220-1101 Hardware Practice Question
A technician is upgrading a workstation used for video editing. The current configuration includes an M.2 SATA SSD in the only M.2 slot on the motherboard, which supports both SATA and PCIe NVMe devices. The user wants the fastest possible storage performance for large video files. Which of the following upgrades will provide the GREATEST performance improvement without replacing the motherboard?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently think adding more SATA drives or RAID 0 is the fastest upgrade, failing to recognize that the M.2 slot supports NVMe, which provides a massive performance leap over any SATA-based solution.
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
✓
Replace the M.2 SATA SSD with an M.2 NVMe SSD
The M.2 slot on this motherboard supports both SATA and PCIe NVMe devices. Replacing the current M.2 SATA SSD with an M.2 NVMe SSD directly upgrades the interface from SATA (6 Gb/s, ~550 MB/s) to PCIe (up to 4 GB/s for Gen3 x4), providing the greatest performance improvement for large video files without replacing the motherboard.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Add a second 2.5-inch SATA SSD and configure them in RAID 0
Why it's wrong here
RAID 0 stripes data across two SATA III SSDs, theoretically doubling sequential throughput to roughly 1.1 GB/s, but that still leaves each drive bound to SATA's 6 Gbps link and AHCI's one command queue, so latency and random I/O remain poor for video editing. The M.2 SATA drive you already have is still a SATA device, and RAID 0 offers no redundancy, making it a risky, marginal upgrade compared to moving to NVMe.
- ✓
Replace the M.2 SATA SSD with an M.2 NVMe SSD
Why this is correct
An M.2 NVMe SSD connects directly to PCIe lanes instead of the SATA bus, eliminating the 6 Gbps (about 550 MB/s) ceiling. NVMe's deep parallel command queues, up to 64K queues with 64K commands each, slash latency and raise sequential throughput to 2,500-7,000 MB/s, which is essential for handling raw 4K video, scrubbing timelines, and saving large projects. This direct replacement upgrades both interface and protocol, making it the single best performance change for a video-editing workstation.
- ✗
Replace the M.2 SATA SSD with a larger 2.5-inch SATA SSD
Why it's wrong here
Swapping an M.2 SATA SSD for a larger 2.5-inch SATA SSD changes only physical form factor and capacity; both use the same AHCI protocol and SATA III 6 Gbps link. Because the bottleneck is the SATA controller and command queue architecture, not the drive's enclosure, you will see essentially identical throughput and IOPS after the swap. This upgrade solves a storage-space problem but leaves the real performance limitation in your video-editing workflow untouched.
- ✗
Install a PCIe SATA controller card and add another SATA SSD
Why it's wrong here
A PCIe SATA controller card merely adds more legacy SATA ports using the AHCI protocol; the SSDs connected to it still negotiate at SATA III speeds and have the same shallow command queue as any built-in SATA port. Your motherboard already provides enough SATA connectivity, so the card doesn't relieve any performance bottleneck—it only expands drive count. The existing M.2 SATA SSD remains the constraint, and the card cannot make SATA devices faster than their protocol allows, so video-editing performance stays unchanged.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
PCIe Slots and Expansion Cards
Key term
Solid-state Drive
A solid-state drive (SSD) is a storage device that uses flash memory to save data permanently, with no moving parts, making it much faster and more durable than a traditional hard disk drive.
Key term
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) is a computer bus interface used to connect storage devices like hard drives and solid-state drives to a computer's motherboard.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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