Product Name: Silicon Power 256GB SSD 3D NAND A55 SLC Cache Performance Boost SATA III 2.5" 7mm (0.28") SP256GBSS3A55S25
Model Number: SP256GBSS3A55S25
Brand: Silicon Power
Manufacturer Warranty: 3 Year
Also, for those that are not fans of Silicon Power quality, then WD Green 240GB 3D NAND 2.5in SSD $39 Is another option
who uses SATA 3 these days when the current tech is m2 or nvme?
SATA is still useful since m2/nvme slots are limited and theres usually 4 or more SATA slots on a board. Plus a lower capacity SSD is a great replacement for most relatives failing laptop hard drives.
There are older laptop computers which can only use SATA and that's why it needs a SATA drive. Say in one of those older laptop computers you can't replace the drive in it which is 2.5" SATA HDD with an M.2 SSD it's impossible. No M.2 slot you see.
By the way M.2 is a slot form type. It's not the chipset technology of the drive itself. When it comes to M.2 it's either M.2 SATA based or M.2 NVMe. M.2 is the slot. Some M.2 slots support both M.2 SATA and NVMe whereas some only support M.2 NVMe.
Do nvme drives need a heat sink? I hear they run hot and would cause system issues.
It would depend on your case air flow cooling. I have the Samsung 970 Pro 512GB NVMe SSD and it's running at 42 Celcius at lower usage (runs the boot operating system) in my Dell Precision 5810 with a PCIe adapter card. I guess that's fine. But i believe it has a basic heatsink on it. Some NVMe SSD already come with a basic heat sink already preapplied.
If your case has really good cooling then it might not necessarily need a heat sink. But as i said some NVMe SSD come from the factory with a heat sink on it. I suppose the manufacturer knows right when they design the NVMe SSD expecting it to run hotter at times which is why some preapply a heat sink on the drive.
Thinking of getting one of these to speed up an old laptop with a hard drive. Will there be a noticeable difference in performance? The laptop is about 5-6 years old with an i5 in it. It's only for word processing and web browsing.
If you're upgrading from a HDD to an SSD there will be a very noticeable speed uplift in boot time and program loading.
There would be a noticable difference. I replaced the hard drive with an SSD on a 5 year old laptop with an i7. Runs great, boots up quick. Took the opportunity to also add some extra ram so that might be worth thinking about too
You're not affiliated with Silicon Power?