It’s no secret that SATA SSDs are an growing older piece of tech. It appears that evidently 2026 might be the yr that SATA SSDs start their descent into archived know-how, and that’s a superb factor.
Samsung was rumored to be halting SATA SSD manufacturing
Good issues should come to an finish.
Not too long ago, it was reported that Samsung could halt its production of SATA SSDs, which comes on the heels of Crucial pulling out of the consumer SSD and RAM market altogether.
Samsung has since refuted this claim. Nevertheless, that is nonetheless a telltale signal that the market is shifting. RAM manufacturers are focusing more on AI and fewer on shoppers, GPU manufacturers are doing the same. Now, it looks like there’s a shift within the cupboard space to doubtlessly transfer the main target away from SATA SSDs to different types of storage—however I don’t suppose that’s a nasty factor.
SATA SSDs haven’t been related for years
What as soon as was king is now yesterday’s information
NVMe storage has been mainstream since 2017, which was practically a decade in the past. Since NVMe took over the PC storage space, SATA SSDs simply haven’t been all that standard.
It’s practically inconceivable to discover a fashionable laptop computer with a SATA drive slot interval, not to mention one which ships with a SATA SSD. Nearly all fashionable laptops ship with NVMe at this level—that or m.2 SATA, which is a normal I want would die off.
Both method, SATA SSDs simply aren’t related anymore. NVMe drives are smaller, simpler to put in, and quicker. There’s just about no draw back to make use of an M.2 drive over a SATA drive.
SATA SSDs have been nice upgrades from laborious drives, however they’re a downgrade in comparison with NVMe
Transfer over grandpa, it is time for NVMe to take middle stage.
If you compare SATA SSDs with SATA hard drives, they have been completely an enormous improve. Some SATA SSDs might be 10 occasions quicker than a standard laborious drive. SATA SSDs have been smaller than laborious drives, lighter weight, and extra strong. It was a large improve, little question. The one draw back to SATA SSDs was the worth per terabyte of storage—they by no means actually grew to become all that inexpensive in comparison with platter drives.
Ultimately, SATA SSDs did grow to be inexpensive sufficient that they began to be included in most fashionable computer systems although, however that was in regards to the time that NVMe drives began to return on the scene. If you evaluate NVMe SSDs to SATA SSDs, the older customary merely isn’t all that nice.
They value the identical as NVMe drives, however supply far much less efficiency. Even PCIe 3.0 drives are 5 occasions quicker than the quickest SATA SSD in the marketplace, exhibiting that we simply merely don’t want to provide SATA SSDs en masse anymore. And in case your system doesn’t help NVMe natively, you may simply add help with a PCIe adapter—laptops excluded.
There’s just about no motive to make use of a SATA SSD anymore in most eventualities. I solely use a SATA SSD proper now as a result of I had one in my rack-mount server that I’ve since decommissioned. The server might solely boot from SATA, and never NVMe, so despite the fact that I had a PCIe to NVMe adapter, I had to make use of a SATA SSD. Actually although, that’s the one motive I’m utilizing it, as a result of it’s merely cheaper (and higher) to purchase NVMe this present day.
If SATA SSDs die off, producers might (and may) put a heavier give attention to NVMe
Why do I would like so many SATA ports once I use no SATA drives?
When IDE was the mainstream customary for storage and connection, there have been usually solely two connectors on a motherboard. SATA shrunk the connector, after which we began to see 4, six, eight, or extra SATA connectors on a single motherboard.
Proper now, there’s nonetheless solely a mean of two NVMe drive slots on fashionable motherboards. Certain, some have 4 or six, however it’s not regular to see that many. If SATA SSDs die off, it’ll hopefully push producers to place a heavier give attention to NVMe as a substitute of SATA.
I don’t wish to purchase a motherboard with six SATA ports and simply two NVMe ports. If I would like SATA, I can use a NVMe to SATA adapter, or perhaps a PCIe to SATA adapter if my NVMe slots are already populated.
There’s actually no have to preserve SATA SSDs round mainstream. Let just a few producers preserve them alive for the choose few use instances they nonetheless have, like upgrading previous computer systems or laptops that don’t have PCIe interfaces. However, exterior of that, it’s time for SATA to die, and we’ll all be higher for it.
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