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yizzle · ‎11-30-2014

I'm considering purchasing the G751JT-CH71. I would like to swap out the mechanical drive for an SSD. I have read up on the forums and understand that the main bay has a PCIe m.2 connection and a SATA3 connection. I understand the m.2 is faster than the sata. I would like to order an SSD but am unsure what to look for. I am new to laptops. I would prefer to connect via the PCIe m.2. Searching Newegg and amazon, I am getting a little confused as to which ssds are compatible, especially with the PCIe m.2. I want to make sure I don't order something for a desktop. can anyone help me out? maybe you could refer me to a specific example of a product that would meet these requirements. Thanks!

D_Pain · ‎11-30-2014

I'm currently using 2 HHDs for G751JT-CH71. I only had 1 HHD but added my old HHD into it. I personally have no issues without having an SSD, the laptop still just boots in a few seconds and I don't really think its worth a few hundred dollars just for a PCIe m.2 SSD. These days SATA3 SSDs are very cheap so if you were to buy an SSD, I would recommend an a SATA3 SSD. Enough with my thoughts, PCIe m.2 SSDs look more like RAMs
I'm not sure if it would help but the picture below is what you would try to find.

A SATA3 SSD would look more like a normal HHD.
Amazon would have the format for the SSD written either on the title or the description of the product. As far as I know, SSDs in a desktop would also fit in the laptop. Just check if the SSD is a SATA3 format that it has a 2.5 inch width.

Wish it solved at least a bit of your confusion:)

PS. The bolts for the second bay where you can add an additional drive were very hard to unscrew. I wasn't able to unscrew it with a normal screwdriver so I had to eventually use a electric screwdriver...

yizzle · ‎11-30-2014

Thanks for the input. That helped clarify some of my confusion. I searched for some of the m.2 ssds and, yeah they are a lot more expensive. I think I might go with one of the sata3 ssds that are currently on sale on newegg. so from what I understand, as long as it is a 2.5" sata3 drive, it should fit? Thanks for your help!

D_Pain · ‎11-30-2014

Yes, as long as it is a 2.5" sata3 drive you are good to go.

Check this youtube link: http://youtu.be/akjzKO4HfQQ?t=12m31s
Its a video for G751JY but it looks the same. Just a better graphics cards, more RAM, and an PCIe m.2 SSD. The video would help you get a feeling how the G751 inner parts would look like.

hmscott · ‎11-30-2014

Guys, it should be mentioned that an M.2 PCIE part like the Samsung XP941 will run up to 3x faster than a 2.5" SATA III drive 🙂

That is 1500MB/sec vs 500MB/sec.

That is a really dramatic improvement. Yes, it costs more, but it is such an improvement that will be noticeable it is worth it for me and others. IO bottlenecks are the last thing holding performance back in computers. All professional servers / storage use SSD as first level storage, and most bottleneck is there still, so faster buses are being developed to get even more speed. RAM Disk is another way to go too, copy over stuff at boot from SSD to memory and then run from there.

There is really no reason to invest in spinning silicon drives any more. Get the heat out and the speed up by moving to SSD.

Also, Asus has done 2 silly things with the disk configurations on the JT/JY.

1) The Bay is shared between an M.2 PCIE port and a SATA III port. You can only use 1 device at a time in that Bay.

2) The 2nd Bay, at least for Samsung SSD's, only connects at SATA II rate. It is still up to 300MB/sec, but it isn't 500MB/sec.

I have suggested swapping cables/connectors between the 2 Bay's, to move the SATA III port to the 2nd Bay, and swap in the SATA II port to the 1st Bay where it can go unused while using the M.2 PCIE port. But noone has reported whether this is possible yet. I will check it out when I see one in person.

So, for now the best solution is to use a 512GB M.2 PCIE SSD in Bay 1, and save $ by getting a 2nd or 3rd tier SSD in the 2nd Bay that doesn't need to be the fastest to take advantage of 300MB/sec.

BTW, several SSD makers have announced, but not shipped, 1TB M.2 PCIE SSD's.

Please post what you end up getting here 🙂

vpshockwave · ‎12-01-2014

hmscott wrote:

Also, Asus has done 2 silly things with the disk configurations on the JT/JY.

1) The Bay is shared between an M.2 PCIE port and a SATA III port. You can only use 1 device at a time in that Bay.

2) The 2nd Bay, at least for Samsung SSD's, only connects at SATA II rate. It is still up to 300MB/sec, but it isn't 500MB/sec.

I just bought my G751JT and immediately bought two SATAIII SSDs to run in RAID 0. I have a similar setup in my desktop and it's inhumanely fast. However upon installing both disks and running some benchmarks I realized that I'm only getting roughly SATAIII total speed in the raid configuration (500-600 MB/s) rather than the 1 GB/s speeds I get on my desktop. If I'm reading you correctly, it's because the second bay is stuck at SATAII. That would bottleneck the raid array drastically. Does that sound right according to what you wrote? Any workarounds? Why would they make one of the bays SATA II ? Why is SATA II even in PRODUCTION anymore?

hmscott · ‎12-01-2014

vpshockwave wrote:
I just bought my G751JT and immediately bought two SATAIII SSDs to run in RAID 0. I have a similar setup in my desktop and it's inhumanely fast. However upon installing both disks and running some benchmarks I realized that I'm only getting roughly SATAIII total speed in the raid configuration (500-600 MB/s) rather than the 1 GB/s speeds I get on my desktop. If I'm reading you correctly, it's because the second bay is stuck at SATAII. That would bottleneck the raid array drastically. Does that sound right according to what you wrote? Any workarounds? Why would they make one of the bays SATA II ? Why is SATA II even in PRODUCTION anymore?

vpshockwave, early on there was a post by a new owner that used a Crucial M550 or M500 that said he got SATA III speed in both bays - swapped the drive and ran from it in both bays, but after that all the reports are from Samsung Evo owners and all report SATA II - another guy also set up the RAID0 and was limited by the 2nd Bay SATA II speed.

The only solution I could dream up was to use a M.2 PCIE in the first bay, and swap the cable/connector around for the SATA connection between Bay 1 / 2 to get the SATA III connection in the 2nd Bay. RAID0 would work about the same except at 1GB/sec - the SATA III port would be holding back the M.2 PCIE at that point. But at least you would have an optimal speed configuration.

A single M.2 PCIE can run up to 1600MB/sec, if you get a XP941 512GB it is about 900MB/sec-1100MB/sec, almost a RAID0 by itself.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Samsung-XP941-Plextor-PX-G256-M6e-M-2-Qualification-575/
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Overview-of-M-2-SSDs-586/#PerformanceRange

Please come back and let us know what you worked out. 🙂

seagle7 · ‎12-02-2014

hmscott wrote:
vpshockwave, early on there was a post by a new owner that used a Crucial M550 or M500 that said he got SATA III speed in both bays - swapped the drive and ran from it in both bays, but after that all the reports are from Samsung Evo owners and all report SATA II - another guy also set up the RAID0 and was limited by the 2nd Bay SATA II speed.

The only solution I could dream up was to use a M.2 PCIE in the first bay, and swap the cable/connector around for the SATA connection between Bay 1 / 2 to get the SATA III connection in the 2nd Bay. RAID0 would work about the same except at 1GB/sec - the SATA III port would be holding back the M.2 PCIE at that point. But at least you would have an optimal speed configuration.

A single M.2 PCIE can run up to 1600MB/sec, if you get a XP941 512GB it is about 900MB/sec-1100MB/sec, almost a RAID0 by itself.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Samsung-XP941-Plextor-PX-G256-M6e-M-2-Qualification-575/
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Overview-of-M-2-SSDs-586/#PerformanceRange

Please come back and let us know what you worked out. 🙂

Yes I think that's indeed the best solution.

When I was looking for the solution with my second SATA III port, I tested HDD and the original SSD it came with (a Sandisk 128Gb )
and every single drive showed the same 3Gb/s transfert rate, so it is not limited to Samsung SSD, I tried Western Digital HDD, Seagate HDD too.

That's why it really looks like it's a port issue, or maybe a driver one like you said earlier.

hmscott · ‎12-02-2014

seagle7 wrote:
Yes I think that's indeed the best solution.

When I was looking for the solution with my second SATA III port, I tested HDD and the original SSD it came with (a Sandisk 128Gb )
and every single drive showed the same 3Gb/s transfert rate, so it is not limited to Samsung SSD, I tried Western Digital HDD, Seagate HDD too.

That's why it really looks like it's a port issue, or maybe a driver one like you said earlier.

seagle7, I remember your post with the various tests all resulting in SATA II speed in the 2nd bay.

Did you see the one by the guy with the M550/M500 that saw 6gbps in both bays? I can't find the post now, but I know I saw it. 🙂

seagle7 · ‎12-09-2014

hmscott wrote:
seagle7, I remember your post with the various tests all resulting in SATA II speed in the 2nd bay.

Did you see the one by the guy with the M550/M500 that saw 6gbps in both bays? I can't find the post now, but I know I saw it. 🙂

I did thank you, if I stumble upon a Crucial SSD or another brand, I will try it of course, but I have my doubts 🙂

G751JT-CH71 SSD choice