NVMe questions

[Tuckplace12]

Hi,

So I have a Z97 Pro4 and according to the page on ASRock's website it has an M.2 slot. I was wondering whoch NVMe SSDs would work in my board? It has PCIe gen 2 but does that matter? 

[Bigman397]

You are going to be looking for an M.2 with the "M" key. This is for actual NVME and not sata, so things like a Samsung 970 Evo or Intel 760P

 

Essentially any proper x4 pcie NVME m.2 2280 SSD should, in theory, work.

[MyLittleFella]

just be sure to look for nvme when you're searching online. find one you can afford, look for some reviews online and it you'll tell you if it's actually nvme or sata. m2 is just the slot, like ram's "dimm".

[Tristerin]

Depending on your board I believe some M.2 slots disable certain SATA slots of share its bandwidth just a heads up

[knightslugger]

26 minutes ago, Bigman397 said:

You are going to be looking for an M.2 with the "M" key. This is for actual NVME and not sata, so things like a Samsung 970 Evo or Intel 760P

 

Essentially any proper x4 pcie NVME m.2 2280 SSD should, in theory, work.

honestly, 4x PCIe is overkill for home users. Considering the 2x PCIe are as expensive as SATA drives of the same capacity, i would HIGHLY recommend a 2x PCIe NVMe drive over say a 960 Evo.

[19_blackie_73]

I can be wrong but I remember that there was a catch that it's hard to get 97 series chipsets to boot from nvme. I would double check that and maybe look up whether it is officially supported

[Sakkura]

The M.2 slot on that board only offers a PCIe 2.0 x2 connection. NVMe drives will work, but you're only going to get moderately better performance than from an M.2 SATA SSD.

[Bigman397]

If you are concerned at all about price, just get a sata SSD. Really isn't much performance gain to be had on the cheaper m.2 devices.

[knightslugger]

11 minutes ago, Bigman397 said:

If you are concerned at all about price, just get a sata SSD. Really isn't much performance gain to be had on the cheaper m.2 devices.

I'm tellin' ya, a 2x PCIe NVMe is cheaper AND FASTER than a SATA SSD. SATA NGFF SSD is (just about) dead for today's storage needs.

 

Just look at this: Adata XPG SX6000 - 512GB capacity, Gen3x2 (1000/800), $100.

 

Want 1TB? Here's a Kingston drive...

[Bigman397]

1 minute ago, knightslugger said:

I'm tellin' ya, a 2x PCIe NVMe is cheaper AND FASTER than a SATA SSD. SATA NGFF SSD is dead for today's storage needs.

 

Just look at this: Adata XPG SX6000 - 512GB capacity, Gen3x2 (1000/800), $100.

I still won't trust adata for anything, ram, ssd, etc... not sure why, probably unfounded at this point with the reviews i'm seeing.

 

I did order one of these guys to test my 960 evo in normal pcie slots instead of the m.2 slot to see if it performs better.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07954MHFG/

[knightslugger]

Just now, Bigman397 said:

I still won't trust adata for anything, ram, ssd, etc... not sure why, probably unfounded at this point with the reviews i'm seeing.

 

I did order one of these guys to test my 960 evo in normal pcie slots instead of the m.2 slot to see if it performs better.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07954MHFG/

I've had an ADATA 2.5" drive in my cheap laptop for probably 3 years. a little 250GB drive. no problems.

[AdroG23]

2 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

I'm tellin' ya, a 2x PCIe NVMe is cheaper AND FASTER than a SATA SSD. SATA NGFF SSD is (just about) dead for today's storage needs.

 

Just look at this: Adata XPG SX6000 - 512GB capacity, Gen3x2 (1000/800), $100.

Hi Knight! 
I'm also interested in this matter. I have a regular SATA SSD (a crucial mx500) and was thinking about buying a SAMSUNG 960 or 970 nvme one. 
I KNOW it's completely overkill, but damn i want that m.2 drive on my rig!
But now you mentioned this 2x PCIe nvme drives...
Can you point me in the right direction here? Which ssd drives from classic manufacturers (Kingston, Samsung, Corsair, adata if good) ar 2x PCIe? 
The reason why i ask about known classic manufacturers is that i'm from Argentina, imports are... complicated and there is not a big availability of less known (regardless of quality) brands.
Now, if you know a real good "unknown" brand that can be acquired at a good price i wouldn't mind the extra info

[knightslugger]

Just now, AdroG23 said:

Hi Knight! 
I'm also interested in this matter. I have a regular SATA SSD (a crucial mx500) and was thinking about buying a SAMSUNG 960 or 970 nvme one. 
I KNOW it's completely overkill, but damn i want that m.2 drive on my rig!
But now you mentioned this 2x PCIe nvme drives...
Can you point me in the right direction here? Which ssd drives from classic manufacturers (Kingston, Samsung, Corsair, adata if good) ar 2x PCIe? 
The reason why i ask about known classic manufacturers is that i'm from Argentina, imports are... complicated and there is not a big availability of less known (regardless of quality) brands.
Now, if you know a real good "unknown" brand that can be acquired at a good price i wouldn't mind the extra info

Corsair, Kingston, Team Group, Patriot, ADATA... they're all good in my book.

 

Corsair MP300 series

Kingston A1000 series

Patriot Scorch series

Team Group MP32 series

Adata XPG SX6000 series

[Tuckplace12]

2 hours ago, Bigman397 said:

You are going to be looking for an M.2 with the "M" key. This is for actual NVME and not sata, so things like a Samsung 970 Evo or Intel 760P

 

Essentially any proper x4 pcie NVME m.2 2280 SSD should, in theory, work.

Thank you so much. I already have a sata SSD and I wanted something small, fairly cheap and super fast to hold the games I play the most.

[DocSwag]

21 hours ago, Tuckplace12 said:

Thank you so much. I already have a sata SSD and I wanted something small, fairly cheap and super fast to hold the games I play the most.

If it's just for games a SATA SSD wouldn't be noticeably slower and would be much cheaper.

[germgoatz]

Don't waste your money on NVME if you're just using it for games, I wasted so much on my 250gb 960 evo, just get a SATA SSD, you won't notice a difference, and they're way cheaper.

[knightslugger]

4 minutes ago, germgoatz said:

Don't waste your money on NVME if you're just using it for games, I wasted so much on my 250gb 960 evo, just get a SATA SSD, you won't notice a difference, and they're way cheaper.

Gen3x2 NVMe drives are twice as fast as SATA SSDs and are the exact same price per GB.

[germgoatz]

7 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

and are the exact same price per GB.

Not when I bought mine

[knightslugger]

3 minutes ago, germgoatz said:

Not when I bought mine

Well back then isn't right now, Col. Sanders. (psudo space-balls reference).

[_Hustler_One_]

23 hours ago, AdroG23 said:

Hi Knight! 
I'm also interested in this matter. I have a regular SATA SSD (a crucial mx500) and was thinking about buying a SAMSUNG 960 or 970 nvme one. 
I KNOW it's completely overkill, but damn i want that m.2 drive on my rig!
But now you mentioned this 2x PCIe nvme drives...
Can you point me in the right direction here? Which ssd drives from classic manufacturers (Kingston, Samsung, Corsair, adata if good) ar 2x PCIe? 
The reason why i ask about known classic manufacturers is that i'm from Argentina, imports are... complicated and there is not a big availability of less known (regardless of quality) brands.
Now, if you know a real good "unknown" brand that can be acquired at a good price i wouldn't mind the extra info

You can get Samsung's 850/860 SATA M.2 type SSD for lower price, like mine. I personally use Samsung 860 EVO SATA M.2 250Gb plugged in to M.2 slot, it performs great..

 

 

[AdroG23]

1 minute ago, _Hustler_One_ said:

You can get Samsung's 850/860 SATA M.2 type SSD like mine. I personally use Samsung 860 EVO SATA M.2 250Gb plugged in to M.2 slot, It performs great..

I was looking over that one! it runs like a standard SATA but it plugs on the M.2 port Right? 
If the price is right i might as well get this one and then stick a Corsair plotter on it for rig reasons.
It's not like Corsair is sponsoring me, i'm just obsessed with having an ALL CORSAIR rig (or OCD reasons, obviously)

[_Hustler_One_]

6 minutes ago, AdroG23 said:

I was looking over that one! it runs like a standard SATA but it plugs on the M.2 port Right? 
If the price is right i might as well get this one and then stick a Corsair plotter on it for rig reasons.
It's not like Corsair is sponsoring me, i'm just obsessed with having an ALL CORSAIR rig (or OCD reasons, obviously)

Yes, correct, it's plugged to the M.2 port. Mine is 860 EVO SATA M.2 250GB, I bought it for US$92 back then.

[Kosenator]

On 9/20/2018 at 4:27 PM, Tuckplace12 said:

Hi,

So I have a Z97 Pro4 and according to the page on ASRock's website it has an M.2 slot. I was wondering whoch NVMe SSDs would work in my board? It has PCIe gen 2 but does that matter? 

I have used an ASRock z97 Pro4. With an i7 4790 CPU. For nearly two years. Until I upgraded my CPU and mobo yesterday.

And I have tried the NVMe-experience on the Z97 Pro4..

Let's just say, the NVMe-slot is "experimental" in a way. The NVMe shall remove one, maybe two of your SATA ports. I really could not see any reason to miss a 1TB HDD for a moderate speed increase at 256GB.

 

If you have less than four drives, it might work, otherwise I recommend you save up for a newer mobo and CPU, or get a bigger (and a little bit cheaper comparatively) SSD. And you might even get a better performance increase by rather adding more, or faster, RAM (you can get DDR3 to go at 1866 on the mobo, via UEFI action)