M.2 10/Gbps or 32/Gbps

TheG0at · Jul 1, 2015

So I'm trying to decide between motherboards for my 4790k and one of the main features I want is M.2. Right now I'm stuck between the Asus VII Hero and the MSI Z97A Gaming 7.

The MSI says it has turbo M.2 with speeds up to 32/Gbps and the Hero says it has speeds up to 10/Gbps my knowledge on M.2 is pretty scarce so if anyone can fill me in on maybe the potential for the Hero that would be cool, I mean I don't think it caps out at 10/Gbps but I'm not sure.

The MSI also has USB/3.1 which is nice but I believe Asus has a better rep as far as QC. Or maybe I should moved up to the MSI Z97A gaming 9 vs the Asus Formula although i heard some negativity about the formulas M.2.

One more thing, does anyone know if Newegg has pretty good sales around the 4th of July weekend?

CompGee · Jul 1, 2015

Read the reviews as far as experiences go. If I were you, I would snag the 32/Gbps version.

Outlander_04 · Jul 1, 2015

Depends how many pci-e lanes the mb is connecting to the M.2 socket .

If you use more of them then they are often turning off pci-e slots on the mb since there is a fixed number available .

And then there are M.2 drives to think of . Most use a SATA 600 controller chip which means the drive tops out at the same speed as a conventional SATA SSD .
Samsung and Plextor make drives that use controllers that are [ potentially ] faster than that . LOTS faster .
Maybe other manufacturers do now too .

A guy using a Samsung XP 941 reported here on Tomshardware that he was booting from cold in 2.5 seconds

mcnumpty23 · Jul 1, 2015

far as i know that msi board is only pci-e x2 for the m2 slot--ie 10gbs

TheG0at · Jul 1, 2015

I always read the reviews but sometimes they can be tuff to get an accurate picture. I see a lot of negativity about MSI's QC but others say they have fixed those issues.

As far as the M.2 for reference lets use the Kingston HyperX Predator M.2. If I put that ssd in the Asus it will top out at 10/Gbps, now if I put that same drive in the MSI is it going to top out at 32/Gbps, oris the 32/Gbps just a potential speed that can be achieved in the future?

As far as the pci-e lanes go will having two gpus' in sli have any affect on the M.2?

mcnumpty23 · Jul 1, 2015

TheG0at :

you mean this board?

says 10gbs not 32gbs?

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z97A-GAMING-7.html#hero-overview

TheG0at · Jul 1, 2015

mcnumpty23 :

TheG0at :

you mean this board?

says 10gbs not 32gbs?

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z97A-GAMING-7.html#hero-overview

Hmm on the Newegg page it says something about turbo M.2 for speeds up to 32/Gbps

mcnumpty23 · Jul 1, 2015

TheG0at :

mcnumpty23 :

Hmm on the Newegg page it says something about turbo M.2 for speeds up to 32/Gbps

read something the other day about msi only put the 32gbs on certain boards not all of them

but its late here and brain wont come up with where i read the article or which boards got the 32gbs

indsup · Jul 1, 2015

If your wanting the fastest m.2 speeds available go with the pcie version of m.2. They will top out at about 1200mbps transfer speed. The sata version will never beat 550mbps due to sata limitations. There are two implementation of m.2. One uses the sata controller and the other uses pcie. There's even a version that is coming out that uses 4 pcie lanes. The standard so far is 2 lanes. Naturally pcie based m.2 is faster due to sata limitations. Make sure you find out which the board uses and make the decision off of that. As far as i know both companies have good reputations with their boards. I use the Asus board with the pcie based m.2 and it screams. But that's my experience with their board. By the way both will be very fast but nothing i know of beats pcie based m/.2. Game loading is instant.

TheG0at · Jul 1, 2015

indsup :

Both the Asus VII Hero and the MSI gaming 7 use the M.2 pcie but on the new egg pages the Asus board says 10/Gbps and the MSI says 32/gbps with Turbo M.2 that's really what I'm confused about and I also wanna make sure having two GPU's in sli isn't going to affect anything I'm not really familiar with pcie lanes and all that.

I was going to go with the MSI Z97A Gaming 9 ACK but nobody has it in stock.

mcnumpty23 · Jul 2, 2015

for m2 its got to be the samsung sm951--ridiculous speeds

but it does need pci-e x4 to achieve full speed

and its at under 50 pence per gigabyte now for the 512gb

TheG0at · Jul 2, 2015

Damn I was looking last night and the boards I was looking at are all pcie x2 in fact I think all of the z97 boards from Asus and MSI are pcie x2.

I did see the Kingston Hyperx Predator that comes with the pcie x4 adapter but I'm not sure if I'll get x4 or not.

Seems like If I want native USB/3.1 and M.2 pcie x4 I need to move up to a X99 boards which means getting a 6 core intel instead of the 4790k and if I'm not mistaken doing that will give me a drop in performance as far as gaming goes.

mcnumpty23 · Jul 2, 2015

i know i saw a msi or asus board with 32gbs m2 but just cant think which one

i mean asrock has it so asus and msi should as well

mcnumpty23 · Jul 2, 2015

could also use a M.2 to PCIe 3.0 x 4 adapter card to get full speed asus are doing one and addonics

heres asrock z97 that has the faster m2 slot

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97%20Extreme6/

TheG0at · Jul 2, 2015

Lets say I use a M.2 to pcie 3.0 x 4 adapter on the Asus VII Hero will that effect my 2 gpu's in sli at all?

indsup · Jul 2, 2015

That would depend on the processor and board you buy but not likely. Not sure what you would need any more speed than the 2x pcie speed ssd's. Later down the road maybe but not now. Large games load instantly as it is. I play battlefield and it loads a 2gb map in an instant, i have to wait for everyone else to be ready.

TheG0at · Jul 2, 2015

You're probably right I don't need it but you know.....I want it lol.

well its either gonna be the Asus Hero or the MSI Gaming 7 both are on sale right now on newegg

mcnumpty23 · Jul 3, 2015

when it comes to pcs NEED and WANT are definitely 2 different things

if you get the sm951 then of course you want and need it to run flat out

if you use a M.2 to PCIe 3.0 x 4 adapter card then you have to check the motherboard pci-e specs especially if already going to be using more than one gpu

though i imagine any good board should still have x4 left for the M.2 to PCIe 3.0 x 4 adapter card

TheG0at · Jul 3, 2015

Thanks for all the help everyone especially Mcnumpty you're awesome man.

mcnumpty23 · Jul 3, 2015

TheG0at :

you are welcome

TheG0at · Jul 7, 2015

With the 6700k being released on the 5th of august I am probably just gonna wait for that. I'm coming from an AMD FX-6200 so it should be a pretty good performance increase.

ipwitan · Jul 30, 2015

I don't know if this question was actually answered. The MSI Z97A GAMING 6 and 7 both state in the advertising section on Newegg that it has turbo m.2 @ 32 g/s. However, the specifications for the same do not list the turbo m.2, but only an m.2 @10 g/s. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130844

M.2 10/Gbps or 32/Gbps

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