Will this M.2 SSD fit in my motherboard?

[KenGrinsven]

Hey all,

I'm new to the M.2 connector and I was wondering if thishttp:// SSD would fit in my ASUS Z97-A Motherboard.

I believe the SSD above is a B&M Key..
ASUS' website says my motherboard supports "M.2 Socket 3, , with M Key, type 2260/2280 storage devices support (PCIE mode)".

So my question is: will the SSD fit in my motherboard?

Thanks.

 

[ulysses35]

If you have a mobo with a M.2 slot then yes it should work - please post model number of the M2 SSd so we can be sure, they come in different lengths which you need to check the dims for

 

[KenGrinsven]

If you have a mobo with a M.2 slot then yes it should work - please post model number of the M2 SSd so we can be sure, they come in different lengths which you need to check the dims for

Allright, thanks.
It's the Samsung SSD 850 EVO m.2. The length should be fine (2280).

 

[KenGrinsven]

I just found out the 850 EVO M.2 has a SATA interface, however ASUS says it supports PCIE mode..
I don't think that would work, right?

 

[The Original Ralph]

i can't answer whether it should work, but the more important question is, if you're going to go with a M.2 SSD, why not go with a PCIe mode one? - A sata M.2 is going to be limited to sata speeds (max 6 Gb/s) while a PCIe M.2 that is gen 3 capable, will go max 32 Gb/s. Even a PCIe 2.0 M.2 will go 10 Gb/s.

Just seems foolish to waste the coin and opportunity on a sata limited SSD

 

[KenGrinsven]

i can't answer whether it should work, but the more important question is, if you're going to go with a M.2 SSD, why not go with a PCIe mode one? - A sata M.2 is going to be limited to sata speeds (max 6 Gb/s) while a PCIe M.2 that is gen 3 capable, will go max 32 Gb/s. Even a PCIe 2.0 M.2 will go 10 Gb/s.

Just seems foolish to waste the coin and opportunity on a sata limited SSD

Yeah I'm probably going with a PCIe mode one. I was just looking for some cheap M.2 SSD's (which were mainly SATA mode), but I found out a few minutes ago that PCIe mode SSD's are way faster.
Thanks for telling. 😉

 

[The Original Ralph]

i've been running an xp941 on an addonics M.2 > PCIe adaptor expansion card, and have been looking at the sm951 but there are reports of it having issues with thermal throttling, as most of the boards available (AHCI version) are sourced as Lenova laptop replacement parts, and lenova has apparently ordered theirs with the thermal limits integral, so they clock down after a couple of minutes. The reviews you see, except for one (LegitReviews.com), don't mention this.

Plus there's a couple of reports by individuals experiencing extremely slow numbers in the lower quadrants bench testing. The NVMe versions of the sm951 seem to be experiencing the same issue, so i'm basically waiting for the market to mature a little and samsung to deliver a "retail" version.

The other choice is the intel 750, which is apparently a retail product, but the smallest unit offered is 400GB, which is bigger than i want.
fwiw

 

[KenGrinsven]

i've been running an xp941 on an addonics M.2 > PCIe adaptor expansion card, and have been looking at the sm951 but there are reports of it having issues with thermal throttling, as most of the boards available (AHCI version) are sourced as Lenova laptop replacement parts, and lenova has apparently ordered theirs with the thermal limits integral, so they clock down after a couple of minutes. The reviews you see, except for one (LegitReviews.com), don't mention this.

Plus there's a couple of reports by individuals experiencing extremely slow numbers in the lower quadrants bench testing. The NVMe versions of the sm951 seem to be experiencing the same issue, so i'm basically waiting for the market to mature a little and samsung to deliver a "retail" version.

The other choice is the intel 750, which is apparently a retail product, but the smallest unit offered is 400GB, which is bigger than i want.
fwiw

I'm considering to get the xp941, since I can get it as a good deal atm.
Does it do it's job well? (apart from the reports of extremely slow numbers..)

 

[The Original Ralph]

actually the numbers aren't shabby, and actually "smokes, cooks and burns" compared to a Sata SSD, I'm benching 1088 MB/s read and 833 MB/s write which is a little lower than specs for it, but in day to day operations, i see boot times of 5 secs after POST, and heavy programs like photoshop, quickbook, UPS worldship open in 1/3rd the time they did loading from a samsung 840 evo. The sm951 is supposed to be about 25-30% faster (the AHCI version) but i doubt i'd see or feel the difference from my xp941

but you might want to review the forums, whether the xp941 or the sm951, there are issues installing windows on the xp941 as a boot drive - it took me 18+ hours reviewing various websites for the solution, but the solution was a constantly changing set of BIOS settings as the mobo mfgrs updated their BIOS releases.

Windows 7 is a little harder to load than windows 8 but the best set of instructions for my asus Z97M-Plus were on the asus forums at https://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20130111005429811&board_id=1&model=P8Z77-V+LX&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

in spite of Hiker's instructions, i still installed windows via a bootable USB flash drive created with RUFUS (google for it) - main reason, it loaded windows in 6 minutes versus 45-55 minutes via DVD drive.

notes to save some headaches
1) make sure you're working with a retail copy of windows, not an OEM
2) be sure to wipe the flash drive and format as FAT32 (as the bios on your board should be UEFI
3) the xp941 will have to be wiped using diskpart as Hiker describes (DO NOT USE SAMSUNG'S SECURE ERASE OR PARTED MAGIC'S SECURE ERASE - it will turn the xp941 into an expensive bookmark, ie brick it)
4) be sure to partition the xp941 in disk management as "GPT" - that's because of the UEFI BIOS (again)

and be aware, as the xp941 is only sold as an "OEM" part, there's a limited warranty from the vendors. RamCIty is pretty decent offering a full warranty, but most are only offering a 30 day warranty.

The main issue with installing windows as a boot drive is the fact on both the xp941 and sm951, they lack "OPROM" or small boot files that tell the computer to load boot files from windows - that's the full extent of my knowledge on the affair. As they're sold as "OEM" to lenova, sony, dell etc, samsung assumes they'll configure them with whatever boot files they'll need.

I also ended up discovering a "fred flintstone" installation method i posted http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2615594/installing-samsung-xp941-win-64x-boot-drive-fun.html

i discovered the above as i ran into the same headaches getting windows 7 installed the second time, and thought i'd try a shortcut - it did save some time re-installing the original programs i had installed after windows - total re-install or fresh install time takes me 11-12 hours with activating programs, setting settings, etc

if you go that route, and run into issues, pop in here

 

[KenGrinsven]

actually the numbers aren't shabby, and actually "smokes, cooks and burns" compared to a Sata SSD, I'm benching 1088 MB/s read and 833 MB/s write which is a little lower than specs for it, but in day to day operations, i see boot times of 5 secs after POST, and heavy programs like photoshop, quickbook, UPS worldship open in 1/3rd the time they did loading from a samsung 840 evo. The sm951 is supposed to be about 25-30% faster (the AHCI version) but i doubt i'd see or feel the difference from my xp941

but you might want to review the forums, whether the xp941 or the sm951, there are issues installing windows on the xp941 as a boot drive - it took me 18+ hours reviewing various websites for the solution, but the solution was a constantly changing set of BIOS settings as the mobo mfgrs updated their BIOS releases.

Windows 7 is a little harder to load than windows 8 but the best set of instructions for my asus Z97M-Plus were on the asus forums at https://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20130111005429811&board_id=1&model=P8Z77-V+LX&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

in spite of Hiker's instructions, i still installed windows via a bootable USB flash drive created with RUFUS (google for it) - main reason, it loaded windows in 6 minutes versus 45-55 minutes via DVD drive.

notes to save some headaches
1) make sure you're working with a retail copy of windows, not an OEM
2) be sure to wipe the flash drive and format as FAT32 (as the bios on your board should be UEFI
3) the xp941 will have to be wiped using diskpart as Hiker describes (DO NOT USE SAMSUNG'S SECURE ERASE OR PARTED MAGIC'S SECURE ERASE - it will turn the xp941 into an expensive bookmark, ie brick it)
4) be sure to partition the xp941 in disk management as "GPT" - that's because of the UEFI BIOS (again)

and be aware, as the xp941 is only sold as an "OEM" part, there's a limited warranty from the vendors. RamCIty is pretty decent offering a full warranty, but most are only offering a 30 day warranty.

The main issue with installing windows as a boot drive is the fact on both the xp941 and sm951, they lack "OPROM" or small boot files that tell the computer to load boot files from windows - that's the full extent of my knowledge on the affair. As they're sold as "OEM" to lenova, sony, dell etc, samsung assumes they'll configure them with whatever boot files they'll need.

I also ended up discovering a "fred flintstone" installation method i posted http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2615594/installing-samsung-xp941-win-64x-boot-drive-fun.html

i discovered the above as i ran into the same headaches getting windows 7 installed the second time, and thought i'd try a shortcut - it did save some time re-installing the original programs i had installed after windows - total re-install or fresh install time takes me 11-12 hours with activating programs, setting settings, etc

if you go that route, and run into issues, pop in here

Thanks a lot for that!
I think i'm going to try and install windows 10 preview on it.
If I come across any issues, i'll let you know.

Thanks for all your help so far

 

[The Original Ralph]

but it just occurred to me, you might want to wait a month or two to let the dust settle on the sm951 - they'll be releasing the NVMe version approx july, and hopefully installation issues will be resolved. Both the AHCI and NVMe versions of the sm951 are PCIe 3.0 x 4, which your M'.2 socket supports. The xp941 is PCI 2.0 x4 which is a bit slower.