m.2 SSDs?

Anyone know some good models? How do they compare to SATA SSDs? The budget for my 3 piece (Mobo, CPU, RAM) build has grown significantly and I think I can do a $150 m.2 SSD to stick in my Maximus VIII Hero.

at under $150 you looking at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147398
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0ZX2M46443
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167334
if you dont mind the smaller size at 128gb but its blazing fast compared to the others listed
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147431

if you can do $180ish that puts you in the 500gb area
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147399
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148954
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148956

M.2 allows for either SATA based drives like the majority i listed and the pcie based SM951. i may have gotten confused but i thought samsung had a SM950, that got tested on a asrock board featuring the ultra m.2. even though the drive was specced for m.2 it still gained a nice bw boost on the ultra m.2 slot. anyway you cant go wrong with any of the drives listed, unless 128gb is to small LOL.

if you go with a sata based m.2 you will end up with sata like performance. if you want the performance of the m.2 capability get one that in not sata, but they charge you for it. I would wait for the price to come down on the non sata and then pick something up

Yep... grab NVME based M.2 drives that are faster than SATA. That said, there really are not a lot of them out yet either.

And if memory serves the Sammy unit had overheating issues and throttled.

HI!

This morning a French online vendor published a web page for the new Samsung 950 Pro NVMe ssd. Here is the link to the web page:

http://www.pc21.fr/fiche/mz-v5p256bw-ssd-950-pro-256-go-nvme-i1404310.html

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) was in effect so I couldn't say much. Still can't. I think the French vendor jumped the gun, especially since the vendor does not have any in stock, no specifications, and no info about availability.

First hint that something was in the works was at one of the big shows or conferences earlier this year. A Samsung vice president in charge of flash memory or ssd research or something commented about consumers purchasing Samsung OEM ssd's when retail versions were in the works. The same vice president also casually mentioned that Samsung had ssd's in their laboratories that had lasted the equivalent of 28 years of typical use. After that everything went quiet for months.

Last month Samsung released several business enterprise ssd's. Some web sites reported that one of the enterprise ssd's would replace the SM951. That information turned out to be incorrect so I started contacting my sources. I received confirmation from 4 seperate sources that there would be a new retail model this month but could not say anything because of the NDA.

I've already added the Samsung 950 Pro to the consumer ssd database I maintain. Here is the link:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

I'll add links to technical reviews as soon as they are published. The ssd's are broken down into interface categories from PCIe 3.0 x 4 all the way down to mSATA. There are links to technical reviews in English and many other languages. There is no advertising. It is strictly a hobby for me.

UPDATE:

A few more French vendors published web pages yesterday featuring the Samsung 950 Pro. Like the first one they are not yet available and there are no photos or technical specifications. Here is a link to one of particular interest:

http://estock.fr/basketadd.php?partnumber=MZ-V5P256BW&eStockSID=36ac3c51275f0e6ea0410bb865909378

According to that vendor the 950 Pro should be available in 8 to 12 days. The page appeared yesterday so that would mean availability sometime between the 24th and 28th of September.

In addition, an Australian vendor reported a shipment of the Samsung 950 Pro NVMe ssd is expected to arrive before the end of the month.

Finally two different sources in the USA confirmed the 950 Pro exists and that they would be available soon. There was no mention of a release date.

Samsung usually makes their ssd announcements during big conferences and shows. I'll have to check for major events next week.

Another Update:

Two days ago I contacted a customer service representative at Newegg and asked about the Samsung 950 Pro. The representative stated that the Newegg representatives were not permitted to discuss future products. However, the rep provided a link to a newegg web page that had a form for suggesting new products. I filled out and submitted it. The first reply was simply an automatic message acknowledging receipt of the form. Next I received a message from the customer service department saying my request was forwarded to a department responsible for future products. This morning I received a third message. Here is the exact reply:

"As to your request as below, I got the feedback from our product management department: the new one should be the retail version, it is not available in US but other country for now, US will be coming soon. Once it is available, we will post it online. "

That is definitely good news despite the fact that the 950 Pro will be available in Europe and Australia before North America.

The original French vendor now has the 512GB version listed. Here is the link:

http://www.pc21.fr/fiche/mz-v5p512bw-ssd-950-pro-512-go-nvme-i1404364.html

Looks like the vendor might have the both the 256GB and 512GB versions in stock.

I doubt it's in stock when Samsung is still not selling them. Premiere will be in 2 weeks or something.

Product page -> http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/specifications.html
Today's news -> http://www.techpowerup.com/216209/samsung-announces-the-950-pro-consumer-m-2-pcie-ssd.html

Launch Date is October 15th.

Woomack - Thanks for posting links to Samsung technical specs. I hope there are some technical reviews prior to launch date.

Excalibur PC in Fremont, California, USA is taking pre-orders for the Samsung 950 Pro. In addition, a few more European vendors have begun taking pre-orders. There is some conflicting information about the actual expiration date of the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and the actual release dates in different geographical regions around the world.

In the meantime, Pure PC in Poland published the first technical review of the Samsung 950 Pro ssd. Here is the link:

http://www.purepc.pl/pamieci_masowe/samsung_ssd_950_pro_m2_test_superszybkiego_dysku_pcie_nvme

The review is in the Polish Language. The review was very favorable.

kinda of dissapointed at the specs, the SM951 at 256gb has the same xfere rate as the 950 512gb.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147425
if the price for the 256gb 950 is below $200US, then i can kind of forgive the lower xfer rate.

Evilsizer said:

if the price for the 256gb 950 is below $200US, then i can kind of forgive the lower xfer rate.

Click to expand...

It better be less than $200. I don't see any reason why the price point of the 850 pro wouldn't be maintained which is about $0.55/GB.

tachi1247 said:

It better be less than $200. I don't see any reason why the price point of the 850 pro wouldn't be maintained which is about $0.55/GB.

Click to expand...

well the 850 in m.2 is sata not pcie based and pcie based m.2's cost more. the new 950 per the specs is pcie based not sata, if it was sata the xfer rate wouldnt be anywhere near 900mb/s and 2.2gb/s for the 256gb m.2 950.

Evilsizer said:

well the 850 in m.2 is sata not pcie based and pcie based m.2's cost more. the new 950 per the specs is pcie based not sata, if it was sata the xfer rate wouldnt be anywhere near 900mb/s and 2.2gb/s for the 256gb m.2 950.

Click to expand...

This ^ Not only that, but you generally want an enthusiast level cpu too such as moving to X99 or similar that can handle the extra lanes to accommodate these M.2 PCI-E 3x SSDs. Myself running a Z97 and 4790k, it would not be beneficial for me to do get something like that for example.

I would guestimate around $250~ for the m.2 950 256GB model, as the current Samsung SM951 256GB sells for $200 - $230. But for the price though if you need the speed, it's more than double that of SATA, so..

if the 950 is 250 for the 256gb, they are crazy, the SM951 256gb is 219 on newegg right now. price should be below $200 for the 256gb 950 pro for the lower xfer rate vs the SM951. even the older XP941 at 500gb is $299, $100 cheaper then the SM951 500gb.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147425
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147426
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147349

if the 950 pro is $250, id rather have the XP941 500gb for not much more and the same xfer rate. you really dont need a X99 to take advantage of the M.2 PCIE 3.0 cards. even the fastest GPU with 8x pcie lanes is not going to be hindered if much at all.


*edit*
just found this
http://www.storagereview.com/samsung_950_pro_m2_ssds_announced
so $199.99 for the 256, doesnt sound to bad but for $20 more, i'd rather have the SM951 256gb. it should have been priced closer to 150-180 range, IMO.

http://www.excaliberpc.com/products/products.html?search=samsung+950+pro

Evilsizer said:

so $199.99 for the 256, doesnt sound to bad but for $20 more, i'd rather have the SM951 256gb. it should have been priced closer to 150-180 range, IMO.

http://www.excaliberpc.com/products/products.html?search=samsung+950+pro

Click to expand...

So it has the same msrp as the 850 pro which means it will be available for less than $200 sometime after launch.

Russian, Polish, and Italian web sites have just published the first reviews of the new Samsung 950 Pro NVMe M.2 3.0 x 4 ssd. I have already added the reviews to the ssd database I maintain. Here is the link:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

Additional reviews will be added shortly after they are published. The reviews are in English and many other languages.

Are we going to wind up with configurations where OS and programs are installed on a fast M.2 NVMe drive for speed and we use a 1 or 2TB commodity SATA SSD for bulk storage?