Is a samsung SM951 worth it?

[JavierG]

Hey guys, I'm in a conundrum. I'm going to purchase a new computer and the mother board I'm interested in has an ultra m.2 slot so I was thinking of buying a SM951 as the OS drive. BUT after doing some research here I found out that maybe its not the best investment. I mainly do photography work via photoshop and hopefully if all goes well and I have money for a new DSLR then video as well (but not yet).

 

The components I'm interested in buying for the mother board are as follows:

 

Asrock Z97 Extreme6/3.1

Intel Core i7-4770 haswel

G.skill Ripjaws X series 32 GB (4x 8GB)

Corsair Ax760

samsung 850 EVO 500GB

WD black series 2TB

 

I was thinking of buying the SM951 to have "instant" boot time and program loading, but seems that in that regard its not like a normal ssd would not perform fast in those tasks. Also right now only the AHCI version is out no nvme. The other thing is that if I use the ultra m.2 slot then I will not have a 16x slot for a future graphics card.

 

Any suggestions? o yeah and those who ask since I game very little at the moment I'll use the onboard video for now.

[gazabi]

Hey guys, I'm in a conundrum. I'm going to purchase a new computer and the mother board I'm interested in has an ultra m.2 slot so I was thinking of buying a SM951 as the OS drive. BUT after doing some research here I found out that maybe its not the best investment. I mainly do photography work via photoshop and hopefully if all goes well and I have money for a new DSLR then video as well (but not yet).

 

The components I'm interested in buying for the mother board are as follows:

 

Asrock Z97 Extreme6/3.1

Intel Core i7-4770 haswel

G.skill Ripjaws X series 32 GB (4x 8GB)

Corsair Ax760

samsung 850 EVO 500GB

WD black series 2TB

 

I was thinking of buying the SM951 to have "instant" boot time and program loading, but seems that in that regard its not like a normal ssd would not perform fast in those tasks. Also right now only the AHCI version is out no nvme. The other thing is that if I use the ultra m.2 slot then I will not have a 16x slot for a future graphics card.

 

Any suggestions? o yeah and those who ask since I game very little at the moment I'll use the onboard video for now.

Swap the z97 board for an h97 one since the 4770 is locked. Also why wouldn't you have a16x slot if you use an m.2 ssd?

[JavierG]

I'm not really into over clocking so I know about the locked processor the ram is 1600 as well... Well I don't know if there are enough lanes after connecting the sm951 to the m.2 ultra slot...

[gazabi]

I'm not really into over clocking so I know about the locked processor the ram is 1600 as well... Well I don't know if there are enough lanes after connecting the sm951 to the m.2 ultra slot...

The m.2 slot will use a maximum of 4 pcie 3.0 lanes, and gpus run %99 the same with 8 lanes versus 16 lanes so it wouldn't make a difference.

[JavierG]

Still will it help with boot up times and program loading THAT much?

[gazabi]

Still will it help with boot up times and program loading THAT much?

Yes it will. SSDs, especially super fast ones like the SM951 speed up boot and load times a great deal. Other than that there aren't any other substantial performance increases with getting an SSD.

[JavierG]

OK so if I understood you, If I purchase the sm951 and connect it to the ultra m.2 slot I can still connect a future graphics card in 16x? (even though you mention that rarely does it run at 16x, mostly 8x).... AND it will help substantially on boot time and program loading...

[gazabi]

OK so if I understood you, If I purchase the sm951 and connect it to the ultra m.2 slot I can still connect a future graphics card in 16x? (even though you mention that rarely does it run at 16x, mostly 8x).... AND it will help substantially on boot time and program loading...

Yes the card will still go in the 16x slot but most likely wont use all 16  lanes, it will use 8 lanes. And it will speed up your boot and load times significantly.