Question Samsung 512GB M.2 NVMe 2280 Gen4 SSD

[oliveria]

Hello members, I'm interested in buying this 512gb ssd from ebay and I'm a little bit confused if its the Samsung 970 pro ssd or 980 pro ssd , or is this a completely different ssd from the naming conventions of the likes of 970 and 980 pro, knowing this information will really help me because I know about the write speeds of the 970 and 980 pro ssds, I really want to know the speeds of this gen 4 nvme ssd before I go ahead with the purchase, I'm buying it for use in my dell precision 7720 workstation , thanks in advance for your answers

 

[Lutfij]

I'm interested in buying this 512gb ssd from ebay
If you're looking at used SSD's, please stop and spend a little more money buying something that's brand new.

I also looked up the specs to your laptop;
https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocument...ts_Documents/en/Precision_7720_Spec_Sheet.pdf

https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/precision-17-7720-laptop_owners-manual_en-us.pdf

You should save your money and get a PCIe 3.0x4 SSD as opposed to a PCIe 4.0 drive, yes the latter is backwards compatible but you won't be able to leverage the additional bandwidth.

How much money do you have assigned to your SSD purchase?

 

[oliveria]

in ebay this gen 4 Samsung ssd is $35, the seller has listed the speed as up to 7000mbs, I haven't gotten your point well of me not going to use all the bandwidth if I buy this ssd, does it mean that the precision 7720 is not built to use gen 4 ssds, kindly elaborate, thanks

 

[Rokinamerica]

You won't notice any difference in speeds unless you have some specific use case. Instead of buying used gen 4, buy a gen 3 new.

 

[oliveria]

its listed as new at that $35, I'm really eager to know if the dell precision 7720 is capable of using this gen 4 ssd, or it won't really mean much of a difference, I'm currently using a 2.5 inch SSD and would really wish to buy a fast ssd since I do see some lags in running the architecture softwares that are in my workstation, that's why I thought of instead upgrading to the other m.2 gen 3, to just go straight and buy a gen 4 sad

 

[SkyNetRising]

I'm interested in buying this 512gb ssd from ebay and I'm a little bit confused if its the Samsung 970 pro ssd or 980 pro ssd , or is this a completely different ssd from the naming conventions of the likes of 970 and 980 pro

970 pro is PCIE 3.0 (gen3).
980 pro is PCIE 4.0 (gen4).

It's probably Samsung PM9A1 (OEM) drive. Similar to 980 pro in specs.

its listed as new at that $35, I'm really eager to know if the dell precision 7720 is capable of using this gen 4 ssd.

It's capable of running it. But it will work in gen 3 mode.

 

[oliveria]

Ok thanks for the clarification, does it mean if it has to run in full gen 4 mode then I will need a much better workstation as opposed to dell precision 7720, like I should get higher series of the precision series??

 

[SkyNetRising]

does it mean if it has to run in full gen 4 mode then I will need a much better workstation as opposed to dell precision 7720, like I should get higher series of the precision series??

Yes - to enable gen4 mode, you'll need newer hardware.

But .. none of that matters.
You won't gain much just by upgrading to gen4 SSD. Gen3 is plenty fast.

 

[USAFRet]

in ebay this gen 4 Samsung ssd is $35

its listed as new at that $35

To me, that screams FAKE.

Can you give us the link for this?

 

[USAFRet]

Ok thanks for the clarification, does it mean if it has to run in full gen 4 mode then I will need a much better workstation as opposed to dell precision 7720, like I should get higher series of the precision series??

Don't change the motherboard or system, just to go from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 4.0 drives.

 

[oliveria]

I'm interested in buying this 512gb ssd from ebay
If you're looking at used SSD's, please stop and spend a little more money buying something that's brand new.

I also looked up the specs to your laptop;
https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocument...ts_Documents/en/Precision_7720_Spec_Sheet.pdf

https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/precision-17-7720-laptop_owners-manual_en-us.pdf

You should save your money and get a PCIe 3.0x4 SSD as opposed to a PCIe 4.0 drive, yes the latter is backwards compatible but you won't be able to leverage the additional bandwidth.

How much money do you have assigned to your SSD purchase?

hello, I've tried clicking on the two links you posted to see and check to see where they say that dell precision 7720 wont run at the speeds of gen4 nvme ssd, but the link keeps rounding and not showing me anything tangible, are you able to screenshot for me that part showing that precision 7720 is only upto gen3 nvme please, or send me the pdf via email to <Mod Edit>, thanks

 

[SkyNetRising]

to see and check to see where they say that dell precision 7720 wont run at the speeds of gen4 nvme ssd, but the link keeps rounding and not showing me anything tangible, are you able to screenshot for me that part showing that precision 7720 is only upto gen3 nvme please

Dell precision 7720 supports 6th and 7th gen mobile cpus.
Max supported PCIE version for those cpus is gen3.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...r-6m-cache-up-to-3-50-ghz/specifications.html

Intel® Core™ i7-6920HQ Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz) Product Specifications

Intel® Core™ i7-6920HQ Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz) quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.

ark.intel.com

Chipset used in Dell precision 7720 is Intel Mobile CM238.
It also supports max PCIE gen3.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...obile-intel-cm238-chipset/specifications.html

 

[oliveria]

Thanks a lot for all the clarifications I got from you wonderful people, you enabled me to know that my precision 7720 doesn't support gen4 and instead I've gone ahead and purchased the Samsung 512gb 970 pro nvme ssd gen3, I'm hoping this still gonna boost my laptop speeds as compared to the 2.5 inch ssd I'm currently using,

 

[Bob.B]

Thanks a lot for all the clarifications I got from you wonderful people, you enabled me to know that my precision 7720 doesn't support gen4 and instead I've gone ahead and purchased the Samsung 512gb 970 pro nvme ssd gen3, I'm hoping this still gonna boost my laptop speeds as compared to the 2.5 inch ssd I'm currently using,

Unless there is something wrong with the 2.5 don't be surprised if you see very little diff in day to day stuff.

 

[oliveria]

thanks for the clarification, I'm abit confused because from the publications around even from Samsung itself, they've described this Samsung 970 pro 512gb ssd as a very capable ssd with very impressive speeds, they say there have to be some notable speeds boost by moving from a 2.5 inch ssd to this Samsung 970 pro ssd, so I don't know whether I should just proceed with the upgrade anyway

 

[COLGeek]

thanks for the clarification, I'm abit confused because from the publications around even from Samsung itself, they've described this Samsung 970 pro 512gb ssd as a very capable ssd with very impressive speeds, they say there have to be some notable speeds boost by moving from a 2.5 inch ssd to this Samsung 970 pro ssd, so I don't know whether I should just proceed with the upgrade anyway

Other than when benchmarking, or transferring large files, you'll see little/no user perspective difference between the m.2 NVME and 2.5in SATA SSDs. That is what the others are telling you.

It will test faster, don't get me wrong. But from a human doing normal stuff viewpoint, you won't see a significant (if any) difference.

 

[USAFRet]

thanks for the clarification, I'm abit confused because from the publications around even from Samsung itself, they've described this Samsung 970 pro 512gb ssd as a very capable ssd with very impressive speeds, they say there have to be some notable speeds boost by moving from a 2.5 inch ssd to this Samsung 970 pro ssd, so I don't know whether I should just proceed with the upgrade anyway

A Ferrari is a LOT faster than a Honda Civic, right?
Published top speed around twice that of the Honda.

But it won't get you from home to work any faster.
Traffic lights, other vehicles, speed limits...all get in the way of getting to that top speed.

The only time you see that top speed is in an artificial environment, like a race track.
With storage devices, benchmarks.

A large part of the benefit of an SSD is the near zero access time. That holds true for all SSD types. SATA as well as NVMe.

No harm in getting that 970. Just don't expect your day to day operations to be 5x faster.