PCI-E 3.0 x4/NVME SSDs

What happens is that it seems there is no PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD announced at the CES'15, only PCIe 2.0 x4. This may have to do with the economy of making very fast SSD. Typical example of the new PCIe 2.0 x4 SSD is Kingston HyperX Predator available in the M.2 format with 1.4 GB/sec writes and 1 GB/sec reads and capacities of 240GB/480GB/960GB. Another similar example is the announced line of SSDs from Plextor. Speeds are killing comparing to the current SATA SSDs but still only at half of what is possible with the PCIe 3.0 x4.
 
but who got those MOBOs to support M.2 PCIe 3.0x4

I have Asus z97-a mobo and it only supports M.2 PCIe 2.0x2. without an adapter to PCIe 2.0x4 I cannot really reach high speeds
 
kortik said:
but who got those MOBOs to support M.2 PCIe 3.0x4
I have Asus z97-a mobo and it only supports M.2 PCIe 2.0x2. without an adapter to PCIe 2.0x4 I cannot really reach high speeds
Click to expand...

PCIe 3.0 x4 is standard on X99 mobos with the M.2 connector. It should be standard on all new M.2 mobos this year.
 
wirk said:
What happens is that it seems there is no PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD announced at the CES'15, only PCIe 2.0 x4. This may have to do with the economy of making very fast SSD. Typical example of the new PCIe 2.0 x4 SSD is Kingston HyperX Predator available in the M.2 format with 1.4 GB/sec writes and 1 GB/sec reads and capacities of 240GB/480GB/960GB. Another similar example is the announced line of SSDs from Plextor. Speeds are killing comparing to the current SATA SSDs but still only at half of what is possible with the PCIe 3.0 x4.
Click to expand...

These NVMe M.2 implementations are exactly what I've been waiting for.

Now just need to wait for reviews and see if they have the same driver complications as the Samsung....
 
well since I am running Asus Z97-A I am not buying x99 cuase I just bought a z97 moboboards.
so for people like me the only solution for speed is to use an M.2 to PCI-E x4 adapter like this one http://www.bplus.com.tw/Adapter/M2P4A.html

to reach advertised speeds.

Samsung should release 1TB of that news SM951
 
kortik said:
well since I am running Asus Z97-A I am not buying x99 cuase I just bought a z97 moboboards. so for people like me the only solution for speed is to use an M.2 to PCI-E x4 adapter like this one http://www.bplus.com.tw/Adapter/M2P4A.html to reach advertised speeds. Samsung should release 1TB of that news SM951
Click to expand...

There is always a problem with older hardware and newest things but in the case of SM951 it is good it supports PCIe 2.0 and 3.0 and adapters are available. For those having X99 mobos SM951 is done choice, provided something even faster will appear.

1 TB SSD would be fine as well there is a question who will be the first with producing SSD pushing the maximum transfer rate of PCIe 3.0 x4 which is net ~3.2 GB/s (theoretical gross rate is 4GB/s but that includes protocols overheads).

Another serious question is if the SM951 is bootable disc?
 
wirk said:
PCIe 3.0 x4 is standard on X99 mobos with the M.2 connector. It should be standard on all new M.2 mobos this year.
Click to expand...

it should be...

but for some unaccountable reason Gigabyte chose to stick with PCIe 2.0 2x!

Which is why I, a long time Gigabyte fan, went and bought an MSI X99 SLI-Plus instead.
 
mjoe said:
have any source for that?

here it says there will be different sku's for ahci/nvme. but i've not seen anything official
http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-n...ng-sm951-pcie-3-0-m-2-ssd-in-mass-production/
Click to expand...
It seems the marketing department was to blame for the mix-up, because up until yesterday the buzz was the SM951 uses AHCI only.

Dutch site: http://nl.hardware.info/nieuws/42572/ces-samsung-sm951-pci-express-ssd-gebruikt-toch-geen-nvme
Multiple websites: no mention of NVMe with the introduction of the SM951 during CES except that Samsung will release "an NVMe SSD at some point".

It's good that Samsung will release an NVMe version, hopefully soon. This tech needs to be available today so manufacturers will be convinced to include proper M.2 socket type 2280 supporting PCIe 3.0 x4 and NVMe in their Intel Z170 motherboards.
 
There's already a thread on this topic here:

M.2 and SSD's 20 to 40 Gbps with NVMe
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1843654

But, by all means, feel free to share any information or images from that thread and copy/paste it here to keep it all together for other readers. In fact, the moderators can merge to two threads if they want. This thread has a better title.
 
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I've seen the thread in the topic list, but a thread that starts with "20 to 40 g/ps", which is literally "20 to 40 g's per per second" very unwelcoming.
 
Phuncz said:
I've seen the thread in the topic list, but a thread that starts with "20 to 40 g/ps", which is literally "20 to 40 g's per per second" very unwelcoming.
Click to expand...

It's just anal-retentive and pretentious but, whatever, this forum will not allow me to change the title of threads or I would. The information is still good so just stop getting hung-up on such hair-spitters.
 
2 problems :

1/ competing technologies with multiple variations (M.2, SATA Express, PCIe 2, 3, AHCI or NVME, etc.)

2/ Intel and its lacking mainstream platform, too few PCIe lanes, there should be 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes at least to have some wiggle room.
 
Aesma said:
2 problems : 1/ competing technologies with multiple variations (M.2, SATA Express, PCIe 2, 3, AHCI or NVME, etc.)
Click to expand...

Sometimes there are crazy competing technologies but in this case it is a result of very fast progress. M.2 is coming from laptops to standard PC mobo due to compactness, it is very close to the storage bolted in the mobo. PCIe is evolving fast, PCIe 4.0 is coming. Dust is settling now on the solution which is in the title of this thread but it takes couple of years still before it becomes common.

Aesma said:
2/ Intel and its lacking mainstream platform, too few PCIe lanes, there should be 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes at least to have some wiggle room.
Click to expand...

That will come, a the moment X99 platform has all what is needed.
 
I think that the mainstream platform has enough lanes. I would say that more than 90% of these systems are built and sold without discrete GPU, leaving the PCIe lanes completely unused at the moment.

And even then, a single GPU will be absolutely fine with 8 PCIe 3.0 lanes. For a SLI system you could argue that the 28/40 lane socket 2011 CPUs would be better anyway.

I don't think that you will see more than 16 lanes on the mainstream platform anytime soon.
 
The next mainstream platform is 20x lanes and we will soon have PCIe 4.0 which will be more than enough. As long as SSD are on PCIe we will be good. NVMe isn't competing, it's exclusively for SSD.
 
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