{"id":4814,"date":"2020-04-21T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=4814"},"modified":"2020-04-24T14:15:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T18:15:38","slug":"why-isnt-ram-used-in-place-of-sata-and-m-2-the-way-pcie-nvme-ssd-drives-have-made-storage-solutions-much-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2020\/04\/21\/why-isnt-ram-used-in-place-of-sata-and-m-2-the-way-pcie-nvme-ssd-drives-have-made-storage-solutions-much-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"“Why isn’t RAM used in place of SATA and M.2 the way PCIe NVMe SSD drives have made storage solutions much faster?”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Answer requested by Mark Mathews)<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the reason RAM is fast is that it’s volatile<\/strong><\/em> — it *wants* to rapidly change state, and requires constant electrical refreshing to prevent it from doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This volatility makes RAM fast, but also means you can’t ever turn it off, or it will lose (“forget”) its contents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solid-state drives are non-volatile<\/strong><\/em> — that’s the NV<\/strong><\/em> in NVMe — meaning that they want to stay in the same state, and can retain data indefinitely (years, even) without any electrical refreshing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But because non-volatile memory resists change, it takes a little longer to make it remember (or forget) 1 or a 0, compared to RAM. That extra time means that NV memory will always<\/strong><\/em> be slower than volatile memory, everything else being equal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, PCs use volatile RAM where data speed<\/strong><\/em> is most important, and non-volatile memory (SSD or even HDD) where data retention<\/strong><\/em> is most important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Permalink: https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=4814<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"[seperator]\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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(Answer requested by Mark Mathews) Part of the reason RAM is fast is that it’s volatile — it *wants* to rapidly change state, and requires constant electrical refreshing to prevent it from doing so. This volatility makes RAM fast, but also means you can’t ever turn it off, or it will lose (“forget”) its contents….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-reader-asks","category-hardware"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/1280px-Samsung-1GB-DDR2-Laptop-RAM-e1587235482510.jpg?fit=400%2C253&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-1fE","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2579,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/12\/a-reader-asks-why-is-there-a-need-for-separate-ram-and-hard-drives\/","url_meta":{"origin":4814,"position":0},"title":"A reader asks: “Why is there a need for separate RAM and hard drives?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-04-12","format":false,"excerpt":"Speaking very generally: RAM is very fast, temporary data storage used only while the device is powered on. The data in RAM goes away when you turn off the device. Hard drives are for storing data longer term; they retain data even when powered off. But hard drives --- even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/1280px-Samsung-1GB-DDR2-Laptop-RAM-e1587235482510.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3143,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/30\/should-you-use-new-nvme-or-old-sata-ssd-for-booting-windows-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":4814,"position":1},"title":"“Should I use my new NVMe or old SATA SSD for booting Windows 10?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-07-30","format":false,"excerpt":"The general rule is: Put the operating system, and your other most-frequently-accessed files, on the fastest drive. NVMe drives can be faster than classic SATA drives; but the fastest SATA SSDs are faster than some run-of-the-mill NVMe SSDs. Plus, some of the spec-sheet advantages of NVMe may not matter all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2364,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/19\/a-reader-asks-which-is-a-better-way-to-speed-up-an-older-laptop-add-more-ram-or-change-the-old-hard-drive-to-a-solid-state-drive\/","url_meta":{"origin":4814,"position":2},"title":"A reader asks: “Which is a better way to speed up an older laptop, add more RAM, or change the old hard drive to a solid-state drive?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-03-19","format":false,"excerpt":"In general, \u201colder laptops\u201d were mostly 32-bit systems, which mathematically max out at 4GB of RAM. If the laptop has less RAM than that, I\u2019d consider starting there, to bring the laptop to its full memory complement. Because it\u2019s an \u201colder system,\u201d you probably can buy RAM for cheap. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/1280px-Samsung-1GB-DDR2-Laptop-RAM-e1587235482510.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":170,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/24\/a-reader-asks-why-does-android-need-more-ram-than-a-full-windows-10-pc\/","url_meta":{"origin":4814,"position":3},"title":"A reader asks: Why does Android need more RAM than a full Windows 10 PC?","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-08-24","format":false,"excerpt":"Q: Why does Android need more RAM than my full Windows 10 PC?\u00a0\u00a0(Question sent via Quora) A:\u00a0Your PC's RAM is usually just\u00a0the working memory for the CPU; a separate hard drive (solid state or magnetic) lets you store files and data outside of RAM. But in Android, the\u00a0RAM is not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3711,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/06\/why-doesnt-my-pc-boot-with-more-than-16gb-of-ram\/","url_meta":{"origin":4814,"position":4},"title":"“Why doesn’t my PC boot with more than 16GB of RAM?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-11-06","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by \"Weslo\") The three primary reasons for RAM limitations: There can be mathematical limitations: a 32-bit PC can only access about 4GB of RAM, because that --- roughly 4 billion --- is the highest you can count using 32 bits of data. 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