help with m.2 ssd

[elkido122]

im thinking about getting the intel 600p m.2 ssd and am curious if it will work on my msi z97 gaming 3 motherboard. my bios is the latest version but it doesnt list anything about nvme pcie .

 

[elkido122]

can someone help me out here?

 

[shabby]

I'm not sure why you'd think it wouldn't work.

 

[elkido122]

i just didnt know if m.2 pcie was compatible. also i was curious if there would be a bottleneck on this drive or not. im not sure how many lanes the z97 gaming 3 offers to m.2 over pcie and what not. lke im not sure if it is x4 or not .

 

[ch33zw1z]

what's the actual model of the mobo? because there's 23 different model Z97 boards on their site....

 

[shabby]

Seems like its limited to pcie 2 with 2 lanes, but msi's website says 10gbps. You'd be better off getting a pcie>m.2 adapter and getting the full 4 lanes in the second pcie slot. The first slot is pcie3, the second one is pcie2.

 

[elkido122]

i didnt want to have to spend any more then the 189 that the ssd is listed at. whats the fastest itll go by itself without the pcie adapter . will i have a problem if i dont get the adapter besides a little less speed.

 

[ch33zw1z]

No, it won't be a problem.

text from the manual....

SATA ports 5 and 6 will be disabled, etc..

Storage ■■Z97 GAMING 3/ H97 GAMING 3
-- Intel Z97/ H97 Express Chipset
-- 6x SATA 6Gb/s ports (SATA1~6)
-- 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
-- Supports RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 5 and RAID 10***
-- Supports Intel Smart Response Technology, Supports Intel Rapid
Start Technology and Intel Smart Connect Technology****
* The SATA5 and SATA6 ports will be unavailable when installing a module in the M.2 port.
** Intel RST only supports PCIe M.2 SSD with UEFI ROM, does not support Legacy ROM.
*** M.2 PCIe interface does not support RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 5 and RAID 10.
**** Supports Intel Core processors on Windows 7 and Windows 8/ 8.1

 

[elkido122]

Thank you for the response just don't want any bottlenecks is all. Since it only uses pcie 2 at x2 for the m.2 will it be limited to like 1gig a second instead of the listed 1.7 that the 600p is suppose to be at

 

[ch33zw1z]

I haven't found where it says x2 yet. It's 10Gb/s per the spec sheet

PCIE 3.0 for x4 is about 4GB/s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_3.0

 

[elkido122]

My motherboard is the msi z97 gaming 3 . Let me know what you think of the specs

 

[elkido122]

If I plug a intel 600p m.2 into the m.2 slot on that board I will get the speeds that the drive is rated at then?

 

[ch33zw1z]

http://ark.intel.com/products/94924/Intel-SSD-600p-Series-512GB-M_2-80mm-PCIe-3_0-x4-3D1-TLC

Looking at that spec sheet, I don't think you'll get the max reads that the drive can support.

The board doesn't define the x1,x2,x4 in the manual but maybe it will in BIOS.

The manual for the board does say up to 10Gb/s, which will be plenty for the writes, but that 1775MB/s read speed is about 14.2Gb/s

PCIE seems to be rated in GT/s aka gigatransfers per second, in the link a few posts up there's a speed chart

 

[elkido122]

what if i bought something that was m.2 nvme and plugged into a pci-e slot? would that be better? maybe something like the ocz rd400a+aic. thanks

 

[ch33zw1z]

Depends on your current config.

link to manual page: https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z97-GAMING-3.html#down-manual

PCIe section:

Expansion
Slots
■■1x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot (PCI_E2, supports x16 speed)
■■1x PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (PCI_E4, supports x4 speed)*
■■2x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots
■■3x PCI slots
* The PCIe x1 slots (PCI_E1, PCI_E3) will be unavailable when installing an expansion card
in the PCI_E4 slot.

Are your PCIe slots E1, E3, or E4 currently populated? If so, and those cards are required, then it's not an option for you.

You will need to use PCI_E4 (which is limited to PCIe 2.0, it's not a 3.0 slot), and this will disable PCI_E1 and E3.

The good news is tha PCIe 2.0 @ x4 is still twice the speed of PCIe 3.0 @ x1

 

[elkido122]

i think im just going to get the intel 600p and call it a day. and none of those slots are taken up to answer your question. using this drive WILL NOT make my gtx1070 in pcie slot 3.0x16 struggle correct?

 

[elkido122]

any help appreciated

 

[ch33zw1z]

Correct. The vga will work just fine.

 

[john3850]

Your gtx1070 in slot one will have 3.0x16 untill you occupy slot two then it will drop to 8 pci-e lanes.
The specification state your cpu supports 16 pci-e lanes.

 

[elkido122]

so plugging in an m.2 that uses nvme pcie lanes wont slow anything else down correct?

 

[elkido122]

so im fine if i use m.2 nvme ssd? no slow downs

 

[elkido122]

i sure hope my bios will see this drive and i can install windows to it. got me a little concerned now

 

[elkido122]

Any reason that the read speed wont go over 665 mb/s? i know it is using pcie 2.0 x4 since im on z97. Thought it would be around 800 though.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Any reason that the write speed wont go over 665 mb/s? i know it is using pcie 2.0 x4 since im on z97. Thought it would be around 800 though.

'cause, overhead, n stuff. Real-world performance won't match up with max theoretical, with most storage devices / types.

 

[elkido122]

i meant to say read speed, and thanks for response