Can a Z97 mobo MSI Gaming Z97 GAMING 5 harness full potential of 950 PRO M.2?

[DesiPower]

Time to spend some more of that disposable income on something I definitely do not need, question is, can a Z97 mobo MSI Gaming Z97 GAMING 5 harness full potential of 950 PRO M.2? or do we need the newer chipset?

Samsung says -
Interface - PCIe 3.0 x4 (up to 32Gb/s) NVMe 1.1

MSI says -
1x M.2 port*
M.2 port supports M.2 SATA 6Gb/s module
M.2 port supports M.2 PCIe module up to 10Gb/s speed**
M.2 port supports 4.2cm/ 6cm/ 8cm length module

* The SATA5 and SATA6 ports will be unavailable when installing a module in the M.2 port.
** M.2 PCIe interface only supports UEFI option ROM, NOT support legacy option ROM.

So what do they mean? are they compatible?

 

[UsandThem]

So what do they mean? are they compatible?

It will work at full speed on that board. You just have to intall your OS in the UEFI format/ Windows 8/ Windows 10 (GPT partition).

In your BIOS if you selected 'other OS or legacy' it would use MBR partitions and wouldn't work according to the requirements you listed.

Just make sure you have a lot of airflow going across that 950 Pro or it will constantly throttle its speed to reduce its heat. They run hot and since they lay flat, it could be an issue.

 

[DesiPower]

It will work at full speed on that board. You just have to intall your OS in the UEFI format/ Windows 8/ Windows 10 (GPT partition).

In your BIOS if you selected 'other OS or legacy' it would use MBR partitions and wouldn't work according to the requirements you listed.

Just make sure you have a lot of airflow going across that 950 Pro or it will constantly throttle its speed to reduce its heat. They run hot and since they lay flat, it could be an issue.

Thanks for the info, are there any heatsinks available for them yet?

 

[Deders]

The overheating is just an issue when you are really stressing it, but airflow is still a good idea.

Also apparently (on Asus boards at least) as the M.2 slot is running in PCIe mode and not Sata mode (for Sata based M.2 drives) you should still be able to use the first 2 sata ports.

 

[zentan]

Time to spend some more of that disposable income on something I definitely do not need, question is, can a Z97 mobo MSI Gaming Z97 GAMING 5 harness full potential of 950 PRO M.2? or do we need the newer chipset?

Full potential can't be harnessed. It's a board with pcie 2.0 x2 lanes for m.2 pcie.See this page for comparison between 3.0 x4 implementations vs 2.0 x2 implementation in z97 extreme 6.

So what do they mean? are they compatible?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9396/samsung-sm951-nvme-256gb-pcie-ssd-review

One of the major questions with every PCIe SSD is whether it is bootable. Back when the XP941 became available the situation was rather messy because motherboard OEMs had not prepared for PCIe SSDs yet, which require BIOS/UEFI support from their side in order to show up in the boot menu. Fortunately, most OEMs fixed this for 9-series motherboards and now most models have a BIOS update available with proper support for PCIe and NVMe SSDs.

So yeah in short they should be and also 950Pro 512GB model is listed under
Z97 Gaming 5 support list.Initially there were also reports on some z97 boards that it(M.2 pcie SSDs) was supported as storage drive while not having the ability to boot,but that shouldn't be a problem with most now.

 

[DesiPower]

The overheating is just an issue when you are really stressing it, but airflow is still a good idea.

Also apparently (on Asus boards at least) as the M.2 slot is running in PCIe mode and not Sata mode (for Sata based M.2 drives) you should still be able to use the first 2 sata ports.

How can you stress a drive? by sustained read/write for a long time? Like copying a million files worth 200GB or something like that? My PC is used for surfing and gaming, I own a few latest games but playing time is like 10 hours a month... so I don't think I will be stressing it, will I? Case is Antec P280, has 2 intake and to output fans, and CPU is water cooled with a 5th fan that directly blows outside. GPU is the only part producing heat inside.

If there are SSDs out there that produce enough heat to slow itself down then they should start coming out with heat sink. I looked at the PCI M.2 cards, they are actually coming with heat sinks.

 

[UsandThem]

How can you stress a drive? by sustained read/write for a long time? Like copying a million files worth 200GB or something like that? My PC is used for surfing and gaming, I own a few latest games but playing time is like 10 hours a month... so I don't think I will be stressing it, will I? Case is Antec P280, has 2 intake and to output fans, and CPU is water cooled with a 5th fan that directly blows outside. GPU is the only part producing heat inside.

If there are SSDs out there that produce enough heat to slow itself down then they should start coming out with heat sink. I looked at the PCI M.2 cards, they are actually coming with heat sinks.

If you only surf and game with the PC, save the money and buy a Samsung 850 Pro. It's fast and has a 10 year warranty. It is slightly faster than the 850 EVO (which has a 5 year warranty), but your call on that.

With your PC use, you would only notice the speed difference running synthetic benchmarks with the 950 Pro. Save the money and the next time you fully upgrade your PC, you can jump to the faster drives when it will likely matter.

Just my .02

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you only surf and game with the PC, save the money and buy a Samsung 850 Pro. It's fast and has a 10 year warranty. It is slightly faster than the 850 EVO (which has a 5 year warranty), but your call on that.

With your PC use, you would only notice the speed difference running synthetic benchmarks with the 950 Pro. Save the money and the next time you fully upgrade your PC, you can jump to the faster drives when it will likely matter.

Just my .02

As an owner and user of a (pair of) Samsung SM951 PCI-E 3.0 x4 M.2 AHCI SSDs, I agree.

While my SM951 128GB benches well in sequential (nearly 2GB/sec, pretty amazing), it only benches 240MB/sec in random 4K QD32 reads. Which is slower than reviews of the PNY CS2211 240/480GB SATA6G SSD.

A good SATA6G SSD, can still perform effectively the same as current PCI-E SSDs, in random I/O (where SSD performance counts).

Edit: Plus, if OP's M.2 PCI-E port is limited to PCI-E 2.0 x2, then it's a no-brainer to get a SATA6G drive rather than a PCI-E. PCI-E 3.0 x4 drives are only really useful, if you have a 3.0 x4 port to plug them into. (As found on my ASRock Z170 Pro4S board.)

 

[DesiPower]

Edit: Plus, if OP's M.2 PCI-E port is limited to PCI-E 2.0 x2, then it's a no-brainer to get a SATA6G drive rather than a PCI-E. PCI-E 3.0 x4 drives are only really useful, if you have a 3.0 x4 port to plug them into. (As found on my ASRock Z170 Pro4S board.)

Oh well, then I guess it will have to wait for next platform upgrade... thanks guys

 

[DesiPower]

Well, I do need another SSD, I currently have 500GB 850 EVO. If I want to go for 1TB, would a 850 evo perform better or X400 M.2?

 

[UsandThem]

Well, I do need another SSD, I currently have 500GB 850 EVO. If I want to go for 1TB, would a 850 evo perform better or X400 M.2?

Roughly the same. If you want to put something in the m.2 slot, you could use pretty much anything. A 850 EVO drive will be pretty much the same in the m.2 slot or on a traditional SATA3 connection.

You will not notice a difference on what you use your PC for.

 

[DesiPower]

Good, coz X400 is cheaper and it will free up a SATA port too!