Ode to M.2 drives

[GodisanAtheist]

Just picked up a Corsair Force MP510 960gb drive and installed it in my sig PC.

This thing is incredible. $139 at newegg, the size of a stick of gum (seriously, these things are deceptively small, i was thinking it was going to be the size of a laptop SODIMM stick and its actually thinner), blazingly fast (feels snappy and according to crystal mark is easily 5x-6x faster than my older SATA drive) and best of all... NO GOD FORSAKEN CABLES.

Seriously, the lack of cables alone makes this thing a winner. Every computer I build from here on out is going to go all M.2 if feasible, and all bulk storage needs will be offloaded to an external spindle drive/array.

News has it that Non-Volatile storage prices are going to keep going lower through the end of this year. Nuts not to build without an M.2 drive in mind.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Seriously, the lack of cables alone makes this thing a winner. Every computer I build from here on out is going to go all M.2 if feasible, and all bulk storage needs will be offloaded to an external spindle drive/array.

Ah, another convert. Yes, being rid of cables is the single best feature of the M.2 form factor. It simplifies cable management so much, in most cases you can get by with just the main 24pin ATX + 8/4 pin for the CPU, and perhaps an additional 8 pin PCIe/GPU.

It's a real help when working in smaller cases.

 

[BoomerD]

Yep. I'm seriously impressed with the HP EX950 I got about a month ago...which, BYW, is on sale for the next few days on Newegg for $149.99 (about $20 less than I paid)
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...x-_-InternalSSDs-_-20326041-S1A1B&ignorebbr=1

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Ah, another convert. Yes, being rid of cables is the single best feature of the M.2 form factor. It simplifies cable management so much, in most cases you can get by with just the main 24pin ATX + 8/4 pin for the CPU, and perhaps an additional 8 pin PCIe/GPU.

It's a real help when working in smaller cases.

Yep. Only downside to the drives I can see if the "rob from Peter to pay Paul" thing they can do with SATA ports on low and some mid range boards that do not have a sufficient number of pci-e lanes to feed both. A non-issue if you're building from scratch but a bit frustrating if you're upgrading a case loaded with SATA drives.

Luckily my z170-UD3 has an m.2 port with 4x lanes dedicated to it, so I can plug my drive in to one of the ports and not worry about losing my existing SATA drives.

This did take some figuring out as the manual was really unclear that this happens and that the two m.2 slots are not the same even if you have the other slot unpopulated. The slot with the full 4 lanes also sits right underneath my graphics card (i.e. the hottest part of my system by far) which really shouldn't be an issue but I would have gladly given up some pace from the host of pci-e 1x or even the second 16x slot so the m.2 drive has some room to breathe.

Minor in the grand scheme of things really, but it might serve as a caution to someone else looking to make the leap.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Yep. Only downside to the drives I can see if the "rob from Peter to pay Paul" thing they can do with SATA ports on low and some mid range boards that do not have a sufficient number of pci-e lanes to feed both. A non-issue if you're building from scratch but a bit frustrating if you're upgrading a case loaded with SATA drives.

Some of that is a consequence of how FlexIO work. Individual lanes can be configured, within certain limits, as either PCIe, SATA or USB3(.1). Lower-end chipsets have fewer lanes, so manufacturers need to make do. Same goes on the AMD side of the fence, there are a few limitations on what you can do there too.

It's the good old you get what you pay for. Not much we can do about that unfortunately, other then natural progression in features. I'd happily trade a few SATA ports* I'm unlikely to use anyway for more M.2 slots, even if they're only SATA capable. You can even get M.2 SATA controller cards if you need a few more drives.

https://www.delock.com/produkte/1140_M-2/89588/merkmale.html

*Unless I'm doing a HDD storage array obviously. But the rise of NAS has cut down the need for such by a good bit.

This did take some figuring out as the manual was really unclear that this happens and that the two m.2 slots are not the same even if you have the other slot unpopulated. The slot with the full 4 lanes also sits right underneath my graphics card (i.e. the hottest part of my system by far) which really shouldn't be an issue but I would have gladly given up some pace from the host of pci-e 1x or even the second 16x slot so the m.2 drive has some room to breathe.

Yeah, under the GPU would seem the worst place to place a slot, but it still happens. PCIe wiring length limitation without redrivers most likely. Redrivers cost, so designing without is common to cut those.

Some boards fortunately place the M.2 slot above the first PCIe x16 slot. So it benefits from airflow around the socket area.

 

[DrMrLordX]

With the overheating issue on some M.2 drives, I would much rather than the U.2 form factor. SATA-style cables are the least of my worries. Installing M.2 is a headache thanks to the tiny screw. My current board only has two M.2 slots, and they are easily occluded by video cards or other PCIe devices.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

With the overheating issue on some M.2 drives, I would much rather than the U.2 form factor. SATA-style cables are the least of my worries. Installing M.2 is a headache thanks to the tiny screw. My current board only has two M.2 slots, and they are easily occluded by video cards or other PCIe devices.

My understanding is that M.2 drives will throttle if they get too hot (which is in itself rare as you either have to do a massive read/write to the drive or use a program that continuously hammers the drive over long periods) and even then the degradation in performance doesn't make the drive slower than your standard SATA drive.

The tiny screw was really not even remotely an issue compared to the straight up contortions I have to do with the SATA/power cables on my standard 2.5" drives in a standard ATX case (twisted one SATA cable so out of shape to keep it out of the path of airflow that it put enough pressure on one of the SATA drives that the SSD board inside the casing "popped loose" and is now "floating" within the 2.5 drive casing).

Like anything, its a use case scenario and what you value more: light footprint and doing mostly consumer stuff (like gaming) an M.2 drive is your jam. If you're on the prosumer or professional level and that throughput is king than any ofther standard that keeps the drive away from the hot parts of the board and in the path of some direct airflow is going to be your preference (like U.2 or any other encased drive).

 

[DrMrLordX]

The tiny screw was really not even remotely an issue compared to the straight up contortions I have to do with the SATA/power cables on my standard 2.5" drives in a standard ATX case

I use a massive case, and I use L-shaped cables. My experience with "standard" cables was less-than-good. Which is why I was overjoyed when I got some L-shaped cables with my A88x-Pro.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

With the overheating issue on some M.2 drives, I would much rather than the U.2 form factor. SATA-style cables are the least of my worries. Installing M.2 is a headache thanks to the tiny screw. My current board only has two M.2 slots, and they are easily occluded by video cards or other PCIe devices.

Why do M.2 drives get so hot?
Is it the data speed? Never understood why ssd drives barely produce heat but M.2 drives appear to generate tons of heat.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, most 2.5" SSDs, have a big, usually metal, chassis containing the drive's "guts", that acts as a heatsink. Some of them even had thermal pads between the controller and the metal casing.

In short, get yourself an M.2 heatsink, you'll thank me later.

 

[UsandThem]

Why do M.2 drives get so hot?
Is it the data speed? Never understood why ssd drives barely produce heat but M.2 drives appear to generate tons of heat.

It's their controllers that get the hottest (as they run just a tad faster than a SATA SSD).

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Samsung/970_Evo_SSD_500_GB/7.html

I also use heatsinks on my NVMe drives. It really made a difference with my 970 EVO Plus which runs really hot when pushed. I forget I posted about it, and came across it via Google:

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...ive-updated-with-benchmark-and-temps.2561330/

 

[DrMrLordX]

Why do M.2 drives get so hot?
Is it the data speed? Never understood why ssd drives barely produce heat but M.2 drives appear to generate tons of heat.

@UsandThem beat me to it. Interestingly enough, NAND likes to run hot, but the controllers don't. So the heatsink solves one problem and maybe replaces it with another. U.2 form factor could just cool the controller but not so much the NAND (which is probably how they would design it).

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Any cooler suggestions?

I’m not sold on the idea m.2 drives are faster in the real world than ssd drives. I know they are on benchmarks but do you actually notice a difference?

 

[deustroop]

My system has a well ventilated case, fans everywhere and provides two M.2 slots. I have a Samsung 960 pretty well under the GPU and a 970 "in the open" so to speak under the provided heat sink. At load on the c/ts (but not maximizing the gpu or disk i/o), and with the cpu showing 65c, there is a ~ 4c temps difference between the 970 and the 960 , 38 v 33c.

I also have a Samsung 860 3 1/2" SATA SSD in a disk cage. There is a noticeable performance difference between the SATA and the 970 NVMe drive at times, e.g., opening and closing apps, saving data, level loading, if you are paying attention, but not one commensurate with the relative theoretical disk performance (500MBs/3GBs). You should notice especially though that anything that takes more than 10 sec (disk i/o) to complete will show a performance increase, if you pay attention.

 

[UsandThem]

Any cooler suggestions?

I’m not sold on the idea m.2 drives are faster in the real world than ssd drives. I know they are on benchmarks but do you actually notice a difference?

I bought the SilverStone TP02-M2, and I really like it's performance. However, I found out the hard way it's included silicone bands are very fragile as one snapped when I was putting it on. I ended up just cutting a strip of electrical tape and wrapping around one side of it.

I can't find the article at this moment where where they tested like 7 different M.2 heatsinks, and the SilverStone performed the best, so that's why I went with that one. Outside of that, the other one I was considering was this one: https://www.anandtech.com/show/11606/ekwb-launches-aftermarket-ekm2-aluminum-heatsink-for-m2-ssds