The Dell OptiPlex 3040 Micro's M.2 slot is SATA-only — a storage gotcha

Here’s a gotcha on the Dell OptiPlex 3040 Micro — its M.2 2230 slot is SATA-only, not NVMe. If you’re hoping for NVMe speeds in this tiny Dell, you’re out of luck. The 2.5-inch SATA bay works fine for a regular SSD, but the M.2 slot won’t give you the PCIe bandwidth you might expect from a modern machine.