How to find if a mobo (like a GA-Z68XP-UD4) can make use of PCI SSD?

[bikerchris]

Hello All,

Hope we're doing well today?

I'm afraid my sig is a little out of date, as I've got a 240GB Intel 530 Series SSD. Anywho, I was thinking of Samsung SM951 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe High Performance SSD, but I have a few concerns:

1) It seems you have to create a bootable UEFI Win 7 x64 USB memory stick, is this a lot of fiddling around?
2) Can the Mobo make use of the speed? I've seen mention in the spec that speed is lowered by populating other ports, but that's about it.
3) It's suspiciously cheaper than a 2.5inch SSD, although the lack of case probably helps
4) How easy is it to make a disc image...or rather a RAM image? I usually use Macrium Reflect (awesome software) with a USB/SATA adaptor and another machine. 100% reliability using that method, rather than having the machine to be imaged having Reflect installed on it.
5) Are you bored of lists?

Cheers in advance!

Chris

 

[stulid]

http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/Intel-SSD-750-Series-PCIe-Compatibility-Tested

1) It might work.

2) As you are using Sandybridge its PCi-E 2.0 only, so speeds are limited.

3) You may not even be able to use it as a bootable device.

 

[bikerchris]

Cheers stulid for the quick reply and your answers. Very helpful indeed - and I'll take a look at the link now.

 

[marc2003]

Not worth it, even if you had a mobo with full speed native support. The money would be much better spent on a new SATA drive.

 

[bikerchris]

Thanks Marc, really appreciated.