Anyone tried a 950 Pro on an old motherboard?

[cst1992]

My Asus Z97-A motherboard supports PCI-E M.2 drives, but it's a slower port with only PCI-E 2.0 x2 bandwidth(1000MB/s).

Has anyone tried the 950 Pro on such a motherboard? I can't seem to find reviews indicating performance under such conditions. Theoretically I see no problem hitting the write speeds of the 256GB variant(900MB/s according to Samsung) but I need some actual numbers.

 

[BadActor]

I think this article was written prior to the release of the 950 Pro, but should still apply. It says that a Bios update is needed and that the sequential performance will be reduced because you only have the 2 PCI-E lanes.

http://pcdiy.asus.com/2015/04/asus-z97-x99-motherboards-intel-750-series-nvme-ssds-all-you-need-to-know/

 

[The Original Ralph]

My Asus Z97-A motherboard supports PCI-E M.2 drives, but it's a slower port with only PCI-E 2.0 x2 bandwidth(1000MB/s).

Has anyone tried the 950 Pro on such a motherboard? I can't seem to find reviews indicating performance under such conditions. Theoretically I see no problem hitting the write speeds of the 256GB variant(900MB/s according to Samsung) but I need some actual numbers.

when you say "port" are you refering to the M.2 socket? a few users have reported seeing 700-800 MB/s write speeds with their 950 mounted in the M.2 socket, which as has already been stated is only 2 lanes. I'm running a 950 PRO in a PCIe 3.0 x4 expansion slot and seeing full speeds

 

[cst1992]

I'm running a 950 PRO in a PCIe 3.0 x4 expansion slot and seeing full speeds

I know. That's why I ask for my specific case. And yes, I'm taking about the M.2 socket.

 

[The Original Ralph]

sorry, i should have said, i'm running a z97M-Plus mobo and the posters i was referring to, were also running Z97 mobos. I never bothered running my 950 in the M.2 slot, but i had run my xp941 in it, and only saw 570 MB/s, while it was rated at 880 mb/s - when i moved it to the PCIe 3.0 slot, it jumped to full speeds

fwiw

 

[cst1992]

Well, then I think I'll stick to the 850 Evo 250GB that I have. Of course, I could buy a PCI-E 3.0x4 adapter, I have a x8 slot for a second graphics card that I don't have. Pity that the third x16 slot is also PCI-e 2.0x2. If it were x4, I could have used the adapter in it.

Unfortunately I don't live in the US, and the cost of said adapter here will easily be $80-90. I'll have to weigh my options to see if it's worth the $250 plus the $90 and then make a decision. So far for the current setup, the answer to that is no.

Of course, Samsung also sells a M.2 SATA version of the 850 Evo itself, which I can go for should I feel like populating that slot. It has a $15 premium over the SATA version of the 850 Evo(which is $110).

 

[The Original Ralph]

well, just to state the obvious, in case it hasn't occurred, going anything M.2, whether the 950 or the 850 means leaving an extra sata port available

 

[thehutti]

I tested the Samsung SSD 950 Pro NVM in the m.2 slot of the Asus Maximus VII Hero Board (PCIe 2.0 x2) and got about 800-850 MB/s. Put it onto an adapter board and put that into one of the GPU Slots (PCIe 3.0 x16 running at x4 ) and the speed went up to the maximum of 2500MB/s

 

[cst1992]

well, just to state the obvious, in case it hasn't occurred, going anything M.2, whether the 950 or the 850 means leaving an extra sata port available

I don't think it matters too much in my case. I have a Corsair Carbide 500R case, so it easily can accomodate six drives. Also the motherboard has four SATA ports and one SATA express port which means a total of six SATA ports. I use two drives, three at the max.