Did I get a SM951 NVMe Version?

xeyewang

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Apr 10, 2015
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Hihi guys,

I recently got a sm951 m.2 drive and plugged on to my mobo MSI x99s. The bios cannot see it so it is not bootable but windows recognized it as NVMe device. it is fast. But I had heard that SM951 doesn't have NVMe support yet. Just wondering if anyone had any experience with this card?

what controller this card use? and is there a way to switch to ahci mode anyhow? Thanks guys.

and i did called Samsung, the customer service is not very helpful.
 
Solution


The AHCI version has a part number beginning with MZHPV and the NVMe version has a part number beginning with MZVPV. I think you will find you have the AHCI version.

Rod
I don't own an M.2 drive, but from what I've read the SM951 was originally going to have NVMe support but Samsung changed their plans.

Paragraphs 3 & 4 of this link has additional info regarding the SM951 and NVMe:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8979/samsung-sm951-512-gb-review

Make sure your motherboard's BIOS is on its latest version and read your motherboard's User Manual to see if there are any special settings you have to enable in order to make the M.2 slot bootable.
 
Thanks of the additional information.

And yea. I did have my BIOS the latest and I use to have a xp941 on that slot under AHCI mode works perfectly. I assume the card I have is some kinda special that only runs as NVMe but the controller cannot be recognized. I wonder if this SM951 is some early release from Samsung and it uses similar controller to SM953 which doesn't have very good supports yet.



 
that's what I had heard too. But the sticker on my card doesn't have any word about AHCI. I guess it is NVMe only controller.


 


The AHCI version has a part number beginning with MZHPV and the NVMe version has a part number beginning with MZVPV. I think you will find you have the AHCI version.

Rod
 
Solution
ha.. I just realize that. it is MZVPV which is the NVMe version. what kinda controller this little guy uses please?


 
rod - curious if you know if the 951, either version, has an OPROM or any boot files already pre-installed? - there was a poster over on The SSD Review forums that had issues getting his xp941 and then when he tried a 951, reported that it just mounted and ram like a normal SSD
 


No OPROM on either one as far as I'm aware.

Rod
 


Well aren't you lucky! You must have got an engineering sample. Would you mind sharing if you were able to boot the drive in your system, the specifics of your motherboard and some benchmark numbers from Crystal Diskmark?

Rod
 
It is not bootable. on both z97 and my x99. both of them are on the latest BIOS. Since I had been using Hackintosh, I have to attach the benchmark later when I have my dual boot ready. But thanks for the information tho. Hackintosh won't even recognize it.


 
Just an update that I ended up to return this card since it is not bootable. Crystal Diskmark cannot find this drive for some reason so I don't really see the benchmark result. Using some other benchmark tool gives me easily 1800/1000 sequence speed. Random read is a little odd since it is super slow. I would guess it is because the standard driver windows offered isn't that good for this drive. Anyway. Thanks for all the information guys.