When building a new PC or home lab server, the immediate assumption is that NVMe SSDs would be the better choice for performance and responsiveness. However, it's very much like 10 GbE, which you likely won't require unless you're pushing through substantial data and using devices that have Ethernet ports with support for these speeds. I get it; saying I prefer SATA SSDs over NVMe may be akin to enjoying loading my OS from an HDD instead of a solid-state drive, but hear me out. I've found SATA SSDs to strike the perfect balance for storing data and running software.

That's not to say NVMe doesn't have its place within the home lab, and I even use a few in test benches, mini PCs, and another server for booting Proxmox, but for most of the grunt work, it's still mostly on SATA drives.

NVMe is better because they're faster

... or so we're always told

I get it, NVMe SSDs are simply better because you can purchase a PCIe Gen 5 drive with a ridiculously high transfer rate of around 15,000 MB/s. Compared to the 560 MB/s of SATA SSDs, it's clear to see how they can be perceived to be better for just about every scenario, but that's far from the truth. For network-attached storage (NAS) and server usage, SATA SSDs (and hard drives) still have a place, thanks to better pricing for consumers and a wider choice of capacities. NVMe drives typically top out at 4TB. SATA SSDs are available with 8TB of storage capacity.

PCIe Gen 4, 5, and soon 6 have spoiled us with some seriously high read and write speeds, but do we actually need all that performance? I'd say no, not even my primary gaming desktop requires a PCIe Gen 5 SSD, and I refuse to replace the existing NVMe drive until it stops booting the OS. Benchmarks are favored by manufacturers to showcase just how fast these drives are compared to previous-gen NVMe and even SATA SSDs, but these results can easily exaggerate what you'll actually experience.

Check out how fast these drives can be with some numbers from our in-house SSD testing, as covered in our Crucial T705 review:

Moving a 200GB batch of files between locations will see a substantial improvement to performance with NVMe SSDs, but that's only when there's the link to handle these transfer rates. For instance, if you were to copy a few large files between PCs on your network, that 15,000 MB/s speed is instantly limited by a 1Gb LAN connection. Most home networks have 1Gb ports throughout, which can handle 100 MB/s. Even 10Gb networking will bottleneck at 1,000 MB/s, achieving just one-fifteenth of what's theoretically possible with some PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs.

Then there's the fact you won't be maxing out even a 1 GbE network link all that often. Unless you often move large files across the LAN and between devices regularly, the network will largely remain idle. The same goes for virtual machines (VMs) and containers running on home lab servers. These usually perform random I/O at low queue depths, which essentially means they read and write small amounts of data across many processes. This is when a SATA SSD will almost perform just as well as its NVMe counterparts.

SATA SSDs have a place in my home lab

Better pricing and capacities

It's important for me to sometimes remember that the home lab isn't a production environment. It's a place for me to self-host some services and have a play around to break almost everything in the process to learn something new. It's a giant tech playground of sorts and one that doesn't require the latest and greatest in storage technologies. For Proxmox, which is where the majority of my self-hosted content resides, sequential throughput is less important than latency and IOPS. SATA SSDs are already quick enough for access.

Firing up containers and VMs will be delayed slightly compared to an NVMe SSD, but once everything is live, the performance difference gap closes. And once we get stuff onto the LAN, it won't matter which technology we're using to store data, as the network (or one of the connected devices) will likely become the bottleneck. Then there's the issue of cooling, which is something I take seriously in the home lab since I want everything to run as cool as possible, something that a modern NVMe drive simply doesn't do.

You'll often see many PCIe Gen 4 and 5 drives come with passive cooler kits. Should you encounter thermal throttling with one of these NVMe drives, you can kiss those super-fast transfer numbers goodbye. This is something that doesn't affect SATA SSDs, as they run cool and are reliably consistent. SATA has also been around for a long time and is very mature at this point. Controllers are rock-solid and drives are designed for maximum longevity, ensuring I don't have to waste money replacing failed drives too soon.

Then there's the fact that you could purchase an NVMe drive without DRAM. DRAM helps maintain performance and provides additional endurance to the SSD. SATA drives (both SSD and HDD) are simpler for operating systems to interface with. Have eight SATA ports on the motherboard? Throw in eight SATA drives and you're good to go. NVMe and PCIe work a little differently in that PCIe lanes are required. Install a GPU, and you could lose a lane or two for the array of M.2 storage slots. Finally, SATA SSDs are easier to install and replace — they can even be hot-swappable!

SATA is still relevant in 2025

NVMe is the future of data storage, for sure. We're seeing it used everywhere. But not every device requires such high levels of performance. Nor does every system offer enough PCIe lanes, which is where SATA drives can still play a role. They're still pretty fast and reliable, and can be purchased with high capacities to store a lot of data. For NAS and long-term storage, SATA remains king and I don't see that changing anytime soon, but my home lab is also largely kitted out with SATA over NVMe.