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220-1201 Practice Question: A technician is building a high-performance…
A technician is building a high-performance workstation for video editing. The user needs fast read/write speeds for large 4K video files and wants the OS and applications on the same drive. The motherboard has one M.2 slot (PCIe 4.0 x4) and four SATA III ports. Which storage configuration should the technician recommend?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Install one M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD for both OS and video files.
This question tests understanding of NVMe versus SATA performance. For video editing, extremely fast sequential read/write speeds are critical. An M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 drive offers speeds up to 7,000 MB/s, far exceeding SATA SSDs (about 550 MB/s). The correct answer is to use the M.2 slot for a single fast drive.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Install one SATA III SSD for the OS and one SATA III HDD for video files.
Why it's wrong here
This configuration is inadequate for a high-performance workstation handling video files. The SATA III SSD, while faster than an HDD, is capped at approximately 550 MB/s, which can bottleneck 4K or high-bitrate video editing workflows. Furthermore, using a traditional SATA III HDD for video files introduces a severe performance bottleneck, as HDDs typically offer sequential speeds below 200 MB/s, significantly hindering read/write operations for large media assets and failing to leverage modern, faster storage options.
- ✓
Install one M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD for both OS and video files.
Why this is correct
A single high-capacity M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD provides extremely fast read/write speeds (over 5,000 MB/s), ideal for 4K video editing. It uses the available M.2 slot and meets the user's need for fast performance.
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Install two SATA III SSDs in a RAID 0 array for the OS and video files.
Why it's wrong here
RAID 0 with two SATA SSDs would double throughput to about 1,100 MB/s, but that is still much slower than a single NVMe drive. It also uses two SATA ports and introduces complexity without matching NVMe speeds.
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Install one M.2 SATA SSD for the OS and one SATA III HDD for video files.
Why it's wrong here
Installing an M.2 SATA SSD for the OS and a SATA III HDD for video files fails to maximize performance for a high-performance workstation. While the M.2 form factor is compact, an M.2 SATA drive is still limited by the SATA III interface to about 550 MB/s, offering no speed advantage over a 2.5-inch SATA SSD. Pairing this with an extremely slow SATA III HDD for large video files would create a significant bottleneck, preventing the workstation from achieving the high data throughput required for demanding video editing tasks and ignoring the superior bandwidth of an M.2 NVMe slot.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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