE drives, DDR2 sticks and mobo with obsolete CPU sockets. Every time I build a PC a new technology shows up. So what's a nerd to do?

Imagine such a vid in 2036, have to use a quantum microscope to explain the differences

Awesome video, beautifully explained. Just one note to potential installers out there....... when removing the screw and fitting the m.2 board, make sure that the stand off, or spacer, is in the right position, or you will trash it.

Video states we'll eventually have multi-terrabyte M.2 SSDs. We already have those. Samsung 960 Pro, which is the fastest consumer SSD right now is available in 2TB size in the 2280 M.2 form factor. It was released in September.

Thanks for not saying 'SATER" like some people.

thank you

OMG I learn so much from your excellent videos. There was I naively thinking M.2 were automatically several times faster than their drive bay SSD cousins. I think I know what to look out for, now. Thank you again. The moral of the story has to be to check EC before buying anything!

About your videos in general, I don't understand why anybody would "dislike" them. You always get a "like" from me!

Did you even wear a antistatic wrist strap ? i can see there is no static free cloth the items are laying on. Was the anti static stuff just a gimmick to sell useless crap? My friend just tossed computer parts in a carboard box and most that stuff still works years later. I try to use my wrist strap though.

Interesting video ! Two (or maybe 3) years ago I had the money to buy parts to build another PC, as my 'old' one was about 9 years old, but still worked just fine, but I had the itch to make a new one. I ended up with an Intel 750 400GB Nvme Pcie jobbie, and 2 x Samsung 950 Pro 250GB M.2 drives.....because my Gigabyte board had two slots, and it seemed a shame not to use them....:) So only my Gfx card - in slot 1 - and the Intel drive in slot 3 (to give air space between them) are using the Pcie slots. I do have some regular 500GB and 1TB 7200rpm HDD's and a pair of WD 500GB 10,000rpm Velociraptors spare from my 'old' PC. I have Win 7 and Win 10 installed on 500GB 7200rpm HDD's, disconnected as emergency drives should something go wrong with the Nvme drives... The Nvme drives were not cheap, but could not resist....:)

Another good video. One nitpick: some of us already put storage in the motherboard section using PCI-e SSD cards, CF adapters (or CF slots on the motherboard), or even small HDDs in an adapter card that plugs into PCI or PCI-e (very rare, though).

Just re-watched this video in October 2018. With the recent release of the x86-64 LattePanda Alpha (as well as the previous model) and the UDOO units, it's very interesting to see that the "regular" PCs and the SBCs seem to be converging. Now that both can use PCIe-based m.2 drives, that part of the solution seems to be in place.

Very good video!! 2280 thumbs up! :)

here is the thing, M.2 SSDs are non-archivable, the standar HDD will be around for a long time with multi-petabyte capacity by 2040. With standard HDDs being achievable they work in 98% of the servers around the world.

You are just so good at explaining Computers! Brilliant vid!

Finally! The very first part of M.2 Innovation. I am so much excited Sir for the next part which hopefully subject for OS Installation M.2 SSD (SATA or NVMe). This OS Installation on M.2 SSD is the top problem for PC Builder right now. You that you could crack it Sir any time sooner. Thank you very much giving your attention in M.2 SSD. "The future of computing".