[SOLVED] Will this SSD work ?!

[chenjohn274]

My laptop is ASUS X509FA - DB51. It comes with a Western Digital PC SN520 PCIE X2 SSD. It has 2 lanes. Will a Samsung 970 PRO PCIE x4 lane ssd work in this laptop or any PCIE x4 lane ssd. Thankyou very much.

 

[rgd1101]

should work. but only running half the performance.

 

[Maxxify]

Depends on the M.2 socket speed.

 

[chenjohn274]

Depends on the M.2 socket speed.

Hi thankyou for replying. How do I check for M.2 socket speed?

 

[Maxxify]

Good question! May be listed under the PCI Express Controller in AIDA64 for example, although there's other ways. Linked image is my PC with 4 different x4 PCIe drives in x4 M.2 sockets. (the SN500 would be in use @ x2 but the port would be x4, ignoring the 2.0 part). Could maybe find out with the laptop documentation...or other programs that check drives (CrystalDiskInfo, Hard Disk Sentinel), other hardware-checking programs, ASUS support, etc.

 

[chenjohn274]

Good question! May be listed under the PCI Express Controller in AIDA64 for example, although there's other ways. Linked image is my PC with 4 different x4 PCIe drives in x4 M.2 sockets. (the SN500 would be in use @ x2 but the port would be x4, ignoring the 2.0 part). Could maybe find out with the laptop documentation...or other programs that check drives (CrystalDiskInfo, Hard Disk Sentinel), other hardware-checking programs, ASUS support, etc.

Thankyou for your help. However, I installed AIDA64 software and I could not think where to begin to look for the PCI EXPRESS CONTROLLER, can you please tell me which category it is under or the steps to go there. THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP.

 

[Maxxify]

Ah! It should be under Motherboard then Chipset, either North Bridge or South Bridge. Perhaps also information under Devices, PCI Devices.

 

[chenjohn274]

Ah! It should be under Motherboard then Chipset, either North Bridge or South Bridge. Perhaps also information under Devices, PCI Devices.

I went to Motherboard then Chipset then PCI Express Controller. It says this:

PCI-E 2.0 x1 port #9 ________Empty
PCI-E 2.0 x1 port #10 ____ In Use @x1 (Realtek RTL8821CE Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCI-E Network Adapter).

What is going on ?!

 

[Maxxify]

The SN520 is somewhere else! Depends on the chipset.

 

[chenjohn274]

should work. but only running half the performance.

Hi, thankyou for replying. But how come only half ?! It is a M-key slot aka it supports pcie 4 lanes. I hope im getting this info right

 

[rgd1101]

Hi, thankyou for replying. But how come only half ?! It is a M-key slot aka it supports pcie 4 lanes. I hope im getting this info right

it depend on the how many lane it get. support doesn't mean it got it all

 

[chenjohn274]

The SN520 is somewhere else! Depends on the chipset.

Hi, this is what the chipset says: "North Bridge - Intel Whiskey Lake-U IMC" I am using the trial version so I can not see anything in SOUTH BRIDGE. How will I know? Are there any other ways? Thankyou very much.

 

[chenjohn274]

it depend on the how many lane it get. support doesn't mean it got it all

Hi, thankyou for replying. How do I find out the exact # of lanes the M.2 socket has?

 

[rgd1101]

Hi, thankyou for replying. How do I find out the exact # of lanes the M.2 socket has?

the thing that you were doing
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/will-this-ssd-work.3575437/#post-21586983

 

[chenjohn274]

the thing that you were doing
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/will-this-ssd-work.3575437/#post-21586983

Yes, however it says EMPTY and I dont know how else to find out? Do you know any ways ? Thankyou very much.

 

[Maxxify]

Hi, this is what the chipset says: "North Bridge - Intel Whiskey Lake-U IMC" I am using the trial version so I can not see anything in SOUTH BRIDGE. How will I know? Are there any other ways? Thankyou very much.

Whiskey Lake-U I believe is x2 PCIe 3.0 for its SSD M.2 socket. x4 drives will work fine, in fact some of them won't be much limited by this interface. The ones that will be, like the 970 Pro (why would you have a MLC drive in this laptop?), will be limited in sequentials which are not a big deal in a machine like this. Is your goal more capacity?

 

[chenjohn274]

Whiskey Lake-U I believe is x2 PCIe 3.0 for its SSD M.2 socket. x4 drives will work fine, in fact some of them won't be much limited by this interface. The ones that will be, like the 970 Pro (why would you have a MLC drive in this laptop?), will be limited in sequentials which are not a big deal in a machine like this. Is your goal more capacity?

Hi, THANKYOU FOR REPLYING. Yes I need to have a SSD that has HIGH read AND write speeds because I am constantly working on this laptop, backing up and transferring large amounts of data using this laptop. So will Samsung 970 Pro work in this laptop?

 

[Maxxify]

Yes, at x2 it will be limited to approximately 1800 MB/s each direction, I find it hard to believe you would exceed those speeds to be honest and the 970 Pro is probably more than you need. But it should work fine.

 

[chenjohn274]

Yes, at x2 it will be limited to approximately 1800 MB/s each direction, I find it hard to believe you would exceed those speeds to be honest and the 970 Pro is probably more than you need. But it should work fine.

Hi, I see. So the Samsung 970 Pro will NOT work in the 2700 MB/s write speeds ?!

 

[Maxxify]

Hi, I see. So the Samsung 970 Pro will NOT work in the 2700 MB/s write speeds ?!

At x2, no. Although you would be hard pressed to write that fast even if you could - from what source are you writing at that speed? If you're copying to and from the same drive it's possible to hit higher speeds, of course (NVMe is full-duplex), but the drive will be limited below its maximum regardless in that case especially as it's at queue depth 1 (the "up to" speed for sequentials listed on a drive are for very high queue depth). At QD1 the 970 Pro is limited to probably ~2000 MB/s writes.

 

[chenjohn274]

At x2, no. Although you would be hard pressed to write that fast even if you could - from what source are you writing at that speed? If you're copying to and from the same drive it's possible to hit higher speeds, of course (NVMe is full-duplex), but the drive will be limited below its maximum regardless in that case especially as it's at queue depth 1 (the "up to" speed for sequentials listed on a drive are for very high queue depth). At QD1 the 970 Pro is limited to probably ~2000 MB/s writes.

I am making multiple copies of the same large files and folders in the laptop. Each copy has various customizations I need to make inside of it. Then I back up the copies to external hard drive such as the Samsung T5 portable SSD. I need to be able to COPY and TRANSFER .......FAST

 

[Maxxify]

The 970 Pro will certainly be the fastest for that. The external speeds will be limited by USB etc., it's only the internal copying (to/from the same NVMe drive) that will see any sort of bottleneck. TLC drives with fast base speeds like the 970 EVO Plus or SN750 would get pretty close at lower cost, but the MLC-based 970 Pro would be the fastest overall. Although I think even limited to x2 you'll be okay since it's full-duplex and the flash has its limitations esp. with many smaller files.

 

[chenjohn274]

The 970 Pro will certainly be the fastest for that. The external speeds will be limited by USB etc., it's only the internal copying (to/from the same NVMe drive) that will see any sort of bottleneck. TLC drives with fast base speeds like the 970 EVO Plus or SN750 would get pretty close at lower cost, but the MLC-based 970 Pro would be the fastest overall. Although I think even limited to x2 you'll be okay since it's full-duplex and the flash has its limitations esp. with many smaller files.

I seeeeee. Also I want to ask does faster RAM and or high processor fastens write speed?

 

[Maxxify]

Your OS will cache writes in RAM but if you're going at a steady pace the bottleneck is the drive ultimately. Likewise, certain transfers do have I/O overhead (esp. many small files), but generally speaking the limit will be the drive and not the CPU's overhead. Exception would be with compression of course which is RAM- and CPU-heavy, backup software generally does use moderate compression.

 

[USAFRet]

I seeeeee. Also I want to ask does faster RAM and or high processor fastens write speed?

In this context, no.
Drive speed and what port it is connected matter much more.