M.2 is an SSD form factor, designed to work with the M.2 ports on your motherboard. The original name for M.2 was Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF).

Pronounced m dot two and formerly known as the Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF), is a specification for internally mounted computer expansion cards and associated connectors. M. 2 replaces the mSATA standard, which uses the PCI Express Mini Card physical card layout and connectors.

Well, the significant difference between the M.2 2242 and M.2 2280 lies in the measurement of the SSD drives. Of course, this difference translates into further differences ahead. We will have a look at them as well.

The length of the SSD drive has a significant bearing on the performance characteristics of the SSD. Given this fact, since the M.2 2242 is smaller than the M.2 2280, the performance of the latter will be a little better placed in comparison to the M.2 2242.

Another area that the M.2  2280 takes the lead over the M.2 2242 is on the heat dissipation. The limited length of the M.2 2242 may not provide adequate heat dissipation. The M.2 2242 SSD drives are used in laptop motherboards, while the M.2 2280 drives find themselves being used in tablets.

Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is a high-speed expansion serial bus standard originally developed for use with graphics cards. This standard enables very fast transfer speeds between your motherboard and the PCIe SSD.

Yes, much faster. The theoretical SATA cap is around 600 MB/s. PCIe speeds generally start at 1000 MB/s and go as high as 4000 MB/s, depending on the number of channels.

M.2 is the physical form factor. SATA and PCIe are different bus standards used to communicate with the motherboard. An M.2 PCIe SSD will be much faster than an M.2 SATA SSD.

No, they are generally about the same. The only difference is form factor.

Please read your motherboard or system manufacturer documentation that came with your computer. It will inform you about the type(s) of ports available on your motherboard and thus what SSDs you can use. You cannot tell just by looking at the port.

Can I use the M.2 form factor in my computer?
Please read your motherboard or system manufacturer documentation that came with your computer. It will inform you about the type(s) of ports available on your motherboard.

DH-NG SATA III M.2 2280 SSDs are "B&M key". It will fit in a PCIe NVMe M.2 socket or a SATA III M.2 socket.

Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is a protocol designed to optimize communication with non-volatile memory media (such as NAND flash and Persistent Memory). The low latency and parallelism inherent in the protocol make NVMe SSDs the fastest in the consumer SSD market.

2280 refers to the physical dimensions of the M.2 SSD. 22 means 22mm wide while 80 means 80mm long. 2280 is the most common consumer M.2 SSD size.

Our M.2 SATA SSDs are single-sided.

No, both M.2 SATA and M.2 PCIe use drivers natively found in the operating system of your host device.

What is an SSD?
Solid State Drive. An SSD is a solid state drive that employs flash memory and used for all of your data storage needs. Compared to a traditional mechanical hard disk drive (HDD), SSDs do not have moving parts, generate less heat, use less power, and offer higher performance.

With transfer speeds far superior to mechanical hard disk drives (HDD), SSD benefits include: decreased system boot time, more efficient multi-tasking, and faster system responsiveness. SSDs offer significant performance improvements when replacing your current system’s hard drive (HDD), greater shock resistance, reduced power consumption, and longer battery life for laptop applications.

Our SSDs function independently of the host computer's operating system.

Yes, please follow the instructions provided by your OS to create a bootable system drive.

The host interface is how your SSD will connect with your host computer. Most external SSDs connect via USB or Thunderbolt III, while internal SSDs connect via SATA III or PCIe interfaces. For additional information on your host computer's host interface, please refer to the host computer's motherboard documentation.

Serial ATA. This is an interface between the SSD and the host computer. Our SSDs use the current generation SATA III, which is an 6 Gb/s backwards compatible interface. Many PCs utilize this interface as it became popular in the early 2000s and many PCs are still made with this interface today.

S.M.A.R.T., an acronym for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology, is an open standard that allows a hard disk drive to automatically detect its health and report potential failures. When a failure is recorded by S.M.A.R.T., users can choose to replace the drive to prevent unexpected outage or data loss. Moreover, S.M.A.R.T. can inform users of impending failures while there is still time to perform proactive actions, such as copy data to another device. S.M.A.R.T. is a feature of our SSDs.

Terabytes Written (TBW) is defined as the total amount of data in terabytes that can be written to a SSD before the SSD may begin to become unreliable. The SSD’s remaining life metric determines remaining SSD life span by comparing the SSD’s maximum TBW rating to actual terabytes written. Verbatim SSDs covered by this warranty have maximum TBW ratings that can be accessed on the respective product specification sheets located at www.verbatim.com. The SSD’s remaining life begins at 100% and will decrease to zero (0%) as the end user utilizes the SSD.

Mean Time Between Failures. An electronics industry metric that predicts elapsed time between inherent failures of a mechanical or electronic system, during normal system operation.

Input/Output Operations per Second. This is an industry standard metric that measures the random read/write performance of simultaneous inputs/outputs based using a 4k block size. The higher the IOPS the better the performance.

Deer Hunter offers a Limited Three Year Warranty up to the Terabytes Written (TBW) rating for our internal SSDs.

Our SSDs are intended for use in client PC applications, and are not intended for server environments.