Installing Samsung 960 Pro 1tb SSD. Recommended drivers.

[VBChevy]

I am planning to clean install a full version of Win10 Pro x64 along with the samsung 960 Pro 1tb ssd as my boot drive. The main reason is the fact that Win 10 has native drivers for NVMe. This brings up some questions:

1. Are the Samsung drivers recommended over the Windows drivers? Past history suggests you go with the vendors drivers.

2. I have a M.2 NVMe socket 3, Key M on board the motherboard Can you assume that the BIOS supports NVMe boot? I am using a HP stock Pegatron Thimphu Motherboard with a Z170 chipset, Intel Core i7-6700K 4 GHZ and I maxed out at 64GB DDR4. It has been a challenge to get the motherboard specs.

I currently run Win 7 Pro. I see issues down the road for firmware support for the SSD.

 

[Colif]

win 10 will speed up boot times once it works out what you use the most, that just takes a while. That and fresh install means it needs to download a stack of things off the store, and one or two things of windows update. Nothing as bad as win 7 is in that regard. So the memory usage and CPU usage will subside in a few days.

PC works, BIOS didn't break it, still waiting on HP to tell you what nvme it can use or not going to bother?

 

[VBChevy]

PC works fine. Getting used to 10 and figuring out how to move my Win 7 backed up files into 10

Not going to bother with HP anymore. I suspect the M.2 slot is PCIe 2.0 x2 since the label right on the board next to the connector is M.2_2_SSD. Still considering another make motherboard. I can use most of what I have: 6th Gen i7-6700K CPU, 64 GB memory DDR4(Kingston), 2 GB NViDIA GeoForce GTX 960.

I went to the Intel website and look at these babies:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-x-series-processor-family-product-brief.html.

I think I may wait a while to start a build.

 

[Colif]

I have only ever used Asus... except in the 1st PC but that was an IBM. I haven't ever had a problem with them. Main reason I keep returning to them.

I can't afford to look at that page. By time I get a new PC it won't be a quad core, my phone (S7) already has 8 so that is a no brainier. I wonder if max ram is still 64gb. The "ultimate" platform until next time... "Beat ever" till next time... marketing is funny.

Sort of glad I don't need to upgrade at moment as there is too much choice, need to let it settle down and let low end CPU range get reorganised. We don't need 4 core CPU when they offer 18, 8 core should be minimum. Intel just needed competition to upgrade range. That and Intel aren't only choice anymore.

 

[VBChevy]

I will use Asus when the time comes. And yes, good to wait, specially after looking at that intel site.

I have seen mobo's on the build site with 128GB capacity, but killer expensive !

I went back to the HP forum discussing the use of the NVMe as a boot drive in the M.2 slot. After reading carefully the post's in the forum, looks like somebody had a working system with the Samsung 950 M.2 Pro, however the BIOS settings was in RAID mode vs the ACHI. And he posted the speeds he is getting which are the same as advertised on the Samsung website. Still cannot understand why HP cannot answer this question?


Re: Envy 750se capable of M.2/NVMe use?
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‎01-16-2016 12:42 PM
i ended up getting the Phoenix 860st (i think it uses the same motherboard as the 750se.) The Samsung 950 pro M.2 works really well with it as a boot drive (for Windows 10) using NVMe for sure (Windows is indicating it is using the NVMe driver for this drive.) It works great actually. The only annoying thing is the M.2 port on the board wasn't easy to reach and i needed to remove the graphics card (among many other things) to reach it. and there was no screw to attach the M.2 drive (it didn't come with any,) had to find one myself. other than that, great. I was installing Windows 10 in UEFI mode, and it was the only place the drive shows for me, it wasn't listed in the BIOS otherwise (which scared me for a little while.)

Please note this is my personal experince on the Phoenix 860st and not a professional opinion of what would and wouldn't work for you on 750se.


Re: Envy 750se capable of M.2/NVMe use? [ Edited ]
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‎01-17-2016 11:33 PM - edited ‎01-17-2016 11:34 PM
Big_Dave,

The 860st is: N3G98AV#ABA
it's BIOS is: THI vA0.08
This is the drive: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01639694M

boidsonly,
It's currently in 'RAID' mode; but i think that applies to the SATA drives; not sure if it impacts this drive.

T_B_K wrote:
Yes. Last time i measured it using crystaldiskmark, it reached ~2400 MB/s multi-threaded sequential read and ~1500 MB/s multi-threaded sequential write. about 5 times faster than any SATA SSD drive. i love this drive. here is the snap-shot for the full results:


So I am a masochist.

 

[Colif]

I quoted that thread already (the one about 860st)

does that mean you got a NVME again? or you just asking still?

I wouldn't get a top end new motherboard unless you going to buy the new CPU type as though you can run normal Kaby lake on them, there is no advantage for the CPU except a small overclock. New CPU get 44 PCI lanes, the normal Kaby lake are restricted to 16 even on the new boards.

Better to wait till next generation when its a little more settled. Intel should have not made the boards work with normal kaby lake CPU

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWFzWRoVNnE"][/video]

 

[VBChevy]

I'm just asking still. I guess HP doesn't give a rat's @@@ about their customers. I am going to finish watching the Video u posted. Thanks BTW.

 

[Colif]

I guess it is a weekend, give them a few days maybe.