[RESOLVED] Quick Hardware question

[Princey]

Hey all. About 18 months ago, I purchased a Beelink SER5 MAX Mini PC that comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 8 Core(Up to 4.4GHz), 32GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD that supports 4K Triple Screen Output/WiFi 6/BT5.2/DP/HDMI/USB-C. There's an additional internal slot that according to the description, supports up to 2TB external 2.5-inch 7mm HDD expansion (not included). I've lost one 2.5 inch SSD already due to power outage and I was thinking of replacing the 2.5 SSD with an NVME drive instead via adapter. However, I noticed there are two types of adapters that can be used, one saying (NON NVME and the other U2). Despite my read ups, I'm still not clear as to the difference or differences. What I gather is that the non-NVME type supports m.2 SSD. That's easy to understand. However, my confusion comes from the U2 part. What exactly is it? I'm getting quite a bit of information about it but that's for the nerd crowd (though some place me there but I don't consider myself there. I'm just knowledgeable in some areas, lol). Anyways, I digress, back to my question. Which should I go for? U2 or non-Nvme? is read/write speeds the only difference? I want to use that drive mainly for backups and storage. Any advice would be greatly appreaciated.

P.S. Moderator, wasn't sure where to post this as it's not considered 'support' as it relates to the distro, so forgive me for posting here if it's the wrong area. Not sure under where I should have posted.

[oshunluvr]

This will probably answer your question.

I've never spec'd out a U.2 drive, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that an average NVME drive is faster.

M.2 is a "form factor" meaning the size and connector it uses. So a non-NVME M.2 drive will use the same slot as an NVME M.2 drive, but not be as fast. U.2 is another, newer form factor. I know nothing about it.

[Princey]

Thanks for the link. From the read it would appear that the U.2 isn't what I'm looking for. I'll keep on searching for a true SSD to NVME adapter that I can use. Thanks again.

[oshunluvr]

It seems from the little I read, is the U.2 spec gives a 2.5" SSD similar speeds to a NVME drive, or at least significantly better than SATA. I think if your system has the ability to use NVME that's the way to go. If not, you can add a PCI-E card and get great performance from a U.2 SSD.

[Princey]

I think I've finally resolved the dilemma I was facing. What I wanted to do is not possible. I do have an nvme slot in the pc. The only other expansion port available was a SATA III interface and I wanted to slip an NVME drive via a SATA adapter. While many quote this as possible, they fail to say that while there are adapters that do so they're not PCIE NVME drives. You can only do it with an m.2 NVME that's SSD not PCIE (gen 3 and upwards). The spare NVME I currently have is of the later, PCIE Gen4. So If I want to swap in an extra drive (the last SSD in there burnt during a power failure) I must purchase one that matches the spec if I have to use the adapter. Naturally, what is often touted for U2 isn't possible either. You can convert NVME to U2, not SSD to U.2 or NVME PCIE. Took a lot of reading and searching forums such as reddit and Tom's Hardware before I could arrive at this conclusion. Just thought I'd do all the explaining lest someone else comes across this post in a similar situation as I was or was told one of the little lies out there like I read on a few boards that it's possible. They leave out the fine print that I did expound upon here. I'll edit the original post and mark it as solved.