Recommendations for M.2 PCIE SSD for my ROG IV Impact board?

[dedaciai]

Hi Everyone,

I am really interested in using an M.2 style SSD for my ROG VI Impact build. Does anyone have any recommendations on an M.2 SSD that is compatible with my board?

The maximum size it would need to be is 256GB but no less than 180GB.

Thanks in advance!

Dedaciai

[Myk SilentShadow]

Though I don't know what M.2 cards are available at this time, here in Aus all I can see on one retailer's site is mSATA cards. But, having said that and surprisingly the Impact supports all sizes of M.2 SATA SSD's 2242/2260/2280/22110. If you haven't seen, there are a couple articles on the Front ROG Homepage which explain all about the M.2 SATA cards. the 1st 2 digits are how high they are, in mm and the 2nd pair is the length of the cards, also in mm. i'm guessing also, the Impact supports cards with the B+M Key type....this is important for your research as there are 3 types. B, M and B+M.

[dedaciai]

Though I don't know what M.2 cards are available at this time, here in Aus all I can see on one retailer's site is mSATA cards. But, having said that and surprisingly the Impact supports all sizes of M.2 SATA SSD's 2242/2260/2280/22110. If you haven't seen, there are a couple articles on the Front ROG Homepage which explain all about the M.2 SATA cards. the 1st 2 digits are how high they are, in mm and the 2nd pair is the length of the cards, also in mm. i'm guessing also, the Impact supports cards with the B+M Key type....this is important for your research as there are 3 types. B, M and B+M.

Yeah, I saw that too. Thanks! I was just wondering if someone here was partial to a particular make or model and what their thoughts were on it. It looks like Intel and Crucial make some, but reputable reviews seem to be hard to come by.

[Praz]

Hello

As the connection for the NGFF interface is PCI express 2.0 x1 most any drive you use will be limited in performance by the interface. And the drive will all be slower than using a SATA 6Gb/s SSD connected to one of the onboard Intel SATA 6Gb/s ports.

[RamCity]

Hello

As the connection for the NGFF interface is PCI express 2.0 x1 most any drive you use will be limited in performance by the interface. And the drive will all be slower than using a SATA 6Gb/s SSD connected to one of the onboard Intel SATA 6Gb/s ports.

Note, the M.2 (NGFF) socket in this mobo supports both SATA and PCIe 2.0 x1 SSD's, but like Praz said, at PCIe x1, it's slower than SATA, so you are best to look at SATA M.2 SSD's. This also applies to the ASUS Maximus VI Impact. Compatible M.2 SSD's that we know of so far are the MyDigitalSSD M.2 2242 (only in capacities up to 128GB though), and also the Crucial M500 / M550 M.2 2280 models (in capacities up to 512GB).

ASUS need to improve their M.2 PCIe implementation to support PCIe 2.0 x2 (or PCIe 2.0 x4 would be very nice) to achieve transfer speeds higher than those currently available from good old SATA.

cheers, Rod

[dedaciai]

Note, the M.2 (NGFF) socket in this mobo supports both SATA and PCIe 2.0 x1 SSD's, but like Praz said, at PCIe x1, it's slower than SATA, so you are best to look at SATA M.2 SSD's. This also applies to the ASUS Maximus VI Impact. Compatible M.2 SSD's that we know of so far are the MyDigitalSSD M.2 2242 (only in capacities up to 128GB though), and also the Crucial M500 / M550 M.2 2280 models (in capacities up to 512GB).

ASUS need to improve their M.2 PCIe implementation to support PCIe 2.0 x2 (or PCIe 2.0 x4 would be very nice) to achieve transfer speeds higher than those currently available from good old SATA.

cheers, Rod

Thanks for the info everyone! I was hoping to get the benefits in speed from the PCIE support, but after reading y'alls comments above I am better off getting an M.2 SATA SSD. I am currently running a Crucial M4 and was thinking of going to the 550. Would I see a noticable improvement? I looked at benchmarks and it seems like it is between 25% to 40% faster depending on the benchmark. Also, I'd like to go the M.2 cause I am running a really small case (EVGA Hadron Air) and would like to remove the HDD cage to give the little thing more breathing room. The M.2 SSD would also really clean things up (no 2.5" SSD to see

Thanks again!

Dedaciai

[RamCity]

I am currently running a Crucial M4 and was thinking of going to the 550. Would I see a noticable improvement? I looked at benchmarks and it seems like it is between 25% to 40% faster depending on the benchmark. Also, I'd like to go the M.2 cause I am running a really small case (EVGA Hadron Air) and would like to remove the HDD cage to give the little thing more breathing room. The M.2 SSD would also really clean things up (no 2.5" SSD to see

As you say, the two main benefits of the Crucial M550 in M.2 format are the additional performance over the M4 (particularly in the lower 128GB/256GB capacities) and the nice and tiny form factor. All good reasons I say. - Rod

[Mitchilled]

I was thinking of getting this one for my Maximus VI Impact:

Samsung XP941 256GB M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD (2280)

http://www.ramcity.com.au/buy/samsun...U256HCGL-00000

[Praz]

I was thinking of getting this one for my Maximus VI Impact:

Samsung XP941 256GB M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD (2280)

http://www.ramcity.com.au/buy/samsun...U256HCGL-00000

Hello

Why would you spend the money on an x4 lane M.2 drive to install in a M.2 slot that is fed by as single PCIe lane.