2.5" Solid State Drives

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2.5" SSD vs HDD

As covered in our blog NVMe SSD vs SATA SSD vs HDD - Speed Comparison, as well as on the storage and solid-state drive pages, a SSD is an all-digital device. As in, unlike a HDD, a SDD has no moving pieces. Crack open the housing of a 2.5" SSD and you will find flash memory modules, a memory controller, and optionally some DRAM cache soldered to a mainboard - that's it. No motor, no spinner platter, no actuator arm.

As everything's operated digitally and not mechanically, a SSD effectively doesn't have a 'seek time'. Even the cheapest 2.5" SSDs can be accessed in as little as 0.0001 seconds. There's no waiting around for moving pieces to position themselves in the right spot to read/write data. What instead determines the speed of a SSD is these flash memory modules themselves and, importantly, the computer bus interface the drive is built for: SATA, PCIe Gen3, PCIe Gen4, and so on.

2.5" SATA SSD vs M.2 NVMe SSD

2.5" solid-state drives use the SATA (series advanced technology attachment) interface - the same interface used by modern hard drives. Motherboards still support SATA, but it's quite an antiquated technology. SATA's been around for decades, after all, with technically the latest iteration of SATA (SATA III) debuting way back in 2008.

SATA III's bandwidth throughput is capped at 600 MB/s. While this is more than enough for slow, mechanical HDDs (which operate at 80 - 160MB/s), SSDs are held back by it. Browse our range of 2.5" SSDs and you'll see they all fall around this 600 MB/s mark. In comparison, SSDs which take advantage of the more up-to-date PCIe Gen4 interface can reach read/write speeds of up to 7,000MB/s. The PCIe spec is continually being updated to support faster and faster speeds, while it's looking like 2008's SATA III will be the last iteration of SATA.

This is, of course, a massive difference, but for most peoples' workloads a 2.5" SATA SSD is still plenty fast. Install your computer's operating system on a 2.5" SSD and it'll feel that bit 'snappier', from boot times to program launches. Crucially, 2.5" SSDs have gotten incredibly cheap, to the point where 120 or even 240GB drives can be had for under £20. So, nowadays, there's little excuse for even the cheapest laptops and desktops to feature just a HDD.

Upgrading from HDD to 2.5" SSD

For those who're still running with just a SATA hard drive, upgrading to a 2.5" SATA solid-state drive will be easy. As you will already have the HDD hooked up to a SATA port on your motherboard, as well as SATA power from the power supply, it should simply be a case of swapping the HDD's cables over to the 2.5" SATA SSD.

And while it's best to install a 2.5" SSD in a 2.5" drive bay for organisation's sake, it's not a necessity. HDDs must be installed properly as, due to their mechanical nature, they're sensitive to shocks and vibrations. An all-digital SSD, on the other hand, can be stuck anywhere in a computer case if a drive bay isn't available.

If you're looking to upgrade your laptop with a 2.5" SSD, you'll first want to check its spec-sheet. Older models of laptops may have extra 2.5" drive bays, but many modern, thin-and-light devices have moved onto more space-efficient M.2 form-factor drives, in turn allowing for bigger batteries.

2.5" Solid State Drives at Ebuyer

Look through the full range of 2.5" solid-state drives we have available from leading brand names such as Western Digital, Crucial, and Kingston. Spread the cost of your purchase with our flexible finance offers. And if you want your new 2.5" SSD by tomorrow, next-day delivery is also available.