M.2 SSDs

hawki

hawki

hawki

Associate
Joined
8 Sep 2014
Posts
15
Has anyone used one of the newer format SSDs with the M.2 interface?

I am currently working on a custom build PC where space is very limited and was originally going to put in a Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD for the main operating system.

But then I noticed that the motherboard I will be getting (Asus X99-S) has an M.2 slot.

So... do people think I should stick with the 850 (currently £260) and the more traditional sized SSDs or go for an M.2?

For not much more money I could get the Plextor M.2 512GB, or there's the SanDisk X300s 512GB and Crucial M500 480GB both just under £200 - so actually cheaper than the 580!

Adoption of the M.2 format so far doesn't seem to be that much - searching these forums for "M2" or "M.2" failed to return a single result, but the idea of having the SSD physically attached to the motherboard saving space on both the drive and cabling seems like a nice bonus!

I also looked at some of the PCI-E SSDs but they all seem to be well into their own price bracket!
 
I would like to know this too as i have a Z97 board with M.2 slot and instead of using my Samsung 840 Pro id like to replace it with a Samsung XP941 M.2

Which are much better speeds than any SSD out at the moment.
 
the asus m.2 slots are pcie ssd only not sata m.2..
the plextor pcie2 2lane is faster than sata (normal or m.2) but not as fast as xp941 4 lane.
4 lane pcie m.2 is very rare beast at the moment....the oems are not releasing to retail...
the one to look for is sm951 samsung..it was supposed to be out by now...
for me if i was going for sata i would not go m.2 as less compatible and no performance improvement .
i am not going m.2 pciex2 as quite expensive for the performance improvement and i'm hoping sm951 is imminent.
probably will get sm951 as boot drive when it comes out...interesting asus have ratified many ssd pcie controllers...many more than there are products using them available to buy...


http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=27140752#post27140752
 
Last edited:
they do get super hot lol
I think they need to fix that,
tablets and laptops don't really need 1000mbps so its still a specialist thing I guess
 
Hi, I have had the Crucial M550 as an M.2 and I currently have the Samsung xp941. The m.2 M550 (as you would expect) behaves like its SSD 2.5" variant, performance wise its the same just using the m.2 port.

The xp941 on the other hand is a different beast as its PCIe x4 and if your m/b can take advantage of its speed (with an ultra m.2 interface) its an incredibly fast card, achieving 1Gb/s reads...

I've heard about the heat issue, but have no concerns, as long as there is air flow its not an issue, it's a tiny pcb.

I'm using this as my boot drive.
 
Hmm so I wonder if it's safest to stick with the traditional SSDs.... the asus website for the X99-S states "Support PCIE SSD only" but in the advertising says "32Gb/s M.2 x4 Support". My main concern is that the M.2 slot is mounted vertically out of the motherboard - I suppose this helps with the temperature, but I'm not sure I want this generating loads of heat right on the intake for the CPU.

At least if I start off with the 850 or similar I can always upgrade to an M.2 in the future?
 
Btw pcie ssd is a subset of 32gbs m.2 x4 ..so not contradictory...
the x4 indiciates 4 pci e lanes.
I would consider xp941 1gb/s is certainly a good chunk faster...more so the latency is even more impressive i understand..but they are hard to get hold of in uk..
Sm951 will be next generation with reported speeds of 1.5-2GB/s ..
 
I wanted to grab the Transcend M.2 drives when OcUK had the in stock; 500GB for £149. I just didn't have the cash. :(

I think the interface is far superior to both SATA and SATA Express (which I think is a complete joke tbh) and the format is really neat.

Frankly I've been quite disappointed but how few examples there are; where are the M.2 drives? C'mon manufacturers pull your fingers out!
 
JCBeastie said:
I wanted to grab the Transcend M.2 drives when OcUK had the in stock; 500GB for £149. I just didn't have the cash. :(

I think the interface is far superior to both SATA and SATA Express (which I think is a complete joke tbh) and the format is really neat.

Frankly I've been quite disappointed but how few examples there are; where are the M.2 drives? C'mon manufacturers pull your fingers out!
Click to expand...

every one wants them..its difficult to believe they are more costly to manufacturer/oems cant maintain the same or better margins on at a price people are happy to pay...i vote conspiracy...perhaps old stock they want to run down first...after all sata is almost pointless now at a similar price point.
 
I'm happy with my Samsung XP941, boots really quickly and benchmarks twice as fast as my other SSD's.

Was strange installing windows 8 straight onto it from USB without having any other drives installed.
 
Last edited:
Been doing a search and some interesting information in here but its a bit annoying that the the Samsung XP941 will not work at full speed in a Asus Gene VII which is a huge shame :( Only one I can see that will be decent is the Plextor M6e as it uses a PCIe 2 M.2 bus.

What speeds you getting quonker with it on your Rampage V?
 
coolamasta said:
Been doing a search and some interesting information in here but its a bit annoying that the the Samsung XP941 will not work at full speed in a Asus Gene VII which is a huge shame :( Only one I can see that will be decent is the Plextor M6e as it uses a PCIe 2 M.2 bus.

What speeds you getting quonker with it on your Rampage V?
Click to expand...

Not sure how to insert an image mate but just ran AS SSD benchmark:

SEQ 1136.16 read, 808.17 write
4K 35.11 read, 111.23 write
4K-64Thrd 475.30 read, 237.17 write
Acc.time 0.048ms read, 0.034ms write.

or:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

-<ASSSDBenchmark XmlFormatVersion="1">


-<Information>

<Name>SAMSUNG MZHPU256HCGL-00004</Name>

<Firmware>UXM6501Q</Firmware>

<Controller>storahci</Controller>

<Size>238.47 GB</Size>

<DateTime>17/12/2014 14:11:00</DateTime>

<BenchmarkVersion>1.7.4739.38088</BenchmarkVersion>

<Mode>MB/s</Mode>

<Note/>

<Signature/>

</Information>


-<SeqTest>

<Read>1136.16 MB/s</Read>

<Write>808.17 MB/s</Write>

</SeqTest>


-<Random4K1TTest>

<Read>35.11 MB/s</Read>

<Write>111.23 MB/s</Write>

</Random4K1TTest>


-<Random4K64TTest>

<Read>475.30 MB/s</Read>

<Write>237.17 MB/s</Write>

</Random4K64TTest>


+<AccTimeTest>


-<Score>

<Read>624</Read>

<Write>429</Write>

<Total>1366</Total>

</Score>

</ASSSDBenchmark>
 
Ah cheers for posting mate, that's awesome speeds, just checked out your board and it says under spec - "PCI Express 3.0 x4 M.2" which is exactly what you need where as the Rampage Gene VII I have is "M.2 mini-PCIe 2.0 x1 slot " so max speed is limited to 800MB/s so the Samsung XP941 would be a waste for me :(

Some great info on here about it all - http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Overview-of-M-2-SSDs-586/#M_2logicalinterfaces
 
Sorry to hear that coolamasta, not sure that the real world performance of the XP941 is massively noticeable over my other SSD's though.

I do like the way it just plugs in though, looks pretty cool :)
 
Cheers, its no biggie, pays to do your research though I guess as if I had bought the XP941 and realised then it would never run at its quoted speeds I would have been very unhappy haha :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom