This thumb-sized accessory gave my old PC an instant speed boost (and twice the storage)

"In the not-so-distant past, the solution for boosting the speed of an aging, sluggish PC was to add more RAM or upgrade the processor. Now, the way to sail over that speed bump is to get a new storage drive, and there's no better storage upgrade for performance than fitting your system with an M.2 drive. Also: What is MoCA 2.5? How this low-cost networking option can seriously improve your internet There is no shortage of excellent M.2 drives out there, but if you're looking for high-end performance and stability when the going gets tough, the is well worth a look."

"What makes this drive special? Not only does it have a heatsink, but that heatsink is kitted out with two fans to dissipate the heat generated during use. How do you know if your system can take an M.2 drive? Check the manual for your system or the motherboard it uses, do an online search, or open it up and check for an M.2 drive slot. One of the biggest killers of storage drives is heat. While this isn't a problem for most systems, high-end gaming and content creation systems -- when pushed to their limits -- might hit a point where thermal throttling occurs (that is, a deliberate slowing down of the system to allow it to cool down) -- or the heat might cause crashes or premature damage to the drive."

"And the CS3150 is a fast drive. Clocking sequential read and write speeds of 11,500 and 8,500 MB/s, respectively, it's not as fast -- or as expensive -- as the Crucial T705, but that drive doesn't have an actively cooled heatsink. Testing the CS3150, I got speeds within 5% of the specs provided by PNY, which is more than acceptable. If you want to get the best out of this drive, note that you'll need at minimum an Intel Core 13th or 14th-gen or AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU on a compatible motherboard with a free Gen5 M.2 slot."

Upgrading to an M.2 storage drive provides a major performance boost for aging PCs. The CS3150 pairs Gen5 speeds with an actively cooled heatsink that includes two fans to manage waste heat under heavy load. High-end gaming and content-creation systems risk thermal throttling or drive damage without effective cooling. The CS3150 posts sequential read/write speeds of 11,500 and 8,500 MB/s and tests show results within 5% of PNY's specifications. The CS3150 is slower and less costly than the Crucial T705 but adds active cooling. A Gen5-capable CPU and motherboard with a free Gen5 M.2 slot are required.

Read at ZDNET