Please spec me m.2 for Asus Maximus VII Ranger

[SkScotchegg]

Hi there, please can you tell me if either of these m.2 cards will be compatible with my motherboard?

my current mobo is "Asus Maximus VII Ranger Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard"

And the two m.2 I was looking at was:

Samsung
850 EVO Series M.2 500GB SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (MZ-N5E500BW) - £150
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...-solid-state-drive-mz-n5e500bw-hd-204-sa.html

and

Samsung
PM951 512GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive (MZVLV512HCJH-00000) - £150
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...state-drive-mzvlv512hcjh-00000-hd-223-sa.html

EDIT: Also, can you tell me which one of these is the best one because I don't really know much about m.2 cards.

Thanks in advance.

 

[s1xtyn1n3]

I don't know much about M.2 drives besides what I have read this week while buying mine, but basically, the difference between those 2 drives is that the 850 is basically a regular SATA drive in M.2 clothing where as the 951 is an NVMe drive so it uses a newer controller specifically designed for flash memory storage with none of the legacy stuff that limits it on a SATA controller.

So the simple answer is that the 951 is a better drive but it's also worth mentioning is that your motherboard's M.2 slot is only PCI-E 2.0 by the looks of it. That means you may not see the full speeds quoted for the 951 unless you upgrade your motherboard or use one of your other PCI-E 3.0 slots with an M.2 adaptor.

 

[SkScotchegg]

I don't know much about M.2 drives besides what I have read this week while buying mine, but basically, the difference between those 2 drives is that the 850 is basically a regular SATA drive in M.2 clothing where as the 951 is an NVMe drive so it uses a newer controller specifically designed for flash memory storage with none of the legacy stuff that limits it on a SATA controller.

So the simple answer is that the 951 is a better drive but it's also worth mentioning is that your motherboard's M.2 slot is only PCI-E 2.0 by the looks of it. That means you may not see the full speeds quoted for the 951 unless you upgrade your motherboard or use one of your other PCI-E 3.0 slots with an M.2 adaptor.

Cheers for that explanation mate, I really appreciate it. So I reckon I'll get the 951 and get an adapter then as well. Thanks for that.

 

[Borealis]

According to the Asus website, only the primary graphics slot is PCI-E 3.0. Everything else is PCI-E 2.0, meaning there is little point in putting the SSD in an adapter.

TBH, unless you're benchmarking, you're unlikely to see the difference in performance between an M.2. SSD and a regular SATA SSD so don't get too hung up on the speed. It's still way, way faster than a mechanical HDD.

Edit: What OS are you on? Win 7 does not have native support for NVMe boot drives. Windows 8.1 and 10 do.