Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX AC

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graysky
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Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX AC

Post by graysky » Wed May 18, 2016 11:22 pm

I understand that my MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX AC only supports an M.2 speed of "PCIe 2.0 2x" but the Samsung 950 Pro I am considering support "PCIe 3.0 4x." Assuming that it [the 950 Pro] is backwards compatible, I have two questions about using it on this motherboard:

1) Will the 950 Pro physically fit in the board's M.2 connector (ie are 2.0 2x and 3.0 4x physically identical)?
2) Has anyone published some data comparing the drive's speeds at 2.0 2x vs 3.0 4x?

I am currently using an Samsung 840 Pro connected via the SATA port. Thanks!

quest_for_silence
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Re: Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX A

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu May 19, 2016 12:34 am

graysky wrote:1) Will the 950 Pro physically fit in the board's M.2 connector (ie are 2.0 2x and 3.0 4x physically identical)?

Providing it's a rightly keyed connector, yes.

graysky wrote:2) Has anyone published some data comparing the drive's speeds at 2.0 2x vs 3.0 4x?

AFAIK no, something has been written about (though you've to dig into the net): "...a M.2 drive using PCI-E 2.0 x2 only has a 25% potential speed increase over SATA III..." (so about five times slower than PCIe 3.0 4x)

xan_user
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Re: Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX A

Post by xan_user » Thu May 19, 2016 5:36 am

graysky wrote: I am currently using an Samsung 840 Pro connected via the SATA port. Thanks!
it will work. but you wont "feel" any actual performance increase over the 840.

Abula
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Re: Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX A

Post by Abula » Thu May 19, 2016 5:57 am

In some cases, like cold booting, you might even feel a downgrade, in some motherboards it takes time to initialize the M.2 drives, kinda like it takes on servers to initialize the HBAs, so it adds 5 to 10 sec extra to the boot up, this is avoided on sata drives, thats not to say its not a faster drive, it is, and if you use a lot of sequentials (that not many of us do) then you will feel a big ugprade, but the usual day to day tasks, the responsiveness of an ssd is given by even a sata II ssd, i cant tell the difference between my Intel X25m, Samsung 840pro, Samsung 850pro.

By my comments, im not trying to discourage you into going in a 950pro, by far the fastest drive in the market, just for the average user, its not needed over a good ssd as you already have, i bought my 850pro over 950pro, mostly because i need more space, and since i didnt have any short plans on going m.2 i decided was a worth investment, once m.2 starting going over 1tb i might consider them for a main drive.

Im considering buying one, but more for editing where the sequentials will be a good upgrade over whats available on sata III.

graysky
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Re: Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX A

Post by graysky » Thu May 19, 2016 11:23 am

Thanks for the link and info. Looks like it would be a waste without PCIe 3.0 4x.

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Re: Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX A

Post by xan_user » Thu May 19, 2016 6:26 pm

graysky wrote:Thanks for the link and info. Looks like it would be a waste without PCIe 3.0 4x.
personally i found it to be a waste even with 3.0 4x.

these are meant to be enterprise drives, with tons users/apps accessing the drive at the same time. desktop users dont do enough simultaneous reads/writes for NVMe drives to really shine.

Fire-Flare
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Re: Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX A

Post by Fire-Flare » Fri May 20, 2016 1:28 pm

graysky wrote:Thanks for the link and info. Looks like it would be a waste without PCIe 3.0 4x.
There are M.2 adapters that go in PCIe x4 expansion slots, perhaps that would work for you?

quest_for_silence
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Re: Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX A

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri May 20, 2016 8:55 pm

Fire-Flare wrote:There are M.2 adapters that go in PCIe x4 expansion slots, perhaps that would work for you?
There's a chance that cold booting is rather unsatisfactory that way.

Fire-Flare
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Re: Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX A

Post by Fire-Flare » Fri May 20, 2016 9:00 pm

quest_for_silence wrote:
Fire-Flare wrote:There are M.2 adapters that go in PCIe x4 expansion slots, perhaps that would work for you?
There's a chance that cold booting is rather unsatisfactory that way.
Would it be any worse than waiting for a raid array to initiate?

quest_for_silence
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Re: Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX A

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri May 20, 2016 11:28 pm

Fire-Flare wrote:Would it be any worse than waiting for a raid array to initiate?

I wouldn't be able to say: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1501-page4.html
On the other hand, the OP didn't say he run a raid array.

graysky
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Re: Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX A

Post by graysky » Sat May 21, 2016 2:05 am

Fire-Flare wrote:
graysky wrote:Thanks for the link and info. Looks like it would be a waste without PCIe 3.0 4x.
There are M.2 adapters that go in PCIe x4 expansion slots, perhaps that would work for you?
I did find http://ableconn.com/support_1.php?gid=62 for $22 so I might try it out. Thanks for the suggestion.

graysky
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Re: Newbie question - 950 PRO M.2 on an MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX A

Post by graysky » Sat May 21, 2016 3:39 pm

So I just received that particular adapter and it works with the current Linux kernel completely transparently. Any of you guys in here running Linux and would be willing to post a benchmark with the hardware?

EDIT: I posted a new thread here with the request to keep this thread clean. Thanks!

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