SSDs and M.2 ports. How to connect?

[martinlest]

I am buying 2 x Samsung EVO 850s (500GB each) in a mini-form PC (essential for various reasons) with an Asus H97I M/B.

The latter has one M.2 port - am I right in thinking that for best performance I should connect one of the SSDs (with the O/S) to that, and the 2nd. to one of the 6Gbps SAT3 ports?

Thanks

 

[QSV]

No, youre wrong. Those are both SATA drives and any SATA 3 port will be fast enough.
M.2 ports are only for M.2 (sometimes for mSATA drives) or for U.2 drives.

 

[middlemarkal]

the evo 850 is no faster on m.2, so it's a mather of size and price vs 2.5"

a samsung XP941 or SM951 would be faster on m.2, many times faster, but your mobo limits it :
M.2 onboard
-The latest transfer technology with up to 10 Gb/s data transfer speeds

 

[martinlest]

Thanks. I am not at all knowledgeable about M.2 - if I am wrong it is only through browsing and semi-digesting what people have said on other forums. As the Samsung SSD is M.2 compatible, I concluded that the best performance would be gained by connecting it to the M/B M.2 port. (I don't really have that wide a choice of M/Bs as I am having the PC built for me rather than do it myself - as I did when I was younger!).
You say though that there'll be no performance increase over using the SATA3 ports for both. What might the M.2 port be used for in that case?

 

[QSV]

For M.2 or U.2 SSDs. Those are up to 4 times faster (sequential only - which means it mostly affects copying big files) than a Samsung 850, but only in an M.2 port that offers at least around 20 Gb/s, which most on H97 dont offer.
And no, a Samsung 850 Evo doesnt support M.2. Its an SATA drive. Completely different connector. There might be adapters out there, but its just pointless, unless your SATA ports break or something.

 

[nomadicwarrior]

I have recently begun to investigate this as my new motherboard has a M.2 connection I can utilise. As far as I understand so far, any M.2 SSDs that use sata are no faster than any other ordinary sata ssd but the more expensive M.2s (such as the XP941 or the SM951) use a PCIe bus transfer and these are a lot faster. You've got to pay more for the privilege.

 

[QSV]

Wait wait wait, I just remembered theres also M.2 and mSATA versions of the 850 Evo. So which one are you buying? The M.2, the SATA 2.5" or the mSATA version?

 

[nomadicwarrior]

For M.2 or U.2 SSDs. Those are up to 4 times faster (sequential only - which means it mostly affects copying big files) than a Samsung 850, but only in an M.2 port that offers at least around 20 Gb/s, which most on H97 dont offer.
And no, a Samsung 850 Evo doesnt support M.2. Its an SATA drive. Completely different connector. There might be adapters out there, but its just pointless, unless your SATA ports break or something.

If that's the case, why do Amazon et al have Samsung Evo 850 M.2 cards advertised for sale on their site

 

[martinlest]

OK, I was under a misapprehension about the drive being M.2.

But what does this mean then, when it says "Product Type: M.2"? The interface is still marked as SATA3, so I am still confused

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-N5E500BW

Thanks.

 

[QSV]

Ok, thats the M.2 version and will fit any M.2 slot, but its only as fast as the SATA version and will not run on an SATA port. So there will be no performance gain over an SATA one.
But you said youre planning to buy 2 of those, but you only have one M.2 port. So that wont work. Either buy one M.2 version and one SATA version or just one 1TB SATA version.

 

[martinlest]

That's fine. I'll stick with plugging the two into the SATA3 6Gbps slots. Thanks for the advice.

 

[QSV]

Again: The one you linked wont work on an SATA port. Its an M.2 SSD.
You would need this one for SATA ports: http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-75E500B/AM

 

[martinlest]

Sorry, my error, I wasn't clear. The one I linked to was an example - it's not the one I am buying, I am buying the SATA3 version, not M.2