Released in 2013, Non-Volatile Memory Express, or NVMe, is a type of SSD that's attached to a PCI Express (PCIe) slot on a main board. These slots were originally designed for graphics cards, so they are incredibly fast. Speeds on NVMe drives can reach an interface rate of 32 Gb/s with a throughput of 3.9 GB/s. That can be very useful if you are doing something that needs a lot of disk throughput, like gaming or high-resolution video editing.

For as fast as it is, there are some drawbacks to NVMes. For starters, they are only available on desktop PCs and are very expensive. Also, while they can be used as secondary drives, to use it to its full potential, you'll want to install your operating system on it. Most BIOS don't support booting from NVMe at this time. It's still possible to get one that does, but it might mean replacing your entire main board.

Pros:

Fastest disk type on the market

Cons:

Extremely expensive

Available for desktop PCs only

May require replacing main board to get full benefit

When to choose SATA, SSD or NVMe

There are a lot of considerations when deciding between different components. You have to choose what fits your technical, capacity and budget requirements. Below are some guidelines that may help, and while they won't fit every situation, you may find them useful when planning your next PC build.

You may want to consider a SATA drive if you:

Need a large amount of storage

Are on a tight budget

Need a general purpose hard disk

You might want to consider an SSD drive if you:

Are upgrading a laptop

Need fast storage under 2TB

You might be better served by an NVMe drive if you:

Are building a high-end workstation or gaming PC

Don’t have a budget constraint

Are building a server that is going to host a storage-intensive application

It's also worth mentioning that you’re not limited to buying just one hard drive; PCs can typically support several at a time. And whether you get the performance you want from it will depend on where you save files. For example, a common configuration for PCs that render video is to use a faster drive like an SSD or NVMe to run video rendering software (Camtasia, Adobe Premier, etc.) and then transfer the finished product to a cheaper, larger SATA drive.

Continue building your knowledge and skills

Now that you've had a crash course on the common types of hard drives and their features, you should feel confident making an informed decision. Take a good look at the reasons behind replacing your drive, the amount of space you need and how much you can spend. By doing that and applying what you've learned here, your hard drive buying experience will be much easier.