M.2 SSD compatibility

[Deleted]

So i've had a board that supports M.2 since the start of the year but only just looking into them. I have this motherboard and was thinking of getting this M.2

Would they be a good fit or am i limiting myself from either the M.2 or the mobo?


Thanks in advance.

[Fascinate]

Nvme are a waste of money imho, and m.2 arent any faster than regular sata III ssd's really. Why not just get a standard 2.5" sata III ssd? Crucial mx 300 525gb is what id recommend.

[Deleted]

Currently have a Samsung 850 PRO 256 GB 2.5 inch SATA III Solid State Drive for OS, WoW and any game i'm currently going through. A 120GB Corsair Force 3 for random steam stuff and my old reliable 10,000 RPM raptor drive which i torrent to.

When you say not much faster do you mean in like real world application EG loading times and such? Just asking as the Nvme is boasting much faster speeds on paper or will i only notice that on installations/file transfers? Like i said, i've only just started looking into M.2 so my knowledge is limited but if what you're saying is correct then a SataIII will probably be better as i read that using the M.2 port disables some of the SATA ports on the mobo when used.

[Fascinate]

I didnt say nvme wasnt faster, i said its a waste of money. M.2 is just how how they mount, there are sata m.2 and nvme m.2 which hook up electrically through pci lanes (this is main reason they are faster) i dont think either make any sense unless you are in a small form factor rig.

1. Nvme is a lot faster, but this is not something you will notice on a day to day basis.
2. M.2 sata drives are same speed as a regular 2.5" SSD but since they are attached to motherboard they get less cooling than a standard SSD would in a hard drive cage.

I know they dont require a lot of cooling, but m.2 drives get basically none in a lot of cases. Like i said above imo m.2 drives only make sense if you have a tiny itx PC or you find one cheaper than standard ssd.

[mrgreenthump]

Not really worth it for Gaming. Your average SSD will be just as fast as you are bottlenecked by your CPU speeds when loading programs.

Nvme are a waste of money imho, and m.2 arent any faster than regular sata III ssd's really. Why not just get a standard 2.5" sata III ssd? Crucial mx 300 525gb is what id recommend.

They are way faster... if you have something that will utilize the speed. Just nothing your average gamer does will.

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Just asking as the Nvme is boasting much faster speeds on paper or will i only notice that on installations/file transfers?

File transfers yes, if you aren't limited by the other end. Installations.. probably not, at least by a huge margin.

[Biernot]

To add/clarify, what Fascinate meant:

- m.2 only describes the physical property of the slot, meaning the form factor/connection.

- while m.2 is connected via PCIe (x4 lanes) to the chipset, only true PCIe/NVMe SSDs actually use the provided possible speed. Most m.2 SSDs internally only use the SATA-III interface, which is also provided through the m.2 connector.

- PCIe (and NVMe) SSDs for the m.2 slot are considerably more expensive than the ones using only the SATA-III speeds.

- m.2 SSDs are getting fairly hot. They don't produce more heat than normal SATA SSDs, but are physically smaller and thus have less surface area to dissipate the heat. Add to this, that only one side is really exposed to the air (the other side is fairly snug to the motherboard), and surrounding components of the motherboard produce heat themselves. Also often the m.2 slot is close to or even beneath the graphics card...


To summarize, there are only a limited number of cases, where getting a m.2 SSD is beneficial:

1. Tidiness or lack of space:
You either don't have space for a normal SATA SSD or don't want the cables to hang around.

2. Speed:
You want more speed than a SATA SSD is able to provide. But as already said, that comes at a considerable premium cost (the price of Samsung 950 Pro 512GB is double that of the 850 EVO 500GB, $330 vs. $165) and has little performance gains in typical everyday usage.


As you already have one of the fastest SATA SSDs (Samsung 850 pro), the only reason to get a new one would be the lack of space (250GB can get a bit cramped with a few games installed).

[Denpepe]

I would like to add that certain M.2 slot's will disable certain sata slot's if you use them.

[Fascinate]

Its not that they disable them....they are using them. There are only so many sata ports lol.

[Deleted]

Thanks for all the replies.

Will probably just get the 500gb version of the Samsung 850 pro and replace my 120gb corsair so my brother can have it.

[DeltrusDisc]

Nvme are a waste of money imho, and m.2 arent any faster than regular sata III ssd's really. Why not just get a standard 2.5" sata III ssd? Crucial mx 300 525gb is what id recommend.

Not true, if it's a PCI-E gen 3.0 4x lane for instance, it's about 4-5x faster than a SATA III if it was able to 100% use the SATA bus.

[Fascinate]

Well pardon my confusion then, i thought all m.2 ssd's that used the PCI bus were nvme by default. Are there m.2 ssd's that use pci bus that arent nvme? This is confusing even to me lol.

[DeltrusDisc]

They are NVMe but can use PCI-E bus.

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I got this a while back and I've been thoroughly impressed and happy. ^_^

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Fascinate]

They are NVMe but can use PCI-E bus.

When i said "m.2 arent any faster than regular sata III drives" did you think i meant nvme? I was talking about sata m.2's, maybe thats where the confusion is here.

And while im sure thats a great drive, most people would be better suited to a regular 1tb SSD for that kind of pocket change.