M.2 x4 Gen-3 SSDs with 32Gb/s bandwidth

[kuba200104]

Do you have any information about M.2 x4 Gen-3 SSDs with 32Gb/s bandwidth? Do you know when this will come out and how much would it cost. I've heard about Samsung XP941 but that's using Gen 2 PCIe interface. I hope we will see 3GB/s M.2 SSDs soon, am I right?

 

[wbreno]

Do you have any information about M.2 x4 Gen-3 SSDs with 32Gb/s bandwidth? Do you know when this will come out and how much would it cost. I've heard about Samsung XP941 but that's using Gen 2 PCIe interface. I hope we will see 3GB/s M.2 SSDs soon, am I right?

Mfactor replied to my email informing me that the Monarch 4 (gen 3 m.2 SSD) will be available for retail in Q2 2015

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Tuesday, 3 February 2015 - Update:

First review of the new Samsung SP951 M.2 3.0 x 4 ssd was published by TweakTown:

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6951/samsung-sm951-512gb-2-pcie-ssd-review/index.html

The new SP951 should be released sometime next month, probably during the last half of the month. There is one change. The SP951 will not be NMVE capable. Manufacturers decided to wait until Intel releases new cpu's with appropriate NVME support.

In the meantime Mushkin announced a new Mushkin Hyperion M.2 3.0 x 4 ssd. I didn't see a release date.

Finally for those who would like to see the ssd database with ssd's listed by type:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

Categories are:

PCI-e and M.2 3.0 x 4 ssd's (3rd generation)
PCI-e and M.2 2.0 x 4 ssd's (2nd generation)
M.2 SATA ssd's
M.2 ? ssd's - Interface not yet identified but they are probably M.2 2.0 x 2. I will verify and confirm in the next few days.
SATA 3 ssd's
mSATA ssd's

 

[JeffDC]

"Manufacturers decided to wait until Intel releases new cpu's with appropriate NVME support."

Any word on wnen that might be?

Also, any news of M.2 x4 motherboards in the pipeline other than Asrock? 40 vs 28 PCIe lanes are looking much better all of a sudden.

Samsing's 3-year warranty and not lifetime for these SSDs is a bit of a red flag imo, especially given the cost. I wonder if they're more worried about heat related failures or just media degradation (i.e. constant reads/writes that occur with some OS's like Windows aren't good for SSDs)..

Do heatsinks help with the heat?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

We should start seeing complete NVME support when Intel releases the "Skylake" cpu's sometime during the latter part of the year. Now for the bad news. The new cpu's use a brand new Intel LGA 1151 socket. That means purchasing a new cpu and motherboard and possibly DDR4 memory.

Marvell just announced they developed a new NVMe enabled PCIe 3.0 x4 88SS1093 SSD Controller.

MSI announced they'll have the first motherboards that support NVME.

Everything is slowly coming together.

Currently ASRock and Asus provide the best support for M.2 3.0 x4 ssd's. MSI and Gigabyte are not up to speed. However, M.2 3.0 x4 ssd's should work with most X99 and Z97 motherboards even if the boards do not have an M.2 header. It can be done with an appropriate M.2 to PCIe 3.0 x 4 adapter card providing the motherboard has an available PCIe 3.0 x4 x8, or x16 slot.

The three year warranty has been fairly standard for ssd's. There are some with 5 year warranties and two with 10 year warranties. We'll have to wait for one of the sites that does torture tests to find out how long the M.2 ssd's "might" last.

In theory heatsinks help dissipate heat. We've seen them perform successfully with cpu's, motherboard components, and video cards. On the other hand those tall heatsinks on memory modules produce only a marginal improvement at best. I haven't seen any technical review of that M.2 to PCIe 2.0 x4 adapter card with a heatsink.

 

[wbreno]

Tuesday, 3 February 2015 - Update:

First review of the new Samsung SP951 M.2 3.0 x 4 ssd was published by TweakTown:

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6951/samsung-sm951-512gb-2-pcie-ssd-review/index.html

The new SP951 should be released sometime next month, probably during the last half of the month. There is one change. The SP951 will not be NMVE capable. Manufacturers decided to wait until Intel releases new cpu's with appropriate NVME support.

In the meantime Mushkin announced a new Mushkin Hyperion M.2 3.0 x 4 ssd. I didn't see a release date.

Finally for those who would like to see the ssd database with ssd's listed by type:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

Categories are:

PCI-e and M.2 3.0 x 4 ssd's (3rd generation)
PCI-e and M.2 2.0 x 4 ssd's (2nd generation)
M.2 SATA ssd's
M.2 ? ssd's - Interface not yet identified but they are probably M.2 2.0 x 2. I will verify and confirm in the next few days.
SATA 3 ssd's
mSATA ssd's

Thanks for the new categories! Much easier I think.

 

[galley]

Do you have any information about M.2 x4 Gen-3 SSDs with 32Gb/s bandwidth? Do you know when this will come out and how much would it cost. I've heard about Samsung XP941 but that's using Gen 2 PCIe interface. I hope we will see 3GB/s M.2 SSDs soon, am I right?

Just a note: through GREAT advice from Tom's, I bought an i5, AsRock Z97 MB and the Samsung SSD. LIGHTENING FAST. Turn the computer on and up pops Win8. Took some tweaking to get this fast, no overclocking yet, and stated results are from a drop dead cold boot.

 

[Steve Caliendo]

Do you have any information about M.2 x4 Gen-3 SSDs with 32Gb/s bandwidth? Do you know when this will come out and how much would it cost. I've heard about Samsung XP941 but that's using Gen 2 PCIe interface. I hope we will see 3GB/s M.2 SSDs soon, am I right?

Just a note: through GREAT advice from Tom's, I bought an i5, AsRock Z97 MB and the Samsung SSD. LIGHTENING FAST. Turn the computer on and up pops Win8. Took some tweaking to get this fast, no overclocking yet, and stated results are from a drop dead cold boot.

galley, JohnnyLucky

I'm in the same situation as you. I'm looking for an i5 z97 motherboard that supports the Samsung XP941 SSD and one GTX970 without much noticeable difference difference in gaming due to sharing lanes due to the M.2 slot being active. Or is this situation averted when putting the SSD in an available PCIe 3.0 x4/x8/x16 slot with adapter?

May I ask what you complete setup and use is of your computer?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Steve - Originally I purchased the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 motherboard and the Samsung XP941. I returned both back to newegg. The motherboard had two bad DDR3 memory slots. At the time there was no warranty for the Samsung XP941. See my comments at the top of this thread.

Eventually I purchased the ASRock Z97 Extreme9 motherboard. The motherboard comes with an M.2 3.0 x 4 header/connection and an M.2 2.0 x 2 header/connection. The M.2 headers/connections do not interfere or reduce the performance of graphic cards because ASROCK installed extra PLX chips.

Here is a link to the ASRock web page for the Z97 Extreme9:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97%20Extreme9/

Currently I do not have an M.2 ssd. I am patiently waiting for the Samsung SM951 M.2 3.0 x4 ssd to become more available. When I checked yesterday there were two vendors in the UK and two vendors in Australia that already had the SM951 in stock. In addition the SM951 is sometimes available at Amazon.

RamCity is another Australian vendor that will also have the SM951 but not for a few more weeks. RamCity has already publically stated they will honor the Samsung warranty. The best part is they ship worldwide. Newegg, a vendor in the USA, will eventually stock the SM951 too. However, I do not know yet if Newegg will honor the warranty.

My final build for this year is not yet complete. Here is the eventual configuration:

ASRock Z97 Extreme9 motherboard
Intel Core i7 4790K - overclocked
Noctua NH-D14 cpu heatsink
Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra TIM
Noctua case fans
Lamptron FC5 V3 fan controller
32GB G.Skill Trident-X DDR3 1600 memory - 8GB allocated to Microsoft Windows - 24GB allocated to a virtual ramdisk.
MSI GTX 760 graphics card (I might upgrade to a GTX970)
Samsung SM951 M.2 3.0 x 4 ssd - primary boot drive
Samsung 840 EVO SATA 3 6Gb/s ssd - secondary data drive
Samsung optical drive.
Seasonic X Series 650 watt modular power supply.
CaseLabs Mercury S8 chassis
BenQ BL3200PT 32 inch monitor
Microsoft optical mouse
IBM Model D keyboard manufactured in 1984 - still the best!!!

I have everything except for the CaseLabs chassis and the Samsung SM951. I would have already had the CaseLabs chassis but last Christmas morning my Dell Ultrasharp 30 inch monitor stopped working. I replaced it with the BenQ monitor.

The final build will look something like the one in this gallery:

http://www.caselabs-store.com/katie-v4-6-1-s8-by-wiz766/

I use my computer for professional work. I used to work as a professional digital image editor. I am retired now but I still do some professional photography work. I also maintain my own web site with the ssd and psu databases; maintain web sites for other organizations; and I am a small OEM builder. I do case mods too. I am not a hardcore gamer. The only game I have is Rome II which was released in 2010. Last month I was a store that had the game on sale for $24.99 USD. It looked interesting so I bought it. I am still trying to learn all the game rules.

I am also somewhat of an enthusiast. I like to experiment with case ventilation, cpu cooling, virtual ramdisks, overclocking, and case mods. Next year I might experiment with liquid cooling.

 

[bricko]

Steve - Originally I purchased the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 motherboard and the Samsung XP941. I returned both back to newegg. The motherboard had two bad DDR3 memory slots. At the time there was no warranty for the Samsung XP941. See my comments at the top of this thread.

Eventually I purchased the ASRock Z97 Extreme9 motherboard. The motherboard comes with an M.2 3.0 x 4 header/connection and an M.2 2.0 x 2 header/connection. The M.2 headers/connections do not interfere or reduce the performance of graphic cards because ASROCK installed extra PLX chips.

Here is a link to the ASRock web page for the Z97 Extreme9:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97%20Extreme9/

Currently I do not have an M.2 ssd. I am patiently waiting for the Samsung SM951 M.2 3.0 x4 ssd to become more available. When I checked yesterday there were two vendors in the UK and two vendors in Australia that already had the SM951 in stock. In addition the SM951 is sometimes available at Amazon.

RamCity is another Australian vendor that will also have the SM951 but not for a few more weeks. RamCity has already publically stated they will honor the Samsung warranty. The best part is they ship worldwide. Newegg, a vendor in the USA, will eventually stock the SM951 too. However, I do not know yet if Newegg will honor the warranty.

My final build for this year is not yet complete. Here is the eventual configuration:

ASRock Z97 Extreme9 motherboard
Intel Core i7 4790K - overclocked
Noctua NH-D14 cpu heatsink
Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra TIM
Noctua case fans
Lamptron FC5 V3 fan controller
32GB G.Skill Trident-X DDR3 1600 memory - 8GB allocated to Microsoft Windows - 24GB allocated to a virtual ramdisk.
MSI GTX 760 graphics card (I might upgrade to a GTX970)
Samsung SM951 M.2 3.0 x 4 ssd - primary boot drive
Samsung 840 EVO SATA 3 6Gb/s ssd - secondary data drive
Samsung optical drive.
Seasonic X Series 650 watt modular power supply.
CaseLabs Mercury S8 chassis
BenQ BL3200PT 32 inch monitor
Microsoft optical mouse
IBM Model D keyboard manufactured in 1984 - still the best!!!

I have everything except for the CaseLabs chassis and the Samsung SM951. I would have already had the CaseLabs chassis but last Christmas morning my Dell Ultrasharp 30 inch monitor stopped working. I replaced it with the BenQ monitor.

The final build will look something like the one in this gallery:

http://www.caselabs-store.com/katie-v4-6-1-s8-by-wiz766/

I use my computer for professional work. I used to work as a professional digital image editor. I am retired now but I still do some professional photography work. I also maintain my own web site with the ssd and psu databases; maintain web sites for other organizations; and I am a small OEM builder. I do case mods too. I am not a hardcore gamer. The only game I have is Rome II which was released in 2010. Last month I was a store that had the game on sale for $24.99 USD. It looked interesting so I bought it. I am still trying to learn all the game rules.

I am also somewhat of an enthusiast. I like to experiment with case ventilation, cpu cooling, virtual ramdisks, overclocking, and case mods. Next year I might experiment with liquid cooling.

hello, looking to build new machine, want to use the ASUS X99 Deluxe as seen here.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-132-260

It says about the M.2 function on the board that:

"Ultrafast speed with PCIE slot flexibility
Add the PCI-Express 4x add-in card into any slot that suits your PC build, and pump M.2 performance up to a blistering 32Gbit/s, delivering unmatched performance. Upgrade without limitations as any M.2 card between 2230 to full length 22110 is supported. "

Any of the new M.2 SSD that are out that will work in this build and be Bootable and can I load the Win OS from my DVD. Seems Im reading about these drives not being friendly to consumer level OS load from dvd and not bootable. Have to get in bios and hack around.

Is the 951 nvme....was supposed to be, but hearing they pulled back from that.

also, is this board friendly to NVMe...and are these ssd's you ave been talking about are they NVMe also.

 

[neonphelps]

Do you have any information about M.2 x4 Gen-3 SSDs with 32Gb/s bandwidth? Do you know when this will come out and how much would it cost. I've heard about Samsung XP941 but that's using Gen 2 PCIe interface. I hope we will see 3GB/s M.2 SSDs soon, am I right?

Just a note: through GREAT advice from Tom's, I bought an i5, AsRock Z97 MB and the Samsung SSD. LIGHTENING FAST. Turn the computer on and up pops Win8. Took some tweaking to get this fast, no overclocking yet, and stated results are from a drop dead cold boot.

galley, JohnnyLucky

I'm in the same situation as you. I'm looking for an i5 z97 motherboard that supports the Samsung XP941 SSD and one GTX970 without much noticeable difference difference in gaming due to sharing lanes due to the M.2 slot being active. Or is this situation averted when putting the SSD in an available PCIe 3.0 x4/x8/x16 slot with adapter?

May I ask what you complete setup and use is of your computer?

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. At first I was determined to buy an Asus MB (the last 3 computers I have built I'v used Asus MBs) and use an M2 adapter card for the SSD. When I looked at the specks on these adapters and sent emails to mfg with my questions, they all were missing something important (can't remember what it was). - Added this line after original publish: Oh YEA, remembered the forgotten item: The adapter's I found had in their spec disclaimers that M2 drives using their adapters are Not Bootable- though informally they stated to me that they are. Not a flag I was going to ignore.
Then someone very kind on this site spent a lot of time talking me into going with the ASRock Extreme6ac -
I have no problems as the SSD works and boots flawlessly, benchmarks really nice and win8 is up before I can count to 3 (from a plug out of the wall start). I was careful to plan use of PCIe lanes and none are shared with the M2 slot.
With this board you should have a PCIe 3.0 slot for your GTX970 fully available.
I also have a 1T hybrid SSD and an old SATA with old data on it.
I use the system for some lightweight gaming, but always overbuild from my current use so that I can keep the same computer for 4+ years before building a new one, giving the old one away.
I have 16 gig RAM and PCIe 3.0 and more available for the future.
I did a lot of win8 tweeking though to get the files win8 writes to for maintenance onto the hybrid to extend the SSD's lifespan due SSD's current limitation.
But I come from the school where my first 20MG drive (yes, 20MG, not a mistype) was over $300 at dealer's cost - so I see the SSD and Hybrid as being dirt cheap.
Only extending SSD's life so I don't have to start over with win8 and installing apps sooner than necessary.
I was in the IT field for a gazillion years and always used a stop watch to determine the best configurations and load order of programs before rolling out new systems worldwide, so my definition of fast is fast, though I hate win8. Does this answer your questions?

 

[Brighttail]

Just to let you know, I was using an xp 941 with a M.2 to PCI-e x4 card in an Asus x97 formula motherboard and got the full capacity of the drive. I had to get the conversion card because the formula's m.2 slot didn't fit an 80mm M.2.

So if you want to get or have an x97 board and can get one of the M.2 to PCI-e x4 cards AND you have an available x4 or x8 slot, the XP 941 or SM 951 should work just fine.

I purchased my 256gb SM951 last week from Ramcity and it is on its way. I am now using an x99 Rampage Extreme and am wondering if the M.2 slot is any faster/slower than the PCI-e Slot I was intending to use. On paper they shoudl be the same but i'm not 100% sure.

 

[neonphelps]

Just to let you know, I was using an xp 941 with a M.2 to PCI-e x4 card in an Asus x97 formula motherboard and got the full capacity of the drive. I had to get the conversion card because the formula's m.2 slot didn't fit an 80mm M.2.

So if you want to get or have an x97 board and can get one of the M.2 to PCI-e x4 cards AND you have an available x4 or x8 slot, the XP 941 or SM 951 should work just fine.

I purchased my 256gb SM951 last week from Ramcity and it is on its way. I am now using an x99 Rampage Extreme and am wondering if the M.2 slot is any faster/slower than the PCI-e Slot I was intending to use. On paper they shoudl be the same but i'm not 100% sure.

Thanks- I already have my system together using an Extreme6 ac and the drive is lightening fast. So much so that I am likely going to build another one for my home in NY and use the Samsung 850 pro which just came out (FL, using 840 SSD). I hope that you love your system as much as I love mine -Good Luck!

 

[Brighttail]

FYI.. i have the SM951 installed on the Asus x99 Rampage.

Sequential read over 2200! Writes 1290+

I put it in the PCI-E 3.0 x4 slot with the adapter card. I'm very happy/satisfied.

Final build (main parts)
Case - Enthoo Primo SE
MB - Asus X99 Rampage
CPU - i7 5930k
RAM - Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 2800MHz
GPU - 2x Asus Poseidon GTX 980
PSU - Corsair AX 1200i
M.2 - Samsung SM951 256GB
SSD - 2x Samsung 850 Pro 256GB
HDD - WD Black 4TB
Water cooled.

https://twitter.com/Brighttail/status/589650993278746624

 

[The Original Ralph]

......


You are correct in that things have changed quite a bit since last September. The Samsung XP941 PCI-e 2.0x4 ssd was finally released for retail sales and now comes with a 3 year warranty. Samsung is already manufacturing and distributing an OEM version of the new SP951 PCI-e 3.0x4 ssd. It is already available in HP computers. Samsung will release it for retail sales next March.

But wait! There's more. Other companies are releasing or planning to release their own M.2 PCI-e ssd's. The M.2 interface varies from M.2 SATA 3 all the way to M.2 PCI-e 3.0x4.

I maintain the ssd database listed in a sticky at the very top of this forum section. Here is the link:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

As you scroll down the database you will notice that each brand is divided into sections - PCI-e, M.2, SATA 3, and SATA. I have already added PCI-e and M.2 ssd's that are currently available and new models that were announced at CES 2015 in Las Vegas two weeks ago. There will be another round of releases next summer at the big computer show in Taiwan.

Curious where you found that it is now being sold as a retail unit with a 3 yr warranty - newegg is still only showing a "replacement policy", if it proves defective in first 30 days, plus as a "retail" unit, i'd love to know it has an OPROM pre-installed


to the other posters in this thread, i just installed my xp941 (256 GB) on an asus X97M-Plus board - it was not fun, 18+ hours researching and trying various combinations of bios settinhgs - be sure you have the latest BIOS release installed

2nd, on the asus Z97 boards that do have a M.2 socket, you'll notice most of those boards indicate they're only 2 lanes ie "x2", which means you'll be bottle necking your drive. 2nd, if asus stated in your manual (and in it's advertising) that the M.2 Socket "shares bandwidth" with sata ports 5 & 6 (or whatever two ports, they were being euphemistic - technically that descript is correct but what they should have added, to be clear and in full disclosure, is that when the M.2 socket is in use, those two sata ports are dis-abled, so you gain one drive and loose two.

i ended up installing mine in an Addonics PCIe M.2 expansion card adaptor ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KDM75XK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 )

installed in my 4th PCIe slot, i've got 4 full lanes plus i regain those two sata ports

speed in the M.2 socket, 770 MB/s read, 560 MB/s write
speed in the addonics card in the PCIe x4 slot 1203 MB/s read, 835 MB/s write

To the OP, you might consider the Intel 750 http://www.anandtech.com/show/9090/intel-ssd-750-pcie-ssd-review-nvme-for-the-client . it ships with an oprom (boot files) installed, so much easier to install windows as OS to it, and it's shipping, according to newegg 5/19, so about a month from now

 

[Brighttail]

Yes the XP941 was a bit of a bear at first to get recognized. Make sure you have latest BIOS and you may need to turn off CSM and change settings to Raid to get the drive to be recognized.

The SM951 had no such issues. It was recognized and booted up perfectly.

I agree also that you should check your motherboard for specifications. The Asus x99 Rampage has a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot that gives me the full bandwidth, but my Asus x97 Formula only had PCIe 2.0 x4 so I was about 1/3rd slower.

Most M.2 slots on most every motherboard is going to share lanes with things like the Msata or another PCIe slot. Also on some motherboards you can't even USE the PCIe 2.0/3.0 unless you have 40 lanes on your CPU. Check your specs first!!

Oh I bought it from RAMCITY in Australia. They ship internationally for about 15 bux and I got it within a week.

 

[The Original Ralph]

thanks, you're right, i hadn't thought about the PCI 2.0 vs 3.0 difference - speed wise i doubt i'll see much of a difference.

What i'm thinking of doing right now is waiting for the NVMe version of the SM951 (they're shipping AHCI version currently), and hoping, if johnnyguru is correct, ie they're shipping as retail units, that they'll have an operom pre-installed. What i'd like to do is move the xp941 over to the M.2 socket, and keep it there to clone the new drive i mount in the PCIe slot - i'm assuming that when i dis-able the M.2 socket by selecting "SATA" in BIOS that that will totally isolate that cloned copy so no malware / virus etc can find it's way over.

Right now, i clone to a sata connected SSD, and in the event of an OS corruption, malware etc, i just swap drives, but i keep the cloned copy unconnected when not actually cloning. I tried cloning the xp941 last night to a sata connected SSD, but don't know if that transition from a GPT partitioned drive to a MBR drive will work if i need to clone back.

 

[Christopher Randall]

What i'm thinking of doing right now is waiting for the NVMe version of the SM951 (they're shipping AHCI version currently), and hoping, if johnnyguru is correct, ie they're shipping as retail units, that they'll have an operom pre-installed. What i'd like to do is move the xp941 over to the M.2 socket, and keep it there to clone the new drive i mount in the PCIe slot - i'm assuming that when i dis-able the M.2 socket by selecting "SATA" in BIOS that that will totally isolate that cloned copy so no malware / virus etc can find it's way over.

This website has it at the most affordable rate I could find, $369, but it is sadly out of stock and is back ordered.

http://www.memorydepot.com/detail/MZVPV512HDGL-00000.html

 

[The Original Ralph]

that price for a yet to be released NVMe SM951 512 GB worries me, seems too good to be true. My xp941 was $220 for 256 GB. RamCity's price on amazon (US) is $460 for the AHCI version shipped. I've been burnt by a "too good to be true" offer in the past, and played hell getting my coin back.

Especiallly if you need warranty svc. Between RamCity's rep and amazon, security couldn't be greater.

just my 02

personally i'm leaning toward the intel 750 NVMe 400GB - besides the smoking hot numbers (2400/1600) in a PCIe 3.0 X4 slot, it's more of a consumer oriented product. Intel doesn't have the best rep for warranty svc, but those are incredible numbers compared to the 1600/1200 numbers being touted for the SM951 NVMe. My current mobo will bottleneck the intel 750 but give me an excuse to watch what new micro-ATX boards come out

 

[foscooter]

Hey JohnnyLucky, been a long time. Anyway...

It may have already been stated in this thread, but I wanted to let you (and everyone else) know:

DO NOT RUN PARTED MAGIC ON A SAMSUNG XP941!

It will make the drive useless. Not bricked, just totally useless! I speak from experience!

This is also mentioned on some other websites, I think eBay.com and Newegg.com, read when I was looking into the new Samsung SM951 (just curious).

Hope someone reads this before they ruin a great drive!

L8R

 

[Daniel_3]

has anyone tried to plug a sm951 in to a m.2 gen 3 x4 with out using a pci card adapter. If so do you get the as if it was plugged into a pci adapter ...

 

[Brighttail]

has anyone tried to plug a sm951 in to a m.2 gen 3 x4 with out using a pci card adapter. If so do you get the as if it was plugged into a pci adapter ...

I have both the SM951 AHCI and NVMe version. I have one plugged into a z97 board downstairs into an M.2 slot on that board and it is running at 2.0.

The NVME version I have tried both in an m.2 slot and onto a PCI-e card into a pci-e 3.0 slot. It worked fine both ways on the Rampage Extreme Edition 10 board which can handle the 3.0 through put.