Can you pair Samsung 950 PRO M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x4 SSD with an AMD CPU?
- Thread starter hex1337
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Solution
- Oct 12, 2015
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Appreciate the feedback bros! 
The Samsung 950 PRO is a beast PCI-e SSD at the current moment. It requires the PCI-e 3.0 x4 m.2 interface on the motherboard for full saturation of bandwidth. I filtered AMD M.2 compatible motherboards on NewEgg and all of them say this in their specifications:
"1 x M.2_SSD (NGFF) Socket 3, supports M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to
Gen2 x2 (10 Gb/s) (M.2_SSD (NGFF) Socket 3 is shared with the eSATA3 connector)"
From my understanding to fully utilize the Samsung 950 you require the bandwidth of an Ultra M.2 interface (PCI-e 3.0 x4) which pushes data transfer speeds up to 32Gb/s. What is the solution to this since there is no Ultra m.2 interface on AMD motherboards?
Can't I just use a M.2 PCIe to PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter and attach it to a regular PCIe 2.0 x8 lane? Will I be still able to utilize the 32Gb/s bandwidth for the PCI-e SSD or is this impossible on AMD products?
The Samsung 950 PRO is a beast PCI-e SSD at the current moment. It requires the PCI-e 3.0 x4 m.2 interface on the motherboard for full saturation of bandwidth. I filtered AMD M.2 compatible motherboards on NewEgg and all of them say this in their specifications:
"1 x M.2_SSD (NGFF) Socket 3, supports M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to
Gen2 x2 (10 Gb/s) (M.2_SSD (NGFF) Socket 3 is shared with the eSATA3 connector)"
From my understanding to fully utilize the Samsung 950 you require the bandwidth of an Ultra M.2 interface (PCI-e 3.0 x4) which pushes data transfer speeds up to 32Gb/s. What is the solution to this since there is no Ultra m.2 interface on AMD motherboards?
Can't I just use a M.2 PCIe to PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter and attach it to a regular PCIe 2.0 x8 lane? Will I be still able to utilize the 32Gb/s bandwidth for the PCI-e SSD or is this impossible on AMD products?
terry4536
Glorious
- Mar 28, 2010
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From my understanding, it will be supported by PCI Express x 16 3.0 at 4x and above.
Specifications
MZ-VKV256 MZ-VKV512
General Feature Application Client PCs
Capacity1) 256 GB (1GB=1 Billionbyte by IDEMA) 512 GB (1GB=1 Billionbyte by IDEMA)
Form Factor M.2 (2280)2)
Interface PCIe 3.0 x4 (up to 32 Gb/s) NVMe 1.1
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/specifications.html
Specifications
MZ-VKV256 MZ-VKV512
General Feature Application Client PCs
Capacity1) 256 GB (1GB=1 Billionbyte by IDEMA) 512 GB (1GB=1 Billionbyte by IDEMA)
Form Factor M.2 (2280)2)
Interface PCIe 3.0 x4 (up to 32 Gb/s) NVMe 1.1
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/specifications.html
- Oct 12, 2015
- 22
- 0
- 4,510
It's a simple PCI-e adapter. You plug the SSD into the M.2 slot and next the whole adapter to a PCI-e slot. Says it supports PCI-e 2 motherboards which is pretty much the cap for AMD from my understanding. Since PCI-e 3.0 x4 is equivalent in bandwidth to PCI-e 2.0 x8, I was thinking this might work. Please tell me if I'm wrong 
http://www.amazon.com/Lycom-DT-120-PCIe-Adapter-Support/dp/B00MYCQP38/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1449209547&sr=1-1&keywords=Lycom+DT-120+M.2+PCIe+to+PCIe+3.0+x4+Adapter
http://www.amazon.com/Lycom-DT-120-PCIe-Adapter-Support/dp/B00MYCQP38/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1449209547&sr=1-1&keywords=Lycom+DT-120+M.2+PCIe+to+PCIe+3.0+x4+Adapter
terry4536
Glorious
- Mar 28, 2010
- 9,743
- 6
- 46,265
The adapter may work, but from what I read the performance will vary depending on the type of motherboard PCI express slot. It is recommended for PCI Express 3.0.
It is backwards compatible, but I think the performance will suffer with PCI Express 2.0.
http://www.lycom.com.tw/DT-120.htm
It is backwards compatible, but I think the performance will suffer with PCI Express 2.0.
http://www.lycom.com.tw/DT-120.htm
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