Best 250GB M.2 SSD

CV_Taihou · May 26, 2016

Looking for some opinions on what m.2 SSD to get. I'm upgrading from an old Intel 120GB SSD, and wanted to go for something I could fit a few more programs on. Only issue is I've never purchased a drive in this style and no-one locally seems to know much. About the only thing I'm really concerned with is the color (Black/Red motherboard, and I don't want a green block in the middle of it) and the performance. Was looking at a Sandisk X400 M.2-2280 256GB, but I haven't been able to find any concrete reviews yet.

X400 256GB

Any other options I should consider? Or should I just forgo the M.2 drive completely and pick up a 250GB normal SATA SSD?

pepslight · May 26, 2016

Samsung 950 pro NVME all the way

Well I got 1, if you the type of impatient guy that want to copy a 10GB file in less than 9 seconds than Samsung 950 pro is your choice. You just need to be sure you have a NVME compatible motherboard

Supahos · May 26, 2016

950 pro and the Intel ones are both screaming fast in a consumer situations... but then again most modern. Non bargain basement ssds are

Geekwad · May 26, 2016

What motherboard do you have (include model number)?

Hlsgsz · May 26, 2016

CV_Taihou :

Only get an m.2 SSD if you get a NVMe one(expensive!) like the Samsung 950 PRO and your motherboard suports it.
SATA m.2 SSDs are meant for laptops(like teh sandisk x400). They are NOT speedier than a 2.5" one. And you shouldn't occupy your m.2 slot with that because, as prices come down, you might want a fast NVMe one after all later on

Simpler put: get a Samsung 950 PRO if you can afford it or get a 2.5" 850 evo if you can't. Out of teh two, honestly, don;t sacrifice capacity just to go with the PRO. As things stand today, NVMe ones are too expensive and teh difference in real life perforamnce is too small.

CV_Taihou · May 26, 2016

Geekwad :

I have a MSI Z170 Gaming M7, so I've got 2 M.2 slots on the board.

I'm just struggling to come to terms with the fact that a 256GB SSD is going to run almost 180 bucks CAD. Is the Kingston Predator 240GB completely inferior to the 950 PRO? Or am I looking at completely the wrong things here?

pepslight · May 26, 2016

CV_Taihou :

Same principle but the Samsung blow this thing away :lol: http://postimg.org/image/9o7kqkwcb/full/

Reading a bit further correct me if i´m wrong but the Kingston is using AHCI and samsung NVME (newest) interface

Hlsgsz · May 26, 2016

CV_Taihou :

You will not really see a difference. My recommendation stands: get the highest capacity 850 evo you can afford and get it in 2.5" format if you don't like teh PCB. NVMe is too expensive for what it brings.

CV_Taihou · May 26, 2016

pepslight :

Well that makes the decision easy. 950 PRO it is. When prices come down a bit anyways.

Is it worth getting the larger drive or should the 256GB be fine for space? I just want enough to drop a game or two on there

pepslight · May 26, 2016

People recommend the 850 Evo because they never experienced a NVMe. The difference is phenomenal you waste much less time with installs and file copy or simply navigating

tominsac · May 26, 2016

I have a Samsung evo 850 250 gig and a hyperx preditor, visually I cant tell the difference. I know the 950 is faster. I use primocache and get 6500 seq read and 800 write along with 100,000 read iops, I cant tell the difference unless i'm doing large disk to disk transfers. I cloned the Sammy to the Kingston (windows 10) it took less than 5 min. it took a clean install from usb less than 10 min-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2 x64 (C) 2007-2016 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 6434.506 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 797.527 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 430.456 MB/s [105091.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 212.201 MB/s [ 51806.9 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 3806.680 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 785.396 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 400.265 MB/s [ 97720.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 89.983 MB/s [ 21968.5 IOPS]

Test : 1024 MiB [C: 24.0% (53.4/223.0 GiB)] (x2) [Interval=5 sec]
Date : 2016/05/26 18:36:51
OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 10586] (x64)
Kingston Hyperx Preditor w/Primocache

Geekwad · May 26, 2016

CV_Taihou :

I wouldn't call it inferior, but it will not perform to your socket's full potential.

Your m.2 slot has the ability to run a PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds, but the Predator is PCIe 2.0 x4 speed. It is numerically faster than a standard SATA III SSD, but not perceptibly faster. You won't really 'experience' much difference.

For that matter, there is only a small perceptible difference for most users between a good SATA III SSD like the Samsung 850 EVO and and the 950 Pro m.2 with NVMe (versus ACHI) unless you're in the business of moving lots and lots of data, and often.

I have several PCIe NVMe drives, and it shaves many many minutes off my day, but it's only tremendously useful when it's going drive-to-drive. At home on the 5930k, it also has a 950 Pro as the boot drive, and I hardly noticed the difference when I upgraded. Sure, some things did load faster and scratching on the drive does give a bit of a boost, but if you're stretching to justify it in your budget......it's not worth it.

I would suggest the EVO in whatever size fits your budget, and wait a bit more for m.2 NVMe drives to populate that slot. Many new entrants will be showing up in the next 12 months, and prices will start to fall. For now......big SATA III SSDs offer the best price to performance figures, and a good one will last you for many years, and complement a m.2 very well in the future.

popatim · May 26, 2016

You'd probably be able to drop 5-10 games on there easily.

CV_Taihou · May 27, 2016

So here's where I'm at so far. I haven't entirely ruled out the 950 PRO, but for the price I'm more leaning towards a bigger 500GB or so normal SSD. All the following prices are local stores

950 PRO 256GB - 269.99 list (225.98 discount)
850 EVO 500GB - 224.99 list (190.88 discount)
Sandisk Ultra 2 480GB - 199.99 list (180.97 discount)
Kingston HyperX Savage 480GB - 199.99 list (182.40 discount)

Is it worth saving the 10 or so bucks to go with the Kingston or Sandisk drives over the Samsung? Or does the Samsung outperform the other two which would justify the extra cost to a degree?

pepslight · May 27, 2016

Its not about outperforming, i wouldwould suggest you taketake than the 850 evo Ssd. the samsung drivers are just overal better quality with more technologies using this 3D nand (something around that).

Hlsgsz · May 27, 2016

CV_Taihou :

No. The Samsunt is a superior drive on all aspects and comes with a 5 year warrnaty, so it's worth spending the extra 10 or so. Samsung have hit the sweetspot with the 850 evos.
Definitely go for the higher capacity. You would be hard pressed to actually notice a performance diference in real world usage scenarios. Think about it this way: is a 1 sec faster boot worth halving your ssd's capacity, hence having to put some games on an HDD and suffering through the load times?
Look, nobodys saying that NVMe drives aren't cool. They are. But as of today they are way too expensive and their price/benefit ratio is laughable compared to drives like the 850 evo.

CV_Taihou · May 27, 2016

Hlsgsz :

CV_Taihou :

No. The Samsunt is a superior drive on all aspects and comes with a 5 year warrnaty, so it's worth spending the extra 10 or so. Samsung have hit the sweetspot with the 850 evos.
Definitely go for the higher capacity. You would be hard pressed to actually notice a performance diference in real world usage scenarios. Think about it this way: is a 1 sec faster boot worth halving your ssd's capacity, hence having to put some games on an HDD and suffering through the load times?
Look, nobodys saying that NVMe drives aren't cool. They are. But as of today they are way too expensive and their price/benefit ratio is laughable compared to drives like the 850 evo.

Exactly why I started looking at the higher capacity SATA drives. Secretly I'm hoping I can win an Intel PCI-E SSD one day (or a lottery to buy one) Till then I think that I'll be going with the Samsung 500GB. Thanks for all the help gents!

pepslight · May 27, 2016

Good choice, i got 2 850 evo pro never had problems with it

Hlsgsz · May 27, 2016

CV_Taihou :

Hlsgsz :

Exactly why I started looking at the higher capacity SATA drives. Secretly I'm hoping I can win an Intel PCI-E SSD one day (or a lottery to buy one) Till then I think that I'll be going with the Samsung 500GB. Thanks for all the help gents!

Good man!

Best 250GB M.2 SSD

Reputable

Reputable

Expert

Admirable

Champion

Reputable

Reputable

Champion

Reputable

Reputable

Distinguished

Admirable

Titan

Reputable

Reputable

Champion

Reputable

Reputable

Champion

Share this page