Is M.2 PCI Express Gen3 x4 the best SSD option?

Audioaficionado · Mar 29, 2015

http://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/m_2.png

I'm also considering the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 motherboard.

I'm not up to speed yet on all the SSD options. I'd think that a direct PCIe connection would be faster than a SATA III port. Is an M.2 port even faster?

What are the best SSDs out now and is there anything on the horizon I should wait for?

ATMINSIDE · Mar 29, 2015

M.2 is a new interface for PCIe SSDs.
That said, you won't notice much (if any) of a difference in daily usage between SATA III and M.2. Definitely note enough to justify the price difference.

Audioaficionado · Mar 29, 2015

Transcend vs Plextor
Max Sequential Read: Transcend- Up to 560 MBps ; Plextor- Up to 770 MBps
Max Sequential Write: Transcend- Up to 310 MBps ; Plextor- Up to 580 MBps

SATA is a bottleneck for SSD. Was intended for platter hard drives.

PCIe x2 buss limits: Is the SSD the bottleneck now? How much faster can they go in the future?

Is M.2 = PCIe x2?

ATMINSIDE · Mar 29, 2015

Yes, SATA is a sequential bottleneck, but 4K and seek times are what make an SSD seem so fast.
And if you look at the benchmarks, those aren't improved on M.2 vs SATA yet.

Yes, on M.2 the SSD controller is the bottleneck, but only on sequential.
4K read/write still can't saturate the bus.

Audioaficionado · Mar 29, 2015

PCI-Express 2.0 x8 SSDs = much faster, but crazy expensive for us enthusiasts.

EarthDog · Mar 29, 2015

There are new m.2 based drives coming out that should be faster and easily best most sata based drives. it's the way I would go now.

Audioaficionado · Mar 29, 2015

That ASRock I'm considering has an M.2 PCIe x4 port. I'd sure hate to fill it with SATA III SSD.

Woomack · Mar 29, 2015

Most M.2 drives are actually SATA so max ~560MB/s. Even these PCIE M.2 are not much faster in random transfers.
I'm testing HyperX Predator right now. Sequential read up to 1400MB/s but random 4k only 40MB/s so "all" ~8MB/s more than most fastest SATA SSD. Intel is preparing something with higher random bandwidth but hard to say if it will be 10MB/s higher or 200MB/s. Right now PCIE M.2 drives look more like standard SATA in RAID0.

Deciding on M.2 SSD check what standards is motherboard supporting. Like ASUS RVE is only supporting PCIE M.2. I don't know if there are boards with only SATA M.2 support. I just wasn't interested enough to check it.

Audioaficionado · Mar 29, 2015

ASRock Z97 Extreme6 Motherboard Review (w/ Samsung XP941 M.2 SSD)

I also found this:

Asrock boosts bandwidth of M.2 SSDs with ‘Ultra M.2’, but there is a catch
No free lunch this time.

I really like the M.2 form factor. However I'd have to decide on using the faster x4 port that take some graphics bandwidth or just use a SATA III port. That 2nd M.2 port is slow.

This looks interesting:
ASUS Hyper M.2 X4 – PCI-Express Gen2/3 to M.2 x4 SSD Adapter Card

Asustek’s adapter provides M.2 SSDs up to 4GB/s of bandwidth

Audioaficionado · Mar 30, 2015

EarthDog said:
There are new m.2 based drives coming out that should be faster and easily best most sata based drives. it's the way I would go now.

QFT

The Samsung SM951 M2 Gen 3 PCIe x4 looks like the first of many that will get released this year by SSD manufactures.

anandtech.com

SSD Database

Railgun · Mar 30, 2015

I'm using a Samsung XP941 now. Not worth it as it's not a consumer part Samsung supports in that respect.

My only use for it was to quickly work on large videos and photos where sequential may help. Nothing more.

If anything, you want a PCI-E 3.0 interface. 2.0 will hit limits soon enough with these drives...again, specific to sequential. 2GBps will be hit easily. And you want the board to support NVMe as those drives will be even quicker.

dejo · Mar 30, 2015

all of the m.2 drives I have seen seen to be slower on the 4k's

Audioaficionado · Mar 30, 2015

The SM951 (AHCI) is an OEM only part Leveno uses for their high-end slim notebooks. You can get them from RAM CITY in Australia, but it's not even a prosumer part. It's looking very good that a lot more M.2 SSDs with the faster PCIe x4 capabilities are going to be coming out this year.

NVMe or bust. Until then... :popcorn:

Niku-Sama · Mar 31, 2015

huh, must be something in the water here....
I was going to ask something similar because I was looking at the ASrock 990FX Extreme 6 because it had a M.2 and I was thinking of using it for a boot drive

Woomack · Mar 31, 2015

Little comparison Predator PCIE vs MX200 SATA ( both M.2 )

Predator:

MX200:

PCM8 - storage suite

Predator:

MX200:

I don't know if you see here difference in bandwidth test and benchmark based on daily usage. In CDM PCIE SSD is much faster but in PCM8 there is really low difference. My point is that sometimes it's just not worth to spend money on higher series ... all depends what you need. In this case barely anyone will see the difference as I doubt you will transfer couple of GB files between SSD drives.

Niku-Sama · Mar 31, 2015

hmm well that's some good info there Woomack.
for me I feel it would still be beneficial, but to wait on getting a express M.2 and get a SATA3 and either wait for prices to settle on the express kinds and upgrade later on or, and more likely, forget about it completely.
cause for right now the cost for the performance around 4k to me is not worth it at the moment.

Audioaficionado may or may not feel the same way of course.

I was thinking though, the board they are looking at has 2 m.2 on it. I wonder if both can be used at the same time and if you could raid 0 a pair of decent SATA3 across them. a pair of 120 or 240 gig drives in raid 0 might be a better option if raw speed is what they are after

Audioaficionado · Mar 31, 2015

I don't mind spending more for the PCIe version if it's faster, but I won't pay a ridiculous amount more. There must be a good bang for the buck. There is an M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD in my future, but while I'm waiting for that new tech to come to market at affordable prosumer prices, I don't mind getting a good SATA III SSD to use now as I don't have any SSDs.

My venerable Asus Commando ROG is socket 775 with a Q6600 and it's safe to say it won't natively support anything past SATA II. There's one full sized PCIe slot (x4) left at the bottom, but I don't want to crowd my 2nd graphics card and I'd have to get NVMe to work without native support. I was just trying to explore the possibilities for future builds. You won't know if you don't ask.

Railgun · Apr 1, 2015

Seems I need a new drive...I was under the impression that the XP941 was right up there. Guess not.

I won't show the 850 Pro as I have Rapid enabled, which throws off the scores.

Is M.2 PCI Express Gen3 x4 the best SSD option?

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