NVMe SSDs Avalability

[danieltoruno]

With Samsung releasing their NVMe SSD's earlier last week and all of the other rumors I have been hearing, does anyone know when the majority of these will be available for consumers. All I know of at the moment is INTEL's 750 series and it's a bit pricey I'm looking to pick up an SSD in the $300 range rather than $400+. Anyone have any info on the release dates, where to purchase, pricing, ect. Anything is appreciated, Thanks!

[Arty]

Intels will cost more, but i think they are the fastest atm

and since intel very reliable 

[Metro]

The Intel 750 SSDs are faster, they have more IOPS which is what is used in games, so it reduces load time.

[amp88]

You have 2 options: find a retailer who has them for pre-order, put down some money and hope you get one soon or keep checking retailers periodically and hope to catch one in stock. The availability is very patchy at the moment, presumably because they're OEM products. I got mine in last week after pre-ordering, but I haven't used them yet because I was waiting on other parts to arrive. Good luck.

[GzeroD]

The Intel 750 SSDs are faster, they have more IOPS which is what is used in games, so it reduces load time.

No. Game files are generally packed into (Relatively large) archives that can be loaded as single continuous files and unpacked in ram. IOPS generally reduce storage related stutter in games where things can appear on screen that where not loaded in to an archive loaded with the rest of a scene. At least this is how I have come to understand it.

[danieltoruno]

You have 2 options: find a retailer who has them for pre-order, put down some money and hope you get one soon or keep checking retailers periodically and hope to catch one in stock. The availability is very patchy at the moment, presumably because they're OEM products. I got mine in last week after pre-ordering, but I haven't used them yet because I was waiting on other parts to arrive. Good luck.

Where can I preorder one of these? Can you link me?

[Metro]

No. Game files are generally packed into (Relatively large) archives that can be loaded as single continuous files and unpacked in ram. IOPS generally reduce storage related stutter in games where things can appear on screen that where not loaded in to an archive loaded with the rest of a scene. At least this is how I have come to understand it.

 

So the more IOPS the better, which is why you should go with the Intel 750, it is random read and write, this is what games use more than consecutive read and write, like an operating system.

[GzeroD]

So the more IOPS the better, which is why you should go with the Intel 750, it is random read and write, this is what games use more than consecutive read and write, like an operating system.

There is a limit to this benefit. Any good sata 3 ssd will have all the IOPS you will need for game loading especially if you have one drive for your OS and another for your games. . Just about any NVME SSD should be adequate for that. 

[amp88]

Where can I preorder one of these? Can you link me?

It depends where you are. I'm in the UK, and I pre-ordered and got mine from Flexx Memory. They're also available to pre-order in the UK from Scan Computers.

If you're in the rest of the EU you may want to try Geizhals. They appear to only be listing Scan Computers at the moment, but they could be a good opportunity in the future, when more retailers get stock in.

Another option is to Google for the part number of the drive you want, and look in Web results and Shopping. You might find some there. The part numbers are:

128GB: MZVPV128HDGM

256GB: MZVPV256HDGL

512GB: MZVPV512HDGL

If you don't already know the difference in part numbers between the NVMe and AHCI versions, the NVMe versions have a 'V' as the 3rd character and the AHCI versions have an 'H'.

[Metro]

There is a limit to this benefit. Any good sata 3 ssd will have all the IOPS you will need for game loading especially if you have one drive for your OS and another for your games. . Just about any NVME SSD should be adequate for that. 

 

This was my point, if you are going to get an NVMe SSD, get the Intel 750 because it is the best SSD on the consumer market at the moment. The higher IOPS do help, so it is worth it.

[Crowcore]

A few questions:

a] Any idea when we can expect more consumer NVMe SSD alternatives to hit the shelves ? Are Plextor, Sandisk, Crucial and OCZ up to anything on that front ?

 

b] Can the M.2 form factor accmodate for 1TB capacity ? Because the Samsung SM951-NVMe is only up to 512GB.

 

c] Like with a PCIe SSD, using the M.2 slot with Z97 will cut the GPU bandwitth to 3.0 x8 ?

[Curufinwe_wins]

A few questions:

a] Any idea when we can expect more consumer NVMe SSD alternatives to hit the shelves ? Are Plextor, Sandisk, Crucial and OCZ up to anything on that front ?

b] Can the M.2 form factor accmodate for 1TB capacity ? Because the Samsung SM951-NVMe is only up to 512GB.

c] Like with a PCIe SSD, using the M.2 slot with Z97 will cut the GPU bandwitth to 3.0 x8 ?

1. There are some other exotic pcie ssds, and I know one of the hdd makers announced a nvme ssd, but I don't know when more will actually reach consumers.

2. Not at the moment.

3. Probably yes, it does depend on motherboard however and each motherboard manual will explain what happens with a m.2 in place.

For example on the msi x99s sli plus the m.2 slot shares bandwidth with a few sata express ports but can be used with basically any combination of 3 way sli and x99 cpu, while the stupid x99a sabertooth (which I have) completely deactivates the final pcie slot when an m.2 is activated. (Which is super lame, but it doesn't support 3 way sli on 5820k's in the first place.)