dude m5pro extreme is overated..

for me its either u go for 
1.Corsair force GS - high read and write - Sandforce
2.Corsair Neutron GTX/Sandisk Extreme II/Seagate 600 Pro - I/O consistency on enterprise grade level - LAMD
3.Samsung 840 pro - Awesome in everyway imaginable - Samsung own in house everything their own.
4.OCZ Vector - Highest Read Performance on 4k - Indilinx
5.Crucial M500 - Good performance go GB value .. day to day. - Marvell.
6.Samsung 840 - TLC - Overall good day to day performance - Samsung ( leader in tlc atm)

i really dont see where the m5pro extreme fits. seriously. and i am against it solely cause it looks like crap and even the box looks like crap.

For SSDs recomendation you should read this https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...post&p=61539477
But plextor SSD arent that bad, it was the a cheapest performance SSD i could buy when the price was still near 1GB = 1 dollar (in singapore lah)

2. yup, to avoid performance drop, switch to AHCI after installed OS is pain in the butt.
3. update the firmware before doing anything, but if install new OS you dont have to do anything, just like HDD.

Yup, some SandForce based SSD require AHCI mode to update its firmware, and it is necessary as it will improve performance compare to IDE mode, because you will get newer native AHCI driver from INTEL/AMD instead of default driver from Microsoft which may only treat your SSD like a HDD.
Newer mobo is default to AHCI, older one are mostly IDE if i recall correctly,

Yup

Source http://www.anandtech.com/show/5508/intel-s...ty-to-sandforce

samsung models that have msata version is 840/850 evo. i think you can find that at garage sales (ronaldjoe maybe?)
you can try out transcend ssd 370. there might be something worth while in garage sales also.

oh ok. yes 840 evo has phased out and the new one is samsung 850 evo.

i think there are other options like crucial and plextor. however i am not sure if they are still available.

i just bought oem ssd, LiteOn L9S 256gb. In crystaldiskinfo i got unknown result. Also, it does not show any temperature reading. Maybe because it doesnt have temp sensor i guess.



Other benchmark seems okay though.

wow. maybe it's just a transition period before 850 evo starts to populate the market.
i suspect that oem drives might reassign essential parameters for crystal diskinfo to work properly.

the drive seems fine to me.

ok good luck
for laptops, msata slot is still a common option. it's gradually replaced by m.2 slots. (because m.2 ssd is not cheap) depending on models and brands, there are 2 types of m.2 slots: sata and pcie. be sure to check out the specs properly before purchase.

Top choice would be either Intel, Samsung, Crucial, Plextor. The rest I don't bother to look anyway.