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What do I need to run M2 SSD please?

O

ohforfs

Member
Hi,

I want to buy this new Samsung SSD.

I am still running a Sandy Bridge with Z68 Mobo, but I was unsure if the Samsung SSD reviewed will slot into a standard PCI-E socket or whether I need a whole new system to run it.

I seem to remember reading that M2 and NVMe are different things?

I haven't been paying enough attention maybe and am just out of the loop on what these drives need.

Can anyone help please?

Thanks
 
But if I got a new rig what would it need? I thought it was only some mobos that supported M2? Could be wrong on this. I am not sure I want to go the above route but thanks for pointing it out.
 
As an alternative, you can look at the Kingston HyperX Predator. Its slightly lower performance, and only PCIe 2.0, but since your system is only capable of PCIe 2.0 anyway you're not missing much. Also comes with a PCIe-to-M.2 adaptor.

What's more it has its own OROM, so it'll boot on pretty much anything with a free PCIe slot. Without additional UEFI/BIOS mods.
 
But what do I need to run the M2 drive - any latest generation motherboard? Or does the motherboard need to specially support M2?

Just assume I am building a new system (I probably will) what would I need to be sure I had please?
 
ohforfs said:
But what do I need to run the M2 drive - any latest generation motherboard? Or does the motherboard need to specially support M2?

Just assume I am building a new system (I probably will) what would I need to be sure I had please?
Click to expand...

There are different cases.

Physically, all you need is either a PCIe or M.2 slot, in some cases an M.2-to-PCIe adaptor. And that's where it gets complicated, since not all M.2 slots are created equal. M.2 slots can run either SATA or PCIe drives. If the drive is SATA, no problems. It'll work in boards that have an M.2 slot. Not with a M.2-to-PCIe adaptor. PCIe drives are a different matter entirely. On Sandy/Ivy bridge and Haswell (LGA-1155/1155), boards that have an M.2 slot (A few Asrock boards excepted) only provides 2 PCIe lanes to the M.2 slot. Skylake boards (LGA-1151), provide the full 4 lanes necessary for "full" support. With Skylake (LGA-1151, you're limited by the available DMI link bandwidth, so you don't want to connect more then one PCIe M.2 drive.

Then there is boot support. If you want to boot from the drive that is. SATA M.2 drives are treated a regular SATA drives, so you can boot from one with the same ease as a regular SATA drive. If you want to boot from an NVMe drive, you need explicit BIOS/UEFI support. This is generally confined to Skylake (with a few exceptions). The other method involves the drive providing a custom option ROM (OROM). Only the HyperX Predator and older Plextor M6e provides this. The OROM isn't needed if the BIOS/UEFI already has support for the drive however. Case in point, the Samsung XP941/SM951, which are unbootable without specific board support.
 
I am seeing through what I am reading that I need M2 + native NVMe which not even all Skylake boards support. It's not chipset, it's BIOS.
 
ohforfs said:
I am seeing through what I am reading that I need M2 + native NVMe which not even all Skylake boards support. It's not chipset, it's BIOS.
Click to expand...
M2 is strictly hardware, which others have explained above. Out of the box, M2 SSDs work as non-boot disks.

NVMe has two parts to it that allow the SSD to be bootable. First part is BIOS support for NVMe. Second part is an NVMe driver in the OS, from either Windows or the SSD manufacturer.

AFAIK, full support for the NVMe spec has not been implemented by anyone yet in the consumer market. Samsung has hinted that their NVMe driver for the 950 Pro controller will implement more features than the competition has so far, but not the complete spec.
 
Insert_Nickname said:
There are different cases.

Physically, all you need is either a PCIe or M.2 slot, in some cases an M.2-to-PCIe adaptor. And that's where it gets complicated, since not all M.2 slots are created equal. M.2 slots can run either SATA or PCIe drives. If the drive is SATA, no problems. It'll work in boards that have an M.2 slot. Not with a M.2-to-PCIe adaptor. PCIe drives are a different matter entirely. On Sandy/Ivy bridge and Haswell (LGA-1155/1155), boards that have an M.2 slot (A few Asrock boards excepted) only provides 2 PCIe lanes to the M.2 slot. Skylake boards (LGA-1151), provide the full 4 lanes necessary for "full" support. With Skylake (LGA-1151, you're limited by the available DMI link bandwidth, so you don't want to connect more then one PCIe M.2 drive.

Then there is boot support. If you want to boot from the drive that is. SATA M.2 drives are treated a regular SATA drives, so you can boot from one with the same ease as a regular SATA drive. If you want to boot from an NVMe drive, you need explicit BIOS/UEFI support. This is generally confined to Skylake (with a few exceptions). The other method involves the drive providing a custom option ROM (OROM). Only the HyperX Predator and older Plextor M6e provides this. The OROM isn't needed if the BIOS/UEFI already has support for the drive however. Case in point, the Samsung XP941/SM951, which are unbootable without specific board support.
Click to expand...

Thanks to a tom's article, I found this Silverstone PCIe x4 to M.2 adapter. This card alone should do pretty much what a native M.2 slot would do specially on Skylake motherboards. It support up to 32Gbps apparently and has an extra M.2 slot for SATA based drives. Although it probably will not support NVMe SSDs.
 
iSkylaker said:
Thanks to a tom's article, I found this Silverstone PCIe x4 to M.2 adapter. This card alone should do pretty much what a native M.2 slot would do specially on Skylake motherboards. It support up to 32Gbps apparently and has an extra M.2 slot for SATA based drives. Although it probably will not support NVMe SSDs.
Click to expand...

Well, that is the way to add an M.2 slot to a board which doesn't have it natively. It'll support NVMe drives just fine, the BIOS/UEFI still has to have support if you want to boot from it of course.

The secondary SATA M.2 slot needs a cable to a mainboard/controller SATA port. So that's more of a SATA-to-M.2 adaptor.

Like this one:

http://www.startech.com/HDD/Adapters/M-2-NGFF-SSD-to-2-5in-SATA-Adapter~SAT32M225
 
iSkylaker said:
Thanks to a tom's article, I found this Silverstone PCIe x4 to M.2 adapter. This card alone should do pretty much what a native M.2 slot would do specially on Skylake motherboards. It support up to 32Gbps apparently and has an extra M.2 slot for SATA based drives. Although it probably will not support NVMe SSDs.
Click to expand...

I'd suggest the ASUS Hyper M.2 card http://www.ebay.com/itm/321873311934?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I was up until today running the addionics card http://www.addonics.com/products/adm2px4.php and it performed fine but the SSD had less than 1/8" gap behind it and the expansion card. Asus configured their card so the SSD stands a little over 1/4" off the card, allowing more or easier air movement
 
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