m.2 x2 or pci-e x4 adapter

[Moofahssa]

My Z97 gaming 5 board has 3 pcie x16 slots (x16 x8/x8 and x8/x4/x4) and a dedicated m.2 slot but its only 2.0. I run a single gpu so would i be better off getting an adapter card with m.2 3.0 x4 ssd and using it in my second pcie slot running both x8??

 

[geofelt]

I think not.
The value of a ssd is the fast random access times, and that is not impacted by the x2/x4 speeds.
If you will be using a Samsung 950 pro, your sequential benchmarks will not show as good on x2 as x4.
Still sequential will be better on x2 than a normal Samsung 850 pro.

I replaced my 500gb Samsung 850 pro with a 500gb 950 pro. ( I had another use for the old ssd)
Truth to tell, I felt no difference.
Benchmarks are done with high queue depths that are unrealistic in normal desktop operations.

My advice is to use the $ difference to buy a larger conventional ssd.

 

[Spectre694]

Just run the M.2. That is still fast enough to run pretty much any drive you can put in it for right now (if I did the math right) and you can upgrade later. Though it won't really matter which way you do it the random speeds should still be fast enough


EDIT: Had the wrong read speeds in my head. you will lose some read sequential speed running in your M.2 slot. Random will still be good though.

 

[Moofahssa]

OK, well I already have the pci-e adapter card for a new m.2 ssd but another question. If I get a Samsung SM950 PRO 256GB PCIe 3.0 x4 and I dont want to use the adapter card in a pci slot, will I be able to use it in my onboard m.2 2.0 slot (bottlenecked of course) for the time being? Is the slot backwards compatible?

 

[geofelt]

OK, well I already have the pci-e adapter card for a new m.2 ssd but another question. If I get a Samsung SM950 PRO 256GB PCIe 3.0 x4 and I dont want to use the adapter card in a pci slot, will I be able to use it in my onboard m.2 2.0 slot (bottlenecked of course) for the time being? Is the slot backwards compatible?

You will be compatible.
Do remember to download and install the Samsung MVMe driver for the 950 PRO.
If price is not a big issue, buy the 500gb version, it is faster.

 

[Moofahssa]

ok thanks guys, ill let you know the outcome when i do it