Considering m.2 for my new rig.

[ATMINSIDE]

I am looking at putting a Samsung M2 on an ASUS Z97-A, but on the mobo is says the M2 slost is "10Gb/s M.2 Socket(supports PCIe SSD only)"

This is the Samsung drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W03JY5023

Will i get full performance out of that drive on that board in the M.2 slot? Im dreaming of no cables, clutter etc of onboard M2.

Thanks!

Yes, that SSD will work fine in the Z97-A.

 

[wingman99]

A SSD with Sata 3.0 is 6Gb/s, Your board is 10Gb/s the 950 Pro M.2 you linked to is 20 Gb/s read, write is 12 Gb/s

 

[Sannakji]

Went with an Ultra II in the end because there was a sale; got 480gb for 120 delivered. Will have to do for now, I'm broke as hell, will slot in an m.2 as a boot drive when I have some cash flow and when I'm ready to jump to W10. Took delivery of my first pair of DDR4 sticks on Friday Corsair Vengeance. Reviews complain about them not being able to reach 3000Mhz but we'll see. Now if by some miracle I'm able to secure a 6600K in the next two weeks it could be a decently happy christmas. As happy as an iGPU could make someone anyway

 

[ocicide]

In my research i found THIS article, which says:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Many Z97 motherboards have M.2 connectors, so you can install a small yet fast SSD right onto the motherboard. Pretty convenient, isn't it? There are 2 kinds of M.2 drives - PCIe and SATA. And M.2 connectors on motherboards support both modes. Except when they don't.

I'm preparing for an upgrade, so I was gathering information on modern motherboards. And I stumbled upon something I didn't know was possible: the M.2 connector on the Asus Z97-A works only in the PCIe mode, which renders it incompatible with many M.2 drives. Apparently, they ran out of SATA ports on this motherboard. The first reason it's so surprising is that it's rare - most motherboards with M.2, including cheaper models from ASUS, support both modes. The second reason is that it's buried deep in the specifications on the official site and isn't reflected at all on the sites of some retailers, including Newegg. Didn't expect this kind of thing from ASUS, so beware.

One more aspect with M.2 drives is length, with 2280 being the longest. Some older motherboards don't support 2280.

Edit: Oh, one more thing that bothered me - probably even more problematic, but easier to notice. Many motherboards have the second PCIe x16 slot, running at x4. It's easy to notice - except there may be a line buried in the specifications: "The PCI Express x1 slots will become unavailable when a PCIe x4 expansion card is installed". So if I get it right, add a PCIe x4 expansion card, and you can't use even something as pedestrian as a PCIe sound card, rendering two slots useless. That's on lower end Z97 boards from Gigabyte. And here's the line from ASUS: "The PCIe x1_1, PCIe x1_2 slots share bandwidth with PCIe x16_2. The PCIe x16_2 slot runs at x2 mode as default." So you're getting PCIe x16 running at x4 - except not necessarily. Again, many retailers simply say "PCIe x4".
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So from what i have read the drive im looking at HERE is not evne compatible, but a Plextor is but only runs @2x and uses the PCI x1 lane and creates a bottleneck.

I have now decided to move up to the ASUS Z170-A board that does provide 4x on the M.2 lane.

I am really glad i caught tht during my research, does that seem on point to you guys?

btw: great to be back in the O/C community, its been too long! my last system build was an 8400 in an IP35pro LOL

 

[Sannakji]

Thanks for the thread hijack ;P yes you should be going with Z170, there's quite a lot of new stuff with Skylake. DDR4 RAM as well. SATA express eventually. Lots of memory related stuff has got a level up this year, its been interesting to watch.

 

[Sannakji]

I would hold off on the 950 pro until you have a new board that supports PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 Connector with up to 32Gb/s Data Transfer. You will loose half the speed of the 950 Pro for (read is 20 Gb/s) (write is 12Gb/s)
Your mother board supports 10Gb/s and the ultra II will use 6Gb/s

Is this true? Is there no point in me getting an m.2 with my board? Or were you referring to the other guy's Z97 board?

 

[wingman99]

Other guy's Z97 board sorry for the hijack

 

[Witchdoctor]

I have 2x xp941's

M.2 slot one does 700+ and in a M.2 Ultra slot the other does 1000+