Is PCIE SSD worth it?

xchaotic · 5 Apr 2016 at 09:27

I am upgrading a friend's laptop and need to get a regular 2.5" SATA SSD.
Rather than getting a new one I'm thinking of giving her my 6 month old SanDisk and get a Samsung m2 PCIE SSD via an adapter.
I have this motherboard:
MSI Z87-G43 and I'd be using the second PCIE x16 slot for it, via an m2 adapter.
Worries:
1. Can I boot from that.
2. No chance of SLI if I wanted to add a second card (but I think I don't want that anyway)
3. Can I migrate my Win installation to that drive easily?

FredFlint · 5 Apr 2016 at 19:44

Hi,
1. Depends on your motherboard, it might be more likely to work for a AHCI version.
3. Use Macrium reflect to image the SanDisk SSD drive to the PCIe one before you remove it.

xchaotic · 8 Apr 2016 at 19:36

I went for the Samsung 950Pro and it comes with its own migration software so that's sorted.
The board is UEFI and AHCI compliant and I've read reports of being able to boot with that model so I am hopeful.
I will be attempting the upgrade tonight so fingers crossed.

xchaotic · 9 Apr 2016 at 13:06

I had a bit of scare as after migrating it wouldn't boot once, but after enabling Windows 8 safe boot, it is working fine!

WantoN · 13 Apr 2016 at 22:44

Hello mate,
Glad it went well. I'm thinking of doing the exact same thing.

Nice figures!

How do you find boot times and responsiveness vs your old ssd?