The standard drivers work fine for the 950 pro, its just a bit tricky getting the OS on it when you are not cloning a factory M2 SSD. I havent seen anyone clone the spinner to the SSD and be able to boot from it on this platform. I have seen, and have done myself, a clean install to the M2 SSD useing the UEFI boot guide in the stickies and loading the Intel RST drivers during the install.
If you decide to stay with SATA III and go for an SSD installed there you can clone it using a USB 3.0 to SSD adaptor. Takes a bit longer but it works just fine. I actually used the head end of an older Seagate external USB 3.0 drive when they were making them where it pulled off the end.
http://www.amazon.com/FINEX-Ultra-Device-Adapter-Converter/dp/B008BQ34ZS
What Ive used
If you decide to stay with SATA III and go for an SSD installed there you can clone it using a USB 3.0 to SSD adaptor. Takes a bit longer but it works just fine. I actually used the head end of an older Seagate external USB 3.0 drive when they were making them where it pulled off the end.
http://www.amazon.com/FINEX-Ultra-Device-Adapter-Converter/dp/B008BQ34ZS
What Ive used
wpeters wrote:
Great thanks for the reply, good info.
In terms of speed my understanding from reading this forum is that the speed of the SATA is compatible to the PCIe SSD.
My thoughts were to get the SATA now and the PCIe in 6-12 months by which time they may have sorted out the drivers issue
completely and the prices may drop a little. Only need one drive at the moment.
W.
SATA and PCIe are very different. On My machine the M2 is nearly 5 times faster in sequential read and 3 times faster in sequential write.
G752VY with PCIe M2 NVMe 950 pro using standard windows drivers that I have my OS on and a 1TB 850 EVO that I use for storage only. No Samsung Magician or drivers installed on this machine as they do not work.
950 Pro
850 EVO
One thing I would like to ask is if and when you decide to go with an M2 if you could try cloning the Spinner to the SSD. Everyone I know of has failed on the CM236 chipset, including myself. I tried everything under the sun and found the only way to do it was a clean install using the UEFI guide in the sticky and installing Intel RST drivers for the raid controller during the install. Without the drivers the the clean install wouldnt see the drive at all and cloning attempts only ended with failure to boot from the M2 SSD after. I did it purely as research trying to help others as it wasn't needed on my machine, it came with a 256GB SM951NVMe that cloned perfectly two different ways with Samsung data migration and Acronis True image. Many in your exact scenario are looking for a solution.
If you had only the 1TB HDD and no SSD and cloned with Samsung Data Migration to the SSD with no drivers you are the first! Congratulations. Everyone else has failed.
