** NOW EVERYONE CAN ENJOY PCI-E NVMe/AHCI SSD's!! **

ed79

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I'm tempted but I have a couple of questions... (I have a Z77 board running Win7):-

* It says in the top post that the Asus card at £19.99 is "bootable in Windows 7, 8 and 10" but several later posts suggest changes are need to both the BIOS and Win7 install image?

* What (if anything) is the difference between the Asus card and this one https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lycom-dt-120-m.2-pci-e-ssd-to-pci-e-adapter-card-hd-000-lm.html

* Why is the 950 Pro around 40% more expensive than the SM951 for the same size? They seem to have almost identical read/write and IOPs. Only reason I can see to pay more is if the Pro comes with a driver to install Win7 - anyone know?

* I only have a PCIe2 x16 slot free. I know if I put one of these PCIe3 x4 M.2 converter cards in it'll fit, but will it be limited to 2GB/sec (which apprently is PCIe2 x4 max bandwidth)?

Am grateful for any advice - cheers!
 

Gibbo

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ed79 said:
I'm tempted but I have a couple of questions... (I have a Z77 board running Win7):-

* It says in the top post that the Asus card at £19.99 is "bootable in Windows 7, 8 and 10" but several later posts suggest changes are need to both the BIOS and Win7 install image?

* What (if anything) is the difference between the Asus card and this one https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lycom-dt-120-m.2-pci-e-ssd-to-pci-e-adapter-card-hd-000-lm.html

* Why is the 950 Pro around 40% more expensive than the SM951 for the same size? They seem to have almost identical read/write and IOPs. Only reason I can see to pay more is if the Pro comes with a driver to install Win7 - anyone know?

* I only have a PCIe2 x16 slot free. I know if I put one of these PCIe3 x4 M.2 converter cards in it'll fit, but will it be limited to 2GB/sec (which apprently is PCIe2 x4 max bandwidth)?

Am grateful for any advice - cheers!
Click to expand...


950 - Retail product, longer warranty, software and black PCB.
951 - OEM product, 1yr warranty, no software, green PCB.

Both drives perform the same.
 

JediFragger

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951 has to rely on an old MS NVMe driver, so not ideal :(


edit from Anandtech - "I have a strong feeling that NVMe is capable of much more, but the technology needs time to mature. From what I have talked to SSD OEMs, the generic NVMe driver that Microsoft includes in Windows 8.1 has some severe shortcomings, which is why nearly everyone has their own custom driver at least for now. I think Samsung and the SM951-NVMe desperately need that to unleash the full potential of the drive and I sure hope that the retail version of the drive will feature one"
 
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Scotspaul

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Does the SSD sit flush with the PCI expansion card, or stick out at right angles? I ask because I have crossfire and if its at right angles it wont fit !!
 

ossieclap

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FredBasset

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I'd have sent this by webnote but that appears to be broken, fill in all the fields and it tells you to fill in the fields in red.

However

I have the following questions on the product HD-032-AS : Asus Hyper M.2 X4 PCI-E Mini Adapter Card - Black PCB:

Hi

I have a PC based around a Z97 4.6Ghz OCUK bundle, the motherboard is an Asus Formula.

I'd like to add an NVME device as a bootable drive. I have to run Win7 due to some legacy software I need. Will the PCI-E Mini adapter definitely allow booting into Win7 from the NVME device.

Also will I need to update the BIOS and if so how do I go about applying the OCUK settings again.

Thanks
Fred
 

freddie64

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Well i got my 950 Pro working.

As you can see though, it does't seem to be full speed.

SM950%20Samsung%20driver_zps64i0es99.png


Also Samsung Magician reports 10Gbps not 32Gbps (could be a bug, not sure)

Capturesam_zpswrs4erz5.png


It all boots OK, but was wondering if sunlitsix or any one else running one of these drives on Z77 could tell me if they are 32Gbps or not.

Happy new year to you all. :)
 

UTmaniac

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freddie64 said:
Well i got my 950 Pro working.

As you can see though, it does't seem to be full speed.

SM950%20Samsung%20driver_zps64i0es99.png


Also Samsung Magician reports 10Gbps not 32Gbps (could be a bug, not sure)

Capturesam_zpswrs4erz5.png


It all boots OK, but was wondering if sunlitsix or any one else running one of these drives on Z77 could tell me if they are 32Gbps or not.

Happy new year to you all. :)
Click to expand...

Samsung Magician is reporting the "controller" type for you, with my Samsung 951 that field says "n/a" while using the Samsung NVMe driver.

As I wrote at http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=28994775&postcount=22 , Samsung Magician is only reporting 10Gbps connection while using the Asus Hyper adapter.

But when I run the performance test, I get ~2200/1600MBps results.

I'm not getting the "over provisioning" or other fancy options, all tools are greyed out except the "performance test."

I'm really confused about this, I'm wondering if we need the Asus Hyper Kit https://www.asus.com/Motherboard-Accessories/Hyper_Kit/ to run these PCI-e adapters at the "turbo m.2" speed of 32Gbps and get the full potential out of our Samsung m.2 drives. The blurb at https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-hyper-m.2-x4-pci-e-mini-adapter-card-black-pcb-hd-032-as.html makes this issue quite vague, at least for me.

I bought this adapter with my 8-Pack bundle thinking I was overcoming the motherboard's relatively basic 10Gbps m.2 slot.

Or whether I'm using the wrong PCI-e slot on my Gaming 5P and it is sharing lanes with my R9390 graphics, or the SATA ports I'm using for my 512GB Crutial MX100 or my old 320GB WD3200AAK drives.

These m.2 drives should be greater than 4x the read speed of my MX100 and ~3x the write speed, but it does not feel anything like that.

It would be a load of agro, but I'm getting tempted to move the Samsung 951 to my better half's new pc, to see if the MSI Z170A Gaming Pro's integrated 32Gbps m.2 socket runs this drive better (in which case I will pinch her new 512GB Samsung EVO SSD in exchange).
 
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Andromeda1983

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The only complaint I have about running the 950 Pro on this card is that they run really quite hot, that's why I was not sad to see it go when I sold it on the MM. If this came with a decent heat sink I think it would solve the problem however.
 

bimbleuk

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I had to use my old Gigabyte Z77 + i5 3570K system this weekend but rather than re-install a bunch of steam games I just plugged the adapter in to PCIE_2. Booted Windows 10 and my 512GB SM951 showed up no problem. Also appears to be working at full speed in the CDM benchmark as well 2200/1600 MB in the sequential test.

Nice and straight forward.
 
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freddie64

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Andromeda1983 said:
The only complaint I have about running the 950 Pro on this card is that they run really quite hot, that's why I was not sad to see it go when I sold it on the MM. If this came with a decent heat sink I think it would solve the problem however.
Click to expand...

I Wondered why you sold it. ;)

Have good air flow so should be OK.

Wonder if it could be a bios setting i missed?
 
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