Reddit reviews Samsung 950 PRO Series - 512GB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V5P512BW)

Inventory:

pfSense:
Snort, pfBlockerNG, OpenVPN, Squid, ClamAV, Default deny ingress/egress FW, etc.

ZOTAC ZBOX NUC

Kingston 120GB SSD

Crucial 8GB DDR3L RAM

ESXi Hypervisor:

Skull Canyon NUC

32GB DDR4 RAM

Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 SSD

Virtual Machines I'm currently running.

Splunk - Receives my FW, DNS, Snort, and OSSEC logs. I have dashboards to filter this data.

Snorby - Also receives my Snort logs. I like this a little better than Splunk as I can view packet contents.

OSSEC - I used this for file integrity and endpoint monitoring on my servers and desktop. Functions as a host based IDS.

Nessus - I use this every once in a while to see if there are any open holes. Otherwise, I just use nmap and iptables to close everything off.

Unifi Controller - for managing my AP.


Wireless:

Ubiquiti Unifi AP-AC Lite


Switch:

TP-LINK 8-Port Gigabit L2 Switch

RetroPi + Monitor:

RPi3

10.1 Inch IPS HDMI Monitor


My VMs, configs, and files are backed up to a HDD I keep offline. I'm thinking about adding a NAS into the mix for somewhere around 200-400 dollars. Low energy consumption preferably if anyone had any recommendations. :)

Unfortunately, pricing hasn't been released yet but I expect it to be more expensive than Samsung's 950 Pro M.2 512GB PCIe NVMe: $313.99 USD.

BGA SSD: 16 mm x 20 mm x 1.5 mm = 480 mm^3 = 0.48 cm^3.

Equivalent volume in gold: 0.48 cm^3 = 0.297567 troy oz.

Today's spot gold price: $1,215.20 per troy oz.

$1,215.20 x 0.297567 = $361.60 USD

Well you could technically, if you slap one of these onto the $400-500 "console killer" builds: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-512GB-PCIe-NVMe/dp/B01639694M/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1449103311&sr=8-7&keywords=intel+ssd+nvme


Note that loading speeds are pretty much all about storage, and any of the builds on those ranges has more than enough CPU power to process the transfer. You could also RAMdisk it, but that'll probably be more expensive unless your rig's already running 32GB for some reason.

Price, its nearly twice as expensive

Samsung 850 Pro SSD $170

Samsung 950 EVO NVME PCIE $320

Note that this is a SATA M.2 drive, so it won't be any faster than the 2.5" version. It's just smaller form factor. To get the speed gains, you need a PCI-E M.2 like this one.

Still a good deal! I'm just saving my M.2 slot.

Ubuntu 16.04 supports NVMe drives fine, My new computer has Ubuntu installed on a Samsung NVMe drive. The only issue is that hibernation wouldn't work unless the swap partition was put on a different drive.

The GParted included with 16.04 won't show NVMe drives unless you put the drive location in the launch command for GParted, which can make it look like Ubuntu can't see the drives. The other 'Disks' utiltiy and the installer both could see the drive immediately.

I think the bottleneck is the latency that occurs between geographically separated validators of the network. U have to give validators around 1,5-2 seconds and they also need some time to generate a block (process transactions) when they are assigned to it. Adding a small safety margin i guess 3-4 seconds is the limit and afaik Casper is aiming for exactly that.

It's a globally p2p network in the end. Thats why scaling horizontally with sharding is the right approach.

Btw: one of the fastest ledger close intervals i know can be found on the Ripple consensus ledger (~3.5 sec). I know their network topology favors centralization and currently the network is still run by 5 validators all controlled by Ripple but still: their tech is solid.

https://charts.ripple.com/#/metrics (Scroll down to "Ledger Close Interval")

Processing power only becomes important for the individual validator i think - the more ETH at stake, the more blocks will be assigned to that validator and the more processing power u will need to process all those transactions (and collect all those juicy fees...).

I remember Vitalik taking i wild guess that, depending on network usage, anything under 10k ETH could be staked with regular consumer hardware. My guess is that not only u will need a strong CPU but also quite a bit of RAM (which has become very cheap) and a fast storage medium ( NVMe SSDs are awesomely fast, around 3-5 times faster than regular SSDs)

Does your desktop's motherboard support M.2? If so, PCIe NVMe? https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M/

It is only ~$100 more than an 850 Pro, but has 5x sequential read speeds. Make sure you read up on your motherboard and OS before buying. I've read reviews from people with motherboards that can't boot off of it, etc.

Otherwise, just an 850 Pro/EVO is fine. For mechanical storage, I'm currently buying 8TB WD externals (single drive, not dual!) for $250 and shucking them. Has worked out fairly well.

I'm not sticking up for the Mac but your argument is an uneducated one. If you'd rather have a 5400rpm 1TB HDD hybrid with a 8GB SSD you're making horrible life decisions. The SSD in the new MBP is a NVME SSD, not sure you know of the tech but this particular Apple over priced crap reads and writes at 3.1GB/s. That is bytes not bits.

It's faster than something like https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M

Matter of fact Macs have had the lead in read write performance on their drives for years and still do. It's something I wish Dell and the like took more serious. You'll probably get about twice the battery life on the Mac compared to that Inspiron as well. Form factor and weight are no where near the same. Now a comparable build would be the Dell XPS 15. People need to understand hardware more thoroughly before speaking as if their experts.

For those speeds the cost is not too bad really, sauce

No. That M.2 drive is SATA. If you wanted a faster one, you would need to get an NVMe PCIe M.2 drive, like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M

That being said, unless you're doing a lot of massive file transfers you'll never notice a difference. Like for gaming, there is really no advantage to having a PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD over a SATA SSD.

For the love of God, if you have a $5k budget you shouldn't even be considering an HDD. Get 1 or 2 TB of SSD storage.

I recommend at very least getting this as an OS/Boot drive:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1474296366&sr=1-1&keywords=samsung+950+pro+m.2

Also, you could probably afford SLI Titan X's (Pascal) with a 1000W PSU. I recommend doing that.

There isn't much performance upgrade if you get a SATA based M.2, which are comprably priced to standard SATA 2.5" SSDs. PCIe NVME based M.2s are much faster and much more expensive.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M

From my understanding the drive needs to be PCIE itself to get the faster speeds, its not just a different adapter. If you notice, some m.2 drives are way more expensive than others, those ones are generally the PCIE drives. The PCIE m.2 drives look different at the end, though they still fit into any m.2 slot, the 'key' pattern is different.

My motherboard actually only supports PCIE drives, even though the sata ones also fit into the same slot no problem, which is how i found out theres a difference. this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01639694M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 is an example of what a PCIE drive looks like.

Issues I've found were...

• Hanging at Snapshot_16 on load screen (Have the happen more frequently on other maps, Snapshot_10 on TheCenter)
  
  
• Lost/timeout connection to host.
  
  
• Ragnarok 50 for instance crashed around 45 times in 2.5 days from my experience and from log reports.
  
  I also have the best everything, fresh install, game is also on a 950 Pro which also houses the pagefile along with 32GB of RAM.
  
  All drivers are up to date from chipset to graphics. So with that said, I can't think of any other issue other than a server side problem. Let's hope Wildcard can finally give a clear understanding as to what's going on and why these complications are coming up.

> When you say PCIe SSD do you mean those small flash ones that connect on an m2 port?

An m.2 port can be both. Either SATA or PCIe. For example the Samsung 850 Evo m.2 SSD is an m.2 SATA SSD. The more expensive 950/960 Pro or Evo series are m.2 PCIe SSDs. Just be aware that not every m.2 port is compatible with PCIe SSDs. The m.2 port needs a PCIe controller to support PCIe SSDs, otherwise they won't be recognized (same goes for SATA SSDs).

> Also should I have my OS running of the SSD if i have both HDD and SSD or just the files and editing software

Yes, the OS, your editing software and the project you're currently working on should be on the SSD to speed things up. If you done with editing, you can move the finished project to the HDD.

If you have 8GB of RAM, I would just get a video card and a NVMe SSD.

It appears that your board will work with this M.2 adapter and matching M.2(M) drives.
Lycom DT-120, PCIe 3.0 x4 Host Adapter for M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD

Samsung 950 Pro MZ-V5P512BW 512GB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 3.0X4 SSD

By not buying the unneeded system upgrade, you can get the much more powerful GTX 1070. The GTX1070 is going to feel faster now, and last longer then the 1060 would have.

MSI GeForce GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G Video Card 8GB GDDR5

Your SSD will be faster and will be in the right shape for next-gen systems. These parts will go into your 6-core Coffee Lake system in 2018.

found this page on the NZXT site. It details the radiator space in your case.

You can mount the fury x radiator as your rear exhaust fan (it's a 120 mm radiator/fan) with zero issues, and the top of the case has more than enough room for your H100i. I am confident you will not have problems fitting both coolers in your case. If you're crafty enough, you can even put both coolers on just the top of your case (it has 3 120 mm fan radiator support). It's what I'm currently doing with my case; dual 120 mm cpu fan radiator and fury x radiator on top. This allows me to put the second fury x radiator in the rear exhaust spot. Be aware, AMD recommends mounting the fury x radiator above the card, so don't mount it on the front or bottom of the case.

Be careful with that parts list though, the 1409 total is quoting the fury x at zero dollars. It's ~650 on amazon, so expect to pay a bit over 2k for everything you have (remember to calculate tax, it's serious at these prices).

One last note, the performance increase from the 6700k over the 4790k is not huge (little less than 5%, and a 4790k will not be the bottle neck of your pc for gaming). If you need to save a couple hundred, get the 4790k (~70 dollars cheaper), 16 GB of DDR3 RAM (~70 dollars cheaper), and a compatible motherboard. Depending on the features you need, the mobo could be a bit cheaper as well. You might seriously consider getting the 4790k set up and spending that difference in cash on a M.2 solid state drive. The single fastest solid state M.2 on the consumer market is about 200 dollars more than your current SSD. Compare the two here and here. The 850 EVO has a mixed seq. read/write speed of 430 MB/s (which is great, don't get me wrong), while the 950 M.2 has a mixed seq. read/write speed of 1,574 MB/s.

If you're uneasy about your build, spend more time researching it and wait to buy it until you're 100% certain. The computer you have listed there will run, and everything will fit inside your case. Make sure you buy windows 10 on a USB since it looks like you didn't include a cd/dvd drive bay in your parts list (which is ok, I don't have one either).

Usually everything loads instantly for me, maybe 5-10 seconds for certain things. I reccomend a samsung ssd.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01639694M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T2_qG7DzbGGYTRBY

this is what I have but I think they have newer+cheaper options like the 960 evo. STRONGLY reccomend not buying a cheapo brand ssd.

Maybe instead of a SATA SSD, have a look at PCIE NVMe drive
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1467750072&sr=1-2&keywords=samsung+960+500

And a 1TB WD Black
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Performance-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B00FJRS6FU/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1467750110&sr=1-1&keywords=1tb++black

M.2 is CAPABLE of performing faster, but the one you pointed out performs identically to the SATA version. You don't see the speed unless you buy the ones with NVMe (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01639694M/ref=psdc_1292116011_t2_B00TGIW1XG), or even the "slower" 2.0 ones (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V01C376/ref=psdc_1292116011_t3_B00TGIVZTW)

Also, the SATA has a 5 year warranty while the M.2 only has a 3 year warranty. So if the performance and price is pretty much identical, the SATA would be the ideal one to buy as a normal OS drive.

M.2 is still a niche IMO. Yes, it's ridiculously fast and expensive, but you won't utilize the full potential if all you're going to do is boot Windows and load games. Video editing, post-processing, etc. is where you can see the benefits of M.2.

Awesome, I love the audio upgrade! Don't really need the type C connector yet so this is a great trade off. Thanks!! I noticed that the Sniper has an M.2 connector. Would you recommend a NVMe? Looks like 4x-5x the real world read/write speeds and only 2x the price. You've saved me money from not wasting on an OCing battlestation, so would this be the best upgrade value? (instead of my 850 EVO for my OS/C: drive?)

Not even sure what's up with your form:

> Do you prefer a 2 in 1 form factor, good battery life or best specifications to your requirements for the money? Pick or include any that apply.

>Best Requirements

Wtaf man. GET IT TOGETHER CHARLIE.

> Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A.

>Look at last question

Last question says you prefer Windows..

I get the feeling this question is a troll but nevertheless, I'm going to give you a nice answer.

Programming doesn't usually require a hardware intensive machine, it doesn't need a GPU or a penisvery powerful CPU but since you asked for such a high budget laptop in which weight doesn't matter I'm going to offer you a high-budget laptop and a low-budget laptop. The high budget lappy will last you approx 6 years and the low budget will last you 4 years approx.

I shall, from this point onwards, assign nicknames to the laptops:

1500 USD ASUS ROG G751JY-VS71(WX) shall now be called "That popular fat guy in college"

The 800 USD Dell Inspiron 15 7599 shall be called "good guy greg" because it's great value.

Processor: Both of these guys have incredibly powerful processors but note that a high end notebook processor is equal to a mid-range gaming processor. The fatty can easily spit out 2.6 GHz with it's i7-4720HQ however the good guy can push out a very respectable 2.3 GHz with it's powerful i5 6300HQ.

I want to give you a tip, NEVER buy a laptop based on it's processor solely. Most people are fooled buy the fact that one processor is an i7 and the other is an i5, well here's a fact, the most powerful model of the i7 can push out only 3% more than the most powerful i5.

Both of these processors can run heavily processor intensive games like "Total war: Warhammer" and can compile code equally fast because the algorithm is usually bottle-necked.

Graphics Card: They both have very powerful graphics cards but the fatty wins this battle hands down. It comes with a Nvidia GTX 980M which has 1536 CUDA cores, versus the good guy which only has approx 640 CUDA cores, respectable but the 960M is no match. VRAM is not a limiting factor, in either of them, the only game that requires more than 4 GB of VRAM is The Witcher 3, which can still be run at high and only consumes about 3 GB. Even GTA V only requires 3.8 GB at it's highest settings. Both of these can run Overwatch at max with 50-60 FPS, though the 980M can probably push out 80 FPS.

The fatty is definitely much better in this regard if you plan on doing very hardcore gaming.

Storage: I know for a fact that coders lover SSD's, the good guy comes with a pre-installed 256 GB M.2 SSD, M.2 SSD's are some of the most powerful SSD's and 256 GB is more than enough. The ASUS (popular fatty) has an optional SSD slot, goes upto 512 GB in both of the laptops. You can get a 256 GB M.2 SSD for 200 USD or a 512 GB M.2 SSD for 320 USD.

When getting an SSD only opt for Samsung, they make the best SSD's with 0 flaws.

Other than that they both have 1000 GB HDD's (no, not 1024) but that should be plenty.

RAM: NEVER BUY A LAPTOP BASED ON RAM YOU FUCKING DIMWIT, IT'S UP-GRADABLE. JESUS CHRIST.

But yeah they both have DDR3 RAM. The ASUS has 16 GB while the Dell has 8 GB

Screen size: Coders ALWAYS prefer large screens so I got the ASUS with it's 17.3 inch 1080p display, you know the ladies love a big screen ;), though the dell has a comfortable 15.6 inch 1080p screen. But as a coder I think you will prefer a large display.

Extra: The dell has thunderbolt 3

Sorry if I hurt your feelings during the review. Pansy.

Youtube videos you should watch:

[SSD's vs HDD's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQEjGKYXjw8)


[CPU vs GPU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kypaBjJ-pg)

[i3 vs i5 vs i7**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLSPub4ydiM)

Good luck.

I went with the PCIE NVME M.2 SSD 512 GB from Samsung. Here is the Amazon link. It seems really fast as I am using it as the OS drive. I had no firmware issues or BIOS issues. It just showed up in the BIOS. I did update the BIOS of P50 beforehand. Please note ... you do need the M.2 tray. I found mine at CDW for about $14 each. I received it about three days after ordering.

Regarding the middle button on the bottom of the trackpad ... I am not really sure what it does. However, when I click it my cursor turns to a circle with a dot in the middle with the four arrows pointing in directions of the compass. Wish I could get a screenshot of it.

I do agree 256 is pretty useless for what i do too. I really cant tell if its worth it or not cause both are great. I'm not sure how advanced you used windows, but in the power options you can limit the CPU usage to 99% and it almost completely takes care of the fan speed going up for no reason on the 2015 model. If the extra money on a new one isn't too big of a deal i would do that over used but thats just me.

You can't put in a second SSD cause there is only one slot, but what i did for the 2015 model i used to have is i just got one of these and never ran out of storage again. https://www.amazon.com/Sandisk-Solid-State-Drive-SD8SN8U-1T00-1122/dp/B0194MV300/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1474683831&sr=8-2&keywords=1tb+m.2+sata+ssd

if you do go with the 2016 Blade you will need the newer type of SSD like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1474683889&sr=8-2&keywords=nvme+1tb

Exactly. You're saving space in a tower build that already has plenty of room for 2.5" drives. The M2 2280 drives are still SATA III drives and have read/write/access times all very similar to current SSD's and offer no benefit other than space.

However the new NVMe drives have a PCIe bus (I believe?! I'm not super sure), but I know that their speeds far surpass current SSD's by a great margin. The issue is whether or not you'll truly be able to tell the difference. An SSD is already significantly faster than an HDD, this we know, but I can't tell you real world differences that you'll notice on an NVMe drives vs. a SATA III connected SSD. That may warrant some extra reading on your part to see if the price difference is worth it to you.

But just checking Amazon you can find plenty of results, but it seems like the Sammy pro's are the way to go.

Think I'm going to have to go with this instead:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01639694M/

Sorry to bother you again. I am comparing different SSD drives. I am currently looking at a Samsung 950 PRO Series - 512GB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD. Would this fit within the current case? If not, could i just switch everything over to this case?

Here is the mobile version of your link

I just purchased an Asus Strix GL502 VT and added an NVMe SSD. It has a quad core i7, DDR4 RAM, and an actual 9 series GPU with CUDA cores which help accelerate Adobe software. I've had it for about 4 days now, but I really enjoy it. I can come back in like a month and give you more opinions on this machine, but the XPS 15 is a very solid choice too!!

Also, you said your gen-1 rmbp has a 9 series gpu, its acually a 6 series card

Samsung Evo 950 Pro NVME M.2 drive

It has a transfer rate of 32 gbps, whereas a SATA port maxes out at 6 gbps.

I have an Asus Z170-A board and I'm getting a new SSD for it. I bought a cheap MX300 525GB when I built it about 2 months ago. I'm almost out of space and I'm looking for an M.2 to use as the OS and move the MX300 over to storage.

Now I'm a little out of sorts with NVMe and PCIe support for storage devices. I looked at the Asus product page for my board and all it did was confuse me more.

Am I NVMe compatible?

This is what I was looking at getting.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M

Also will I see a noticeable increase in performance by switching from an MX300 to the 950 Pro?

You might consider getting the cheapest laptop you can find that will otherwise fit your needs, and adding a 512 GB SSD after the fact. A 512 GB SSD often comes as a premium upgrade, but it's not terribly expensive to buy separately. A Samsung 850 EVO Sata III SSD will only cost you $157.10 on Amazon, and places like Micro Center will match that. Want the same thing in m.2 format? $158.56. Want it in the faster NVME format? $314.99, though I expect that'll drop in a month when the 960 series comes out. The first to options are the most cost-effective, and the last only matters if your laptop supports NVME, which it probably won't at your price point.

If you go with either of the first two options, you're probably paying less than what most manufactures would charge to upgrade from a HDD to a 128 GB solid state for the same model laptop.

There's really no easy way to answer this.

1 pro variant SSD (512GB or greater) will outperform any amount of TB HHD's in a RAID 0. SATA III peaks at ~550 MB/s in real world applications. You would need 3 1TB HDD's at about $50 each, that's $150 to achieve ~510 MB/s bandwidth. RAID is never perfect. Not exactly the most reliable.

The best solution is always going to be anything that travels over the PCIe 3.0 4x channels (NVME) which includes M.2. Not sure how much space your footage will take up. I would weigh what is more important to your sanity AND your budget. This is the cheapest 1TB option available.

I have a New in Open Box Samsung 950 PRO 512GB PCI-E 3.0 M.2 SSD for only $220 shipped. Has less than an hours worth of use for testing. I went up higher to the 1TB model. Lemme know: Link

> Is the difference that noticeable?

In day to day use, I would say no, you won't notice. But when the difference between a quality, trusted, and highly recommended SSD and shitty SSD is just $20, it just seems silly to go with the latter option.

Also, that M.2 SSD is not worth it as it is nearly identical in performance as they both use SATA controller. The only advantage is that it has a smaller form factor. The SSD that would fully utilize that M.2 port capability would be something like the 950 Pro which for the 128GB version cost about $190

Let's first break down the different consumer-grade interfaces on SSD's today. There is the traditional SATA interface that has existed for many years over three major iterations (SATA 1, 2 and 3). These SSD drives have only dropped in price dramatically over the past year or two.

A newer interface known as NVMe takes SSD speeds to the next level. SATA 3 has a theoretical transfer limit of 600MB/s, while NVMe is enabling SSDs to reach over 2000MB/s. NVMe also costs considerably more than their SATA interface brethrens.

For example, Samsung's 512GB 850 Pro SSD (SATA interface) runs for ~$225 on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-PRO-2-5-Inch-MZ-7KE512BW/dp/B00LF10KTO/

While the Samsung's 512GB 950 Pro SSD (NVMe interface) is priced at ~$336
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M

So can I see SSD prices generally rising 20-25% into 2018? Yes, based on the new NVMe interface. Do I think the old SATA 3 SSD pricing will increase by 20-25% into 2018? Hell no.

thank god. thanks guys for the quick reply. i have a quick question regarding m.2. can i get one of those and another ssd? or no need? i'm looking at this http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-512GB-PCIe-NVMe/dp/B01639694M/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1449903613&sr=1-3&keywords=m.2

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-512GB-PCIe-NVMe/dp/B01639694M

What prompted my questions was that http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-512GB-PCIe-NVMe/dp/B01639694M is $300 versus $950.

I have one of these in my P50 https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M . Its super fast!

Aha, I wanted to make the joke, but you can never tell how it's going to go down.

Problem with PC's is I just end up dreaming about building my dream machine.

• Dan Case A4 / N Case M1 - £200
  
• GTX 1080 - £620 approx
  
• i5 6600K - £235
  
• ASUS Z170 Pro - £150 (not at all sure about buying an ASUS motherboard)
  
• Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD 512GB - £285
  
• Some Ram - £150
  
• Another SSD - £150
  
  Then maybe I want to custom watercool the whole thing for another £500
  
  And suddenly I can't afford to eat for the next few years.
  
  
  

There seem to be a lot of parts that I've found in other guides that aren't available on PCPartPicker. X99 motherboards and the new Samsung 950 SSDs. The performance specs for the SSD is off the charts...

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-512GB-PCIe-NVMe/dp/B01639694M/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1458618649&sr=1-2&keywords=samsung+950+pro+m.2

Am I getting limited options because everyone is providing responses through PCPartPicker?

Wow thank you.
I really like the case, will the midtower size be enough?
thoughts on the slower ram?
good call on the OS.
still dont want to give up on the hard drive size, if i do thoughts on http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-512GB-PCIe-NVMe/dp/B01639694M/?tag=li-org-per-vr-us-20

I can second what bizboz said. I have a 9343 so the faster and pricier nvme SSDs are not fully supported, I installed the Samsung EVO 500GB which was only $150 now. Some Xps13 ssd install instructions:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/3hql7y/xps_13_ssd_upgrade/

https://m.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/3y30nl/install_samsung_950_pro_in_xps_13_9350/

Brick and mortar stores probably won't have these SSDs in stock. Make sure you get the m2 form factor not the larger SATA III.

This is the EVO at $157:
Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB M.2 3.5-Inch SSD (MZ-N5E500BW)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TGIW1XG/

If you can spend $300+, the skylake versions (9350) motherboard support the Samsung m2 nvme SSD which gets 2500/1500 read write, which is nuts.

This is the faster nvme at $327
Samsung 950 PRO -Series 512GB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD 2-Inch MZ-V5P512BW

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01639694M/

I don't think there are other brands than samsung for the nvme, but you can use other brands for the slower pcie ssd, won't save much $ tho.

You need a spudger and torx screws, cheap on amazon, and if you want to clone your drive then an m2 ssd external housing, and samsung clone utility doesnt always work so you might need a third party cloning software. I did a clean install so i think i could have done without the external housing. Reports that the external housings don't work with the faster nvme anyway, too, so YMMV.

And yes crystal mark shows 500+/500+ read write with the EVO 850, before it was only 450/150 or so with the stock 128GB SSD.

I believe Samsung makes the fastest ones. I bought this one a few months ago. The Pro series is a bit more popular but I don't think there's much difference. It can read at 2500 MB/s and write at 1500 MB/s, so yeah they're much faster, ever faster than a RAID array of SSD's. The motherboard you picked out has 2 M.2 ports.

As you're spending so much on the entire PC, the best upgrade you could possibly make to this thing is a Samsung Pro Evo 950 512GB for your OS and Games. It wrecks the 850 in ways I can't describe is is arguably as worthwhile as dropping a stellar graphics card. I'm currently running a 950 w/ a regular old shit disk drive as my "storage" and it's one of the best computing experiences I've ever had.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-512GB-PCIe-NVMe/dp/B01639694M

This is an M2 HDD and fits in that cute little slot in the southeast corner of your mobo in this photo: http://cdn.pcpartpicker.com/static/forever/images/product/24571c289f1f8390b8ba715c97ef7203.1600.jpg

Edit: Looking at your build closer, I would actually rather have a 1TB 950 Pro in my box than a second 980 Ti (by the way your computer is almost the exact same as mine). 1TB 950s don't seem to exist yet, just buy one and add it to your build. Keep the second 980Ti. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

There's a couple kinds of SSD: 2.5" drives connected though SATA, PCIE based SSDs and then the dedicated slot M.2 and U.2.

SATA SSD speeds are limited by the SATA port itself but the drives are still much faster than spinning HDDs and are easy to install since they're compatible with any build.

PCIE based SSDs as I understand it were useful before M.2 and U.2 slots were as popular as they are now because you could still install them in any computer with a PCIE slot open. But they take up a lot of space and have basically been replaced by the M.2 standard.

M.2 use dedicated PCIE lanes and have a dedicated spot on the motherboard.

So when looking at SSDs you're basically considering m.2 or SATA.

You're budget, storage needs, transfer speed preferences, and motherboard are going to guide you one way or another.

This LinusTechTips video explains it pretty well.

Can someone explain the difference between M.2 and PCIe? I want to use this SSD in a new build but even after research I don't really understand the difference between M.2 and PCIe.

Does this SSD plug into a PCIe slot? Or is there a specific "M.2" slot that the motherboard needs?

It can't, however a proper replacement would be an NVMe drive. Like this one http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-512GB-PCIe-NVMe/dp/B01639694M/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1456621978&sr=8-14&keywords=512gb+ssd

Here's what I have to suggest for your situation.
I would reuse the CPU, RAM and purchase a:

ASRock Z97 Extreme6 motherboard $170

EVGA GeForce GTX 980ti 6GB $640

Another 850W PSU

Optional

Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD $320

This motherboard has NVMe support with a bios update. NVMe is a protocol that allows you to run a SSD thru PCIe lanes which are inherently faster than SATA.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01

Half the same build as mine. I think you will enjoy it. I'm iffy on the i7, but you it should last a while at least. I have an i5 4690k. For the case, I prefer my Phanteks Enthoo Pro. For Windows, I went with Pro, as I didn't need a lot of the features of Home. If you have the money for it, this is what I'm going to eventually: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M.

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-X400-SSD-SATA-SD8SB8U-1T00-1122/dp/B0195B30KG

I thought the blade used an nvme not sata?
Like this? https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01639694M/ref=psdcmw_1292116011_t1_B0195B30KG

Something like this, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01639694M/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awd_d_XpKjxb1HAYCBR , is completely fine. But you void your laptop warranty when installing it on the razer blade stealth.

Looks like the standard M.2 SSD, not NVMe, sadly. They usually do say that right on the box

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M

Is this what youre referring to?
Will I see /actually get a significant performance boost using this?

It would be a bit of a hassle, but I would get the 256, since the additional upgrade is already at $200 I'd use the 256 for a while until you are required to upgrade your storage and pick this up -

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463596339&sr=8-1&keywords=Samsung+M.2

That's at least what I plan on doing. I don't see my self installing every game that I play on the laptop because I have a PC that I do most of my gaming on, the laptop is more for the games that play more than others and will most likely be playing on the go when needed or at work.

And then, if you're already content with the storage you have on your PC, and your MOBO has a M.2 slot, stick the Razer OEM M.2 SSD in your PC, that way you don't just waste the storage.

I agree. A Samsung 950 Pro M.2 would be sweet :)

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M/

So: I've just built my computer and I've had it for about 9 days now.

I have an M.2 (essentially PCI) SSD (https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1468245585&sr=1-1&keywords=samsung+950+pro)

How is it?
Loading the OS: Boot time is about the same as a normal SSD. From what I hear the reason for this is because the motherboard has to load the samsung SSD drivers before it can begin the boot. All the time saved is simply filled in with loading the drivers.
Everything else: So far my experience has been that this SSD is lightning fast. However, I have yet to try games where loading screens are an item (Fallout 4?). Hopefully I'll try one of those by this weekend.

I have ran into this a few times, two questions for you. Is it running more than one harddrive? Is it using a Samsung PCI SSD or something like it? Here is a link to what I am talking about: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M

If you're doing work with 4k video, it would probably suit you better to have a laptop with a display that supports it.

I think the best option for you with your budget would be the Alienware 17 4k.

It's an incredibly high quality 17.3" machine with a quad-core i7-6700HQ, 16GB RAM, 1TB HDD, 256GB SSD, Nvidia GTX 980M graphics, and a beautiful 17.3" 3840x2160 IPS display.

You would have no issue with any of your work and you'd get a high quality and accurate display (it's 173.5% sRGB range is FAR ahead of the Acer Predator 17's 114%), which should be an incredibly important factor for you. It doesn't skimp on graphics memory either with 4GB, and you could swap in a larger SSD later if you decided that the 1TB HDD + 256GB SSD wasn't enough for your work. You end up paying too much to get a big SSD stock in laptops, so it's almost always better to get a high quality one aftermarket anyways.

Something like this Samsung 950 Pro PCIe NVMe SSD would be a good addition if needed, as it's higher performance and larger than the default.

Item
Price/unit
Quantity
Link
Asus X99-E-10G
649.99
1
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1279910-REG/asus_x99_e_10g_ws_lga_2011_v3.html
Intel Core i7 6850k
578.50
1
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-6850K-Processor-FC-LGA14A-BX80671I76850K/dp/B01FJLAITC
EVGA 1600W
339.99
1
https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-SuperNOVA-PLATINUM-Warranty-220-P2-1600-X1/dp/B00NJG61JQ
Corsair LPX 32GB (2x16GB)
CMK32GX4M2A2666C16
189.99
4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820233853
Samsung 950 Pro 512 GB NVMe m.2
338.20
1
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-950-PRO-Internal-MZ-V5P512BW/dp/B01639694M/
CHENBRO RM41300-FS81
163.99
1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811123178


Noctua NH-U9S
57.99
1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608067