Which interface is commonly used to connect solid-state drives and other devices to the motherboard?

Which interface is commonly used to connect solid-state drives and other devices to the motherboard?

• A. IDE
• B. SATA
• C. PCIe
• D. Thunderbolt

Answer: (B)

When you’re connecting storage and other internal devices to a motherboard, a storage-focused interface is used. SATA is the serial interface designed for internal drives, offering a slim data cable and a separate power connection, which keeps inside-the-case wiring practical. It’s widely supported by motherboards and operating systems and supports hot-swapping on many systems, making it the go-to choice for mainstream SSDs and HDDs (and even optical drives). IDE is an older parallel standard that’s been largely phased out, so it isn’t commonly used anymore. PCIe is a high-speed bus used for expansion cards and NVMe SSDs, which can be internal but follow a different path than SATA. Thunderbolt is primarily an external interface. So the interface most commonly used to connect solid-state drives and other internal devices to the motherboard is SATA.

When you’re connecting storage and other internal devices to a motherboard, a storage-focused interface is used. SATA is the serial interface designed for internal drives, offering a slim data cable and a separate power connection, which keeps inside-the-case wiring practical. It’s widely supported by motherboards and operating systems and supports hot-swapping on many systems, making it the go-to choice for mainstream SSDs and HDDs (and even optical drives). IDE is an older parallel standard that’s been largely phased out, so it isn’t commonly used anymore. PCIe is a high-speed bus used for expansion cards and NVMe SSDs, which can be internal but follow a different path than SATA. Thunderbolt is primarily an external interface. So the interface most commonly used to connect solid-state drives and other internal devices to the motherboard is SATA.