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What is PCIe? Everybody says it for my rMBP and on here for the Macbooks but can anyone explain pls?
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What do you mean "What is it?". It's an industry standard connection bus used in computers. It's been a while since I dug around in my PC but I'm fairly sure my graphics card utilises PCI-e. I've not come across SSD using it but there's no reason why it shouldn't and as I said it's been a while since I dug around in my PC.
Here's a Wikipedia page.
Here's a Wikipedia page.
PCI-E is basically a generic high speed peripheral interconnect standard that's used to connect things like graphics cards, network cards, various kinds of IO cards and more recently HDDs now that the SATA standard has fallen behind what SSDs can put out.
However I will have to point out that while Apple uses PCIe to connect their SSDs, they use a non-standard version with a few of the pins swapped around to ensure that off-the-shelf PCIe SSDs won't work and that they have a monopoly on upgrades and spare parts.
The difference between a regular SATA SSD and a PCIe SSD is the what they're connected with.
However I will have to point out that while Apple uses PCIe to connect their SSDs, they use a non-standard version with a few of the pins swapped around to ensure that off-the-shelf PCIe SSDs won't work and that they have a monopoly on upgrades and spare parts.
The difference between a regular SATA SSD and a PCIe SSD is the what they're connected with.
Ah ok. Let's separate them out first of all. SSD is a Solid State Disc, it's actually not a disc at all but memory utilised to make it look to the computer like a hard disk. PCI-e is just a method by which the computer (Mac or PC) communicates with that device, another popular way would be by SATA. It doesn't sound like you need to get too hung up on the differences between SATA and PCI-e, all you need to know is which method your computer uses to connect to a drive and then if you want to buy a new drive, buy that type.
Two things before you go rushing off to buy a new SSD. I'm no expert on Macs but on a Windows PC, Windows itself lives on the hard drive so be careful if you replace it. Following on from that you need to find out how many drives your computer can handle. There's no point having 3 SSDs if the machine only has two slots.
Ok but I mean when someone says "PCI-E" does that mean it's fast? More efficient? Less heat?
Like what's the benefit of having a PCI-E in your computer?
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I think I get it now. Thanks.
As I said, it's an interconnect standard you connect various kinds of peripherals with. In terms of performance it's way beyond what most other peripheral interconnect standards are capable of.
The same kind of benefit that you get from putting a turbo on your car: Performance.
It's far more complicated than that unfortunately. For example speed, it depends which version of PCI-e your computer has so from a quick lookup PCi-e 4 runs at about 2Gigabits a second, SATA 3.2 16gigabits per second but PCI-e 2 is only 500 megabits per second.
Then you have to look at the rest of the machine, computers are only as fast as the slowest component in regular use so an SSD of any kind should be quicker than a physical hard drive but if you've got something else slowing stuff down, you'll lose the benefit.
Please try not to give out advice purely based on skim reading wikipedia as you just mixed up bits and bytes... The speed of an x1 PCIe 2.0 connector is 250 megaBYTES, which translates to 2 gigaBITS per second. Different versions of PCI can have very different speeds when they use different bus widths and the reason why SATA 3.2 is so fast is because it's implemented trough PCIe 3.0 and thus shares it's maximum theoretical speed. Besides, I've never seen anyone implement a x16 connected SSD, just a x1 connected one and that's considerably less fast.
My mistake however it's not just based on skim reading, I do have a little IT experience and I did point out I've not dug around inside my PC for a while.
You also said it would increase performance. It doesn't increase the performance of the overall machine if there is a slower component in the way.
Either way the OP doesn't know what PCI-e is so I'm trying to help at a basic level in which case it's only really the numbers that matter.
It's it's a very fast connection inside your computer, this means that the ssd's in the current MacBook pros can run at 4 x the speed of a SATA 3 connected SSD that simple really.
However Apple use a proprietary connector in the retina machines to 2015. And the 2016 touchbook MacBook pros have all the chips for storage soldered directly to the logic board making it non upgradeable you have to buy what you need at the time of purchase.
However Apple use a proprietary connector in the retina machines to 2015. And the 2016 touchbook MacBook pros have all the chips for storage soldered directly to the logic board making it non upgradeable you have to buy what you need at the time of purchase.
Ok... let's break it down for the original poster to understand.
Computers work by sending information back and forth between numerous component parts.
All the chips, circuits, memory, microprocessors, storage devices, video display system, etc. need to be able to pass information back and forth between each other to accomplish the tasks that you are asking the computer to perform.
Over the years, we have developed numerous ways transfer data / information between all of the computers parts.
Some of these methods are more efficient than others. And some are better suited for certain purposes, but may not be as good for other purposes.
Picture your town. You have a grocery store, a police station, an airport, etc.
You need a way to get to different places for different purposes.
There are roads, highways, freeways, alleys, and of course the sky and even trains.
All of these travel methods get you to places. Some are faster than others. And some are slower, but more efficient for particular needs.
For example, while an airplane is faster, it is not an efficient means to get to the local grocery store in a crowded town. There isn't anywhere to land the jet, and waiting to take off is a delay.
The local train is fast. But it only goes to certain places.
The roads are slow, but will get you to the store faster. You can navigate through the crowded town to the grocery store much more quickly and efficiently than by train or plane.
But, if you need to move a lot of stuff 200 miles and very fast, the train will get it all there much faster than multiple trips in your car on crowded streets. As long as the railroad connects directly to both the start and end points.
There's an airplane when you need to travel great distances that are not directly connected to each other, or if you want to quickly bypass the spaghetti mess of roads and just jump to the end.
All of these travel methods and surfaces / roads have different names. And are suited for certain uses.
PCI-e is simply a name of a particular kind of highway traveling through your computer to move information from one part to another. It is a very fast highway.
Different methods of transporting information have different names. And some are faster or slower than others. But each has particular reasons that make it the best choice for the purposes assigned to it.
I hope this helps you to better understand what is going on.
Computers work by sending information back and forth between numerous component parts.
All the chips, circuits, memory, microprocessors, storage devices, video display system, etc. need to be able to pass information back and forth between each other to accomplish the tasks that you are asking the computer to perform.
Over the years, we have developed numerous ways transfer data / information between all of the computers parts.
Some of these methods are more efficient than others. And some are better suited for certain purposes, but may not be as good for other purposes.
Picture your town. You have a grocery store, a police station, an airport, etc.
You need a way to get to different places for different purposes.
There are roads, highways, freeways, alleys, and of course the sky and even trains.
All of these travel methods get you to places. Some are faster than others. And some are slower, but more efficient for particular needs.
For example, while an airplane is faster, it is not an efficient means to get to the local grocery store in a crowded town. There isn't anywhere to land the jet, and waiting to take off is a delay.
The local train is fast. But it only goes to certain places.
The roads are slow, but will get you to the store faster. You can navigate through the crowded town to the grocery store much more quickly and efficiently than by train or plane.
But, if you need to move a lot of stuff 200 miles and very fast, the train will get it all there much faster than multiple trips in your car on crowded streets. As long as the railroad connects directly to both the start and end points.
There's an airplane when you need to travel great distances that are not directly connected to each other, or if you want to quickly bypass the spaghetti mess of roads and just jump to the end.
All of these travel methods and surfaces / roads have different names. And are suited for certain uses.
PCI-e is simply a name of a particular kind of highway traveling through your computer to move information from one part to another. It is a very fast highway.
Different methods of transporting information have different names. And some are faster or slower than others. But each has particular reasons that make it the best choice for the purposes assigned to it.
I hope this helps you to better understand what is going on.