SM951 256GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe

Soldato
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Hi all,

i picked up the SM951 256GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe and have just built a pc up, flashed the latest mobo bios

i am getting these speeds which look correct ?

FcPH1A5.jpg.png

any drivers i should be using with this ssd ? or just the windows/mobo ones?
 
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Not sure what to make of that video, in the comments he says the drivers work for both the SM951 and the SM961 drives, I have a 256gb SM961 and the drivers don't detect it at all so refuse to install.
 
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I can't say I've seen any firmware updates for either the 951 or 961 drives.

Likewise, I'm still on the Windows drivers, but if the drivers for the 950 pro work with these drives and offer a performance benefit then I'd rather have those, unfortunately the most recent version downloadable from Samsung is an executable that halts because it doesn't detect a compatible device.
 
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I tried both the M$ and Samsung drivers with an SM951 yesterday. There's no measurable difference in performance between the two here. The big difference shown in the video above was down to a known issue with the original M$ driver that was fixed some months ago.
 
Soldato
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I can't say I've seen any firmware updates for either the 951 or 961 drives.

Likewise, I'm still on the Windows drivers, but if the drivers for the 950 pro work with these drives and offer a performance benefit then I'd rather have those, unfortunately the most recent version downloadable from Samsung is an executable that halts because it doesn't detect a compatible device.

As far as I am aware... there is no way to update the firmware on these drives (unless somethings changed recently)! One of the problems with these being true OEM system builder parts (IE. not retail). Magician is highly unlikely to ever fully support the SM951/61. So no way to effectively Secure Erase them either and good luck trying to get any of the third party tools to SE the drives either.

Samsungs NVME driver (version 1.1) should install just fine under Windows 10 (again unless something has changed since I installed it a while back). And it will provide meaningful (real world) performance improvements over the aging Windows 10 stock driver. Though unlikely to see the improvements in quick and nasty testing tools like CDM, AS SSD etc. You would need to run something like the storage tests in PC MARK8. Where the bandwidth especially shows a big improvement.

If interested, read the Legit review of the SM951 and see my test results at the end of the article.
http://www.legitreviews.com/samsung-sm951-nvme-m-2-pcie-ssd-review_162219
 
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I'm not that fussed about Magician, never used stuff like that anyway, and SE isn't an issue for me, I wont be selling the drive on so if the drive ever fails and I'm that bothered about data that it might contain I'll simply incinerate it. Good luck reconstructing data from a pile of ash.

As to the NVMe driver, it doesn't install at all on W10 and likely wont on any MS OS with a 961 (might with a 951 though), the latest (1.1) is an executable only download option from Samsung, and as I mentioned, it halts because it doesn't detect a compatible device, there's no option to extract the files and force a manual .inf install as it's not simply a self-decompressing archive made to look like a program, it's an actual program.

Short of grabbing ResHacker and seeing if I can get anything out of it that way, it's nothing but a waste of bytes on my storage drive.
 
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I'm not that fussed about Magician, never used stuff like that anyway, and SE isn't an issue for me, I wont be selling the drive on so if the drive ever fails and I'm that bothered about data that it might contain I'll simply incinerate it. Good luck reconstructing data from a pile of ash.

As to the NVMe driver, it doesn't install at all on W10 and likely wont on any MS OS with a 961 (might with a 951 though), the latest (1.1) is an executable only download option from Samsung, and as I mentioned, it halts because it doesn't detect a compatible device, there's no option to extract the files and force a manual .inf install as it's not simply a self-decompressing archive made to look like a program, it's an actual program.

Short of grabbing ResHacker and seeing if I can get anything out of it that way, it's nothing but a waste of bytes on my storage drive.

Fair enough.

Sounds like it wont detect and hence wont install for the newer SM961. It certainly installs just fine for the SM951 though and does provide real world benefits (see my linked article above). Though a lot also depends on what firmware the SM951 is currently coming with now!? As I obviously have one of the earlier drives (bought almost a year ago now).

 
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well I'm having terrible speeds with mine, read speed is ok at nearly 2700mb/s, but write is only 433mb/s, 4k is taking soooo long to run and currently sitting at 1.71mb/s, so I think I'm missing something on mine, any ideas anyone.
 
Soldato
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well I'm having terrible speeds with mine, read speed is ok at nearly 2700mb/s, but write is only 433mb/s, 4k is taking soooo long to run and currently sitting at 1.71mb/s, so I think I'm missing something on mine, any ideas anyone.

Question... what are you using to test this?
AS SSD by any chance?
 
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