M.2 or SATA III SSD for a new build?

[RobbieRoy]

Morning all

Is there any real advantage to using a M.2 form SSD over a SATA III form one?

The build will be Asus Maximus VII Hero, i7 4790k and 8gb Vengence Pro Ram to run 64 bit Win 8.1. Graphics and screen under consideration. I'll use the SSD for OS, office apps & a few games (mainly Steam) plus HDDs for data and media.

Ta

RR

[MrJim]

Morning all

Is there any real advantage to using a M.2 form SSD over a SATA III form one?

The build will be Asus Maximus VII Hero, i7 4790k and 8gb Vengence Pro Ram to run 64 bit Win 8.1. Graphics and screen under consideration. I'll use the SSD for OS, office apps & a few games (mainly Steam) plus HDDs for data and media.

Ta

RR

An M.2 slot can work in SATA or PCIe mode, the latter allowing much faster data rates (up to 4X PCIe speeds in some cases). However, as yet there aren't all that many M.2 SSDs that take advantage of the extra speed - the only one I know of is the Plextor M6e, which is a bit pricey I think. The other advantage of M.2 is that is supports the new NVMe addressing protocol, which is specifically designed for SSDs, & much more efficient than AHCI, which is what current SSDs are using. There are very few SSDs which currently support NVMe though, & to boot from such a drive, I think you need Windows 8 or 8.1.

So to answer your question: at the moment there's probably not much of an advantage of M.2 over SATA III, but there will be in the not-too-distant future

[RobbieRoy]

An M.2 slot can work in SATA or PCIe mode, the latter allowing much faster data rates (up to 4X PCIe speeds in some cases). However, as yet there aren't all that many M.2 SSDs that take advantage of the extra speed - the only one I know of is the Plextor M6e, which is a bit pricey I think. The other advantage of M.2 is that is supports the new NVMe addressing protocol, which is specifically designed for SSDs, & much more efficient than AHCI, which is what current SSDs are using. There are very few SSDs which currently support NVMe though, & to boot from such a drive, I think you need Windows 8 or 8.1.

So to answer your question: at the moment there's probably not much of an advantage of M.2 over SATA III, but there will be in the not-too-distant future

Thanks Mr Jim - exactly what I needed to know!

[MrJim]

Thanks Mr Jim - exactly what I needed to know!

No problem

One thing I forgot to add, is that M.2 is obviously a much more compact format than a conventional 2.5" SATA SSD, which might be a big advantage for laptops or compact systems based on a MITX motherboard, for example.

[RobbieRoy]

No problem

One thing I forgot to add, is that M.2 is obviously a much more compact format than a conventional 2.5" SATA SSD, which might be a big advantage for laptops or compact systems based on a MITX motherboard, for example.

Thanks for that - I asked the original question as that mobo has an M.2 socket ( in the words of ASUS: "M.2 Socket 3, black, with M Key, type 2260/2280 storage devices support (PCIE mode") in centre board position and so can take 60mm or 80mm long SSDs. I really wanted to see if there was any operational advantage to using it over an SSD used on one of the 6Gb/s SATA ports at the side of the board.

Also, to clarify, I'm not too bothered about space as I'm building this rig inside a desk that I'm constructing in the alcove where I have my work station. That will give me a space around 160 mm thick by 850mm wide and 860 mm deep!

Cheers!

[MrJim]

Thanks for that - I asked the original question as that mobo has an M.2 socket ( in the words of ASUS: "M.2 Socket 3, black, with M Key, type 2260/2280 storage devices support (PCIE mode") in centre board position and so can take 60mm or 80mm long SSDs. I really wanted to see if there was any operational advantage to using it over an SSD used on one of the 6Gb/s SATA ports at the side of the board.

Also, to clarify, I'm not too bothered about space as I'm building this rig inside a desk that I'm constructing in the alcove where I have my work station. That will give me a space around 160 mm thick by 850mm wide and 860 mm deep!

Cheers!

That sounds like an interesting build! Have you seen the modding section on the Bit-Tech Forums? They have some amazing builds...so many hours of work, some of them

[RobbieRoy]

Thanks - I'll post some before, during and after pictures to tell the build story in due course.

Thanks also for the nod towards Bit-Tech, where I can see I will spend a lot of time!

The desk top and front of my desk will be made of mahogany reclaimed from a wrecked Victorian chest of drawers. All sitting sanded ready in the shed but looking for oxalic acid to remove some iron based staining (sorry, perhaps not the right forum to mention that!!) - the trickiest bit will probably be mounting the right connections etc on the front panel!

[directhex]

Still waiting for a 1T NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD to hit the market, personally...

[Tallflip]

Still waiting for a 1T NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD to hit the market, personally...

+1 on that. NVMe drives look to be awesome!

[Bonebreaker777]

What do NVMe drives have over that old AHCI exactly?

[MrJim]

What do NVMe drives have over that old AHCI exactly?

It's basically a very low-latency interface. Anandtech discussed it here:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8104/i...gins-with-nvme

[RobbieRoy]

Still waiting for a 1T NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD to hit the market, personally...

I take it you mean consumer priced versions as the 1.2TB Intel DC P3600 NVMe SSD is on the market, although it uses a x4 PCIe 3.0 connection. Scan has it at £1,800 or so.

[MrJim]

I take it you mean consumer priced versions as the 1.2TB Intel DC P3600 NVMe SSD is on the market, although it uses a x4 PCIe 3.0 connection. Scan has it at £1,800 or so.

Those Intel SSDs are targeted at the professional market, with a price to match. Consumer SSDs are due to follow soon though, from companies like Sumsung, Sandisk, Sandforce & Hynix...