The only advantage mSATA has over standard SATA is taking up less space. If you already have a 2.5" slot to spare, you are much better off getting any popular SSD and call it a day. mSATA is more expensive, less capacity, and less speed. They are useful in laptops like mine, with a single 2.5" drive bay, and a mSATA, if you want/need a large capacity (2TB) drive, and don't want to spend so much for a 2TB SSD.