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Samsung 950 PRO [Official Thread]
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SomeGuy133
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UEFI.......not sure. I would assume that but double check. I honestly do not remember. I sorta cloned my OS
Having an issue I hope someone here can help with. I have two 950 Pro's. One is in a Skylake Alienware laptop while the other is in a brand new Skull Canyon NUC. Both systems use the drive fine (as boot drives) but neither system is letting me install the Samsung NVME drivers. I should say that the Alienware used to let me install the drivers, but BIOS update left me in my present position. Also note, I reinstalled Windows 10 a short time after the BIOS update, but this was only to start a fresh install; the system worked fine and I wasnt trying to fix an issue by re-installing. Error message I am getting is the same on both systems: "Samsung NVM Express Device is not connected. Connect the Device and try again."
Both system are running Windows 10 x64 and were installed with UEFI (legacy is disabled). Windows is installed on the drive, so its detected and "works" but the performance metrics via Magician is total crap.
Both system are running Windows 10 x64 and were installed with UEFI (legacy is disabled). Windows is installed on the drive, so its detected and "works" but the performance metrics via Magician is total crap.
SomeGuy133
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IIRC you do not need Sammy drivers if you have Win 10 but i am not certain on that. The whole driver thing is a bit confusing. I think you need one or the other not both but not 100% sure
In case anyone else out there on an old system is thinking about one of these drives...
I can confirm that the 950 Pro works as a boot drive on my Rampage III Gene (x58, legacy BIOS). Did a clean install of Win 10 (upgraded from 7) and Windows saw the drive and allowed me to install to it. Boots up just fine. The only BIOS setting I changed was the one for "Addon ROM Display Mode", which I changed to "Keep Current" (default is "Force BIOS"). Not sure if it made a difference but the few posts I found about booting the 950 Pro on X58 mentioned having to enable option ROMs and this was the only related setting in my BIOS.
Speeds look great. Haven't done a full check to make sure everything is working properly, but I'm definitely in the right ballpark (limited by PCI-e 2.0, but I'm at least getting all 4 lanes). I'm using a $5 PCI-e adapter I bought off eBay. I don't think I'm seeing any throttling due to temps - there's about 3/4 of an inch between the 950 Pro and my wireless card, with some airflow in between. I checked temps with my IR thermometer and they got up to ~55C under light load. I may put a heatsink on the controller chip if I can get the sticker off without tearing it.
Edit: Oh, and I'm using the Win 10 NVME driver. Haven't done the research on drivers yet...but performance seems to be okay.
I can confirm that the 950 Pro works as a boot drive on my Rampage III Gene (x58, legacy BIOS). Did a clean install of Win 10 (upgraded from 7) and Windows saw the drive and allowed me to install to it. Boots up just fine. The only BIOS setting I changed was the one for "Addon ROM Display Mode", which I changed to "Keep Current" (default is "Force BIOS"). Not sure if it made a difference but the few posts I found about booting the 950 Pro on X58 mentioned having to enable option ROMs and this was the only related setting in my BIOS.
Speeds look great. Haven't done a full check to make sure everything is working properly, but I'm definitely in the right ballpark (limited by PCI-e 2.0, but I'm at least getting all 4 lanes). I'm using a $5 PCI-e adapter I bought off eBay. I don't think I'm seeing any throttling due to temps - there's about 3/4 of an inch between the 950 Pro and my wireless card, with some airflow in between. I checked temps with my IR thermometer and they got up to ~55C under light load. I may put a heatsink on the controller chip if I can get the sticker off without tearing it.
Edit: Oh, and I'm using the Win 10 NVME driver. Haven't done the research on drivers yet...but performance seems to be okay.
Well got my temporary cooling solution in until Aquacomputer completes the Kryo M.2 in Nickel which I have already pre ordered via ModMyMods.com.
I plan to remove the pci bracket, sand it, and paint it. That silver sticks out like a sore thumb. Would have been nice for Silverstone to make it black just like the pcb. Oh well can't have everything.
Temps are much better. 12C drop (idle) 17C drop (Mark bench) to be exact with getting it out from under the MVIIIF cover. Was Idle at 59C 79C under mark load. Now 47C and 62C.
SS was taken just after the test when I drug the Mark window over the Info window. So it already dropped 12C in a mouse click, drag, prnt screen push. lol
The 4k Q32T4 Write still gets me though. My other numbers are pretty close to most other users in this thread. I guess it's still throttling a bit when it hits that point seeing as it gets to 62C but it is a vast improvement over being tucked away under the poorly designed plastic (instead of aluminum) armor panel on the MVIIIF. Dumb move Asus. $400 board and you couldn't engineer anything better then this. Pathetic!
I plan to remove the pci bracket, sand it, and paint it. That silver sticks out like a sore thumb. Would have been nice for Silverstone to make it black just like the pcb. Oh well can't have everything.
Temps are much better. 12C drop (idle) 17C drop (Mark bench) to be exact with getting it out from under the MVIIIF cover. Was Idle at 59C 79C under mark load. Now 47C and 62C.
SS was taken just after the test when I drug the Mark window over the Info window. So it already dropped 12C in a mouse click, drag, prnt screen push. lol
The 4k Q32T4 Write still gets me though. My other numbers are pretty close to most other users in this thread. I guess it's still throttling a bit when it hits that point seeing as it gets to 62C but it is a vast improvement over being tucked away under the poorly designed plastic (instead of aluminum) armor panel on the MVIIIF. Dumb move Asus. $400 board and you couldn't engineer anything better then this. Pathetic!
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You need to get up Asus's ass about this. Their M.2 slot is utterly useless forced under that stupid board cover, they basically made it 100% useless for anything but a slow shitty drive.
They have a forum account but not exactly active:
ASUS_USA ASUS North America
Hi all, feel free to reach out to us through our social media channels or email for technical support and other inquiries.
Email: [email protected].
Facebook: (ASUS North America) ASUS North America
Twitter: @asususa ASUS North America (@ASUSUSA) | Twitter
We will be more than happy to assist you.
They have a forum account but not exactly active:
ASUS_USA ASUS North America
Hi all, feel free to reach out to us through our social media channels or email for technical support and other inquiries.
Email: [email protected].
Facebook: (ASUS North America) ASUS North America
Twitter: @asususa ASUS North America (@ASUSUSA) | Twitter
We will be more than happy to assist you.
Sorry I can't stop rolling around on the floor LMAO. Hardly. They don't give two $#@#'s about customers.
I'll contact them but pffft They aren't going to do anything. Would be nice to send me something free that I can sell to make up for having to come up with my own aftermarket cooling for the damn thing.
SomeGuy133
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why isn't that in RAM.....
SomeGuy133
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2 things...whats your CPU and its MHz and it is possible it is just a hair slower or marginally throttling. Its very lose minus those 4K Q32 writes. See if running only 4K Q32 by itself shows improvement...if so than throttling is still occurring.Well got my temporary cooling solution in until Aquacomputer completes the Kryo M.2 in Nickel which I have already pre ordered via ModMyMods.com.
I plan to remove the pci bracket, sand it, and paint it. That silver sticks out like a sore thumb. Would have been nice for Silverstone to make it black just like the pcb. Oh well can't have everything.
Temps are much better. 12C drop (idle) 17C drop (Mark bench) to be exact with getting it out from under the MVIIIF cover. Was Idle at 59C 79C under mark load. Now 47C and 62C.
SS was taken just after the test when I drug the Mark window over the Info window. So it already dropped 12C in a mouse click, drag, prnt screen push. lol
The 4k Q32T4 Write still gets me though. My other numbers are pretty close to most other users in this thread. I guess it's still throttling a bit when it hits that point seeing as it gets to 62C but it is a vast improvement over being tucked away under the poorly designed plastic (instead of aluminum) armor panel on the MVIIIF. Dumb move Asus. $400 board and you couldn't engineer anything better then this. Pathetic!
Uhhh... I ordered a 256GB 950 Pro to replace my old XLR8 first gen ssd's. So, please tell me, why should it be in RAM?
SomeGuy133
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the asset loading...why would the game access the SSD...if its 64 bit game and you have lots of RAM that would be idiotic to not store assets in the RAM. Saying D3 is designed retarded if it is accessing the SSD for assets....
Because it's a 32bit game, on a 10 year old engine that has been modified beyond its design.
It's also very poorly threaded. Not to mention, every pixel has physics calculations, and they are done in software instead of hardware. Damage calculations are another sore thumb for the game.
However, the way the engine handles asset loading during high intensity moments is the big issue. This has been a big problem since the expansion came out. They've never fixed the issue.
SomeGuy133
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D3 was made on a 10 year old engine...wtf...I always thought it was lack luster looking on its release :/
Yup. That game had been in development for such a long time. Art asset and story had the majority of its dev time. The small team didn't help things either.
6700K at base clock all cores active. max 46C 808.7/254.6 on first run :-( not throttling during that test (if it is throttling) isn't the issue. Did a followup run max 52C 829.3/264.8 minimal improvement running a second time.
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SomeGuy133
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i checked my records. It is single thread limit. Watch task manager...you will see 12-13% for CDM which means the software is single thread limited. these are 4.8ghz vs 4.2ghz and you see perfect scaling in tests. that is why mine is higher. use as-ssd to get better benchmark.
Dropbox - encryption tests
Dunno what 103420 K - BAD in red is supposed to mean but it's listed in AS-SSD under my 950.
Nice partition is improperly aligned. skimming through to see if this thread is still relevant for win 7 x64
"If it has a # in red followed by - BAD then your alignment is off and you are loosing performance and possibly reducing you drive's life."
Great with only 46hrs on it. lol
SomeGuy133
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i am not good with that stuff. I never fully understand that stiff so make another thread with an updated problem title and someone should be able to help.
Don't feel bad you totally lost me in the thread with the test results and talk about threads. I tried to find what you were talking about in how much it's using but um yea lol.
WELL F$@$!
Guess it's time to plop in that win 10 pro flash drive. Run the program to align the partition and reboot to
Status: 0xC0000225
Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.
Sure I could plop in a win 7 disk and repair but I really need to move onto 10 to be DX12 proof. I just hope this time around I won't have all the win 10 bugs that MS can't seem to fix on my daily/media server.
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SomeGuy133
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the program crystal disk mark (CDM) is single thread but can be half assed multi-threaded if you play with settings.
if you look at task manager and see 12-13% usage that means it is single thread capping which is why your results are lower. 4.8/4.2GHz is ~15% faster and I see an exact 15% difference between the two tests showing why my results at 4.8GHz are much higher than yours. if you use as-ssd I believe it was written well where there is no single thread limit so even a slow CPU can bench a fast SSD.
Ugh Don't know if this is some windows 10 crap or not but it just made 4 partitions on my drive: recovery, the normal 100mb ssd os install partition, a MSR (Microsux Reserved), and then the main partition. I deleted the recovery partition before I even started installing windows 10. Hopefully this thing is installing as uefi. I should have never wasted my time converting my original win 7 mbr over to uefi then cloning to the 950. I should have just installed the 950 and did a fresh install. Now I'm doing it anyway.
Think the issues are sorted now. Man I hate installing Windows 10. I always forget how to get everything the way I want it.
Now to just get the unallocated 451MB back on the m.2 drive. It can't be done via Disk management. I also don't get why the OS drive is Disk 1 and my game drive is Disk 0
Now to just get the unallocated 451MB back on the m.2 drive. It can't be done via Disk management. I also don't get why the OS drive is Disk 1 and my game drive is Disk 0
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I've been setting things up and tinkering with getting win 10 how I want it. Just decided to run another Mark test. I'm assuming this is because I turned on ramdisk but JESUS!
Yea that's with ramdisk being used the temp doesn't change from 42C underload on the 950 while running a mark test. LOL That speed is insane.
Yea that's with ramdisk being used the temp doesn't change from 42C underload on the 950 while running a mark test. LOL That speed is insane.
SomeGuy133
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Yea but your ram isneven faster than that. Just cdm cant keep up
So, my 256GB 950 Pro comes in today.
Ill be using the Samsung program for OS/games drive migration over to it. Had good luck using it on my wifes computer from her failing platter drive to an 850 EVO.
I have some pretty old ssds. First gen PNY XLR8 120GB, a pair in RAID-0.
Just wondering what to expect? This is my gaming rig, and that's what gets done with it.
Going from those old drives to this guy, should I see some differences, or did I spend money on synthetic benchmarks alone?
Ill be using the Samsung program for OS/games drive migration over to it. Had good luck using it on my wifes computer from her failing platter drive to an 850 EVO.
I have some pretty old ssds. First gen PNY XLR8 120GB, a pair in RAID-0.
Just wondering what to expect? This is my gaming rig, and that's what gets done with it.
Going from those old drives to this guy, should I see some differences, or did I spend money on synthetic benchmarks alone?
SomeGuy133
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Depends on rest of system specs, gsmes, and your sensitivity. I noticed it almost instantly and really noticed it when encryptesSo, my 256GB 950 Pro comes in today.
Ill be using the Samsung program for OS/games drive migration over to it. Had good luck using it on my wifes computer from her failing platter drive to an 850 EVO.
I have some pretty old ssds. First gen PNY XLR8 120GB, a pair in RAID-0.
Just wondering what to expect? This is my gaming rig, and that's what gets done with it.
Going from those old drives to this guy, should I see some differences, or did I spend money on synthetic benchmarks alone?
bonehead123
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Even though I was not experiencing any throttling or temp extremes, heres an update on this issue that some members here have mentioned:
I have 2 of the 950's in the m.2 slots, 1 as a boot drive and the other as storage/backup. My temps were generally in the 40-54C range, with the boot drive in the higher of that range. I used crystaldiskinfo to get these temps. BTW, my Adata SATA SSD runs at ~45-55C most of the time
1st thing I did was remove the stickers...surprisingly they both came completely off, without leaving any residue on the chips.
2nd thing I did was to install an additional Corsair AF120 into the bottom HDD hot swap tray (on the Air540, these are at the very bottom of the case) so that it blows most of its airflow towards the m.2 slots.
Now my temps are averaging 26-38C
ps... I already have 6 fans in a positive flow arrangement, but I figured a 7th one couldn't hurt anything....
The next thing I will try is to mount the drives on a pcie card and install it into the 4x slot, which would put it really close to and DIRECTLY in the path of the AF120's airflow.
I will update this post once this is done (as soon as my card arrives)
I have 2 of the 950's in the m.2 slots, 1 as a boot drive and the other as storage/backup. My temps were generally in the 40-54C range, with the boot drive in the higher of that range. I used crystaldiskinfo to get these temps. BTW, my Adata SATA SSD runs at ~45-55C most of the time
1st thing I did was remove the stickers...surprisingly they both came completely off, without leaving any residue on the chips.
2nd thing I did was to install an additional Corsair AF120 into the bottom HDD hot swap tray (on the Air540, these are at the very bottom of the case) so that it blows most of its airflow towards the m.2 slots.
Now my temps are averaging 26-38C
ps... I already have 6 fans in a positive flow arrangement, but I figured a 7th one couldn't hurt anything....
The next thing I will try is to mount the drives on a pcie card and install it into the 4x slot, which would put it really close to and DIRECTLY in the path of the AF120's airflow.
I will update this post once this is done (as soon as my card arrives)
Looks about right, but someone who knows better might be able to confirm. The 256gb drives are indeed slower than the 512gb drives. Your speeds look a bit better than mine (also 256gb) but I'm using a PCI-e adapter and only have PCI-e 2.0.
I have the 950 as a boot drive and then I ah e two other standard sata HDD in a Raid1 mirror. However, on my new MSI Gaming M5 mobo, I can't get this to work.
When I select AHCI, the machine boots without an issue. The minute I change it to RAID, it can't see the boot device. I'm not quite sure what I need to change in order to get this to work...?
When I select AHCI, the machine boots without an issue. The minute I change it to RAID, it can't see the boot device. I'm not quite sure what I need to change in order to get this to work...?
Following up since I did some testing that might help you out...I also have the 256gb drive but I'm running mine on PCI-e 2.0 instead of 3.0.
Anyhow, I just got my drive last week and was pleased to find that I was able to install Win 10 Pro on it and use it as my boot drive on my old X58 system. I ran CDM and got results that were very similar to yours (except I'm capped around 1600 MB/s due to PCI-e 2.0). I was comparing to other peoples' results and thought mine were a bit low, but not far off the mark. My 4k Q32TI numbers in particular were lower than other results - it looks like you're in the same boat. At the time I wasn't too worried since it was a massive upgrade for me. I figured it was either something weird with my PCI-e configuration or perhaps the MS NVME driver isn't as good as the Samsung one. I knew it could also be thermal throttling, but I didn't want to risk pulling off the sticker.
Few days ago I saw an article about those exact warranty stickers I was afraid of removing. Turns out they can't legally enforce the whole "warranty void if removed" thing. That was enough for me, so I took the drive out and popped some copper heatsinks on the chips (including the smaller chip). Lo and behold, my speeds improved. The speeds are now exactly where they should be. I was a little surprised that I had thermal issues since I have the drive in a PCI-e riser card and it gets some airflow from a fan above.
TLDR: 256gb version throttles even on a riser card with air flowing over it. Adding some heatsinks to the drive improved my CDM results.
My sticker has no mention of warranty. The booklet that came with it simply stated that the sticker has important info and must be RETAINED for warranty purposes. I'm gonna take sticker off and put it on the bottom of the card, and slap on some heatsinks
SomeGuy133
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I have a x58 rampage 3 black edition and even with the riser card don't you need a UEFI bios to recognize the drive so the system can boot from it?
Did you flash your bios with a UEFI Mod version for your MB? You're actually the first person I've bumped into on the internet that can boot from this drive with such little effort on an x58 MB
When you said you did a clean install of win 10 and you upgraded from 7, did you clone the 950 drive first from the old drive with win 7.
I'm really hoping this is as easy as you point out, because I really need a faster drive.