it's been in new desktop mobos since at least a year ago if not more. (starting from asrock z97 extreme6)

the obvious difference is that pcie ssd uses pcie lanes, while sata ssd uses sata connection. m.2 is just a form factor. (m.2 has many sizes. the common one is 2280) that means, besides 2.5" sata ssds, we also have m.2 sata ssds. an example in local market is plextor m6e (m.2 pcie ssd) and plextor m6g (m.2 sata ssd). the previous ones are bare m.2 drives, and can be used with compatible m.2 slots.



you can also put these m.2 bare drives into a compatible hhhl pcie adapter and plug it into a pcie slot that has sufficient pcie lanes. an example of m.2 ssd that comes with an adapter is plextor m6e black edition (a pcie 2.0 x2). normally this type of ssd is sometimes called a hhhl form factor (because it comes with a half-height half-length adapter).


(adaptor only. the above is asus addin card, a pcie 3.0 x4)


(plextor m6e black edition is covered with a heat sink to help dissipate heat properly. without the heat sink it looks like this:)



the true hhhl ssd is not the m.2 + pcie adapter combo, but the whole pcie unit is a ssd.



edit: yes it looks complicated, but in reality it's just checking out the mobo manual for actual supported m.2 ssd spec if you wanna use m.2 slots. if not, just grab hhhl and make use of available pcie slots.

This post has been edited by horns: Jun 26 2015, 10:30 AM

it depends on several things, like mobo supports, and availability of boot code in the ssd itself. it's better to check out and verify this part before purchase. for instance, xp941 has no boot code, so mobos that depend on this will have issues.

edit: a good place to start might be https://www.ramcity.com.au/blog/how-to-inst...xp941-ss/138296 check out their m.2 compatibility list.

no problem. kingston's bait and switch thing for v300 is still not so comforting at least to me tbh.

on the other hand, we saw some happy owners of transcend ssds here. i personally think recent ssds should work quite well for common usage.

This post has been edited by horns: Jun 26 2015, 09:31 PM

when you really have bad budgets, v300 could be an option. it's still good comparing to hdd.

i think it's a good buy, but which liteon ssd is this? what's the model number? i believe liteon ssd are as good as plextor's, minus some cosmetics and component differences. i have an old oem drive which was equivalent to plextor m3s 512gb here. it's still all good (as storage).

in general, most recent sata ssds are at the saturated point of sata speed limit. there are no apparent differences in performance in real world common usage. to me the only difference to samsung 850 evo is warranty. (because i use primocache to take care of the rapid mode part)

also for those who have tight budgets, i think it makes more sense to spend on capacity than speed.

This post has been edited by horns: Jun 27 2015, 10:34 AM

haha i will still suggest you save a bit more and go for others. there are plenty of options around, and with proper care and use, recent ssds should outlast your current system and still offer good speed in the long run.

imo in general ssd development has reached another level in consumer markets. now we have pcie ssd as highest end of all (for enthusiasts and professionals), and sata ssd will continue to be more more common and affordable (mainstream).

tbh, sata ssd is sufficient enough to fulfill most general use.

yes i do that. using bplus m2p4a, http://www.bplus.com.tw/Adapter/M2P4A.html

do a bit of homework yourself might be useful in this case. they are all mainstream ssds. the differences aren't much between them. i will go for liteon because of personal preference.

if you have the ssd what's the model number from the sticker at the back of the ssd?

This post has been edited by horns: Jun 29 2015, 12:12 AM

oh. maybe the seller is kind enough to take a photo of the sticker.

we are well aware of liteon ssd sellers that don't actually sell the same drive that we refer to (which is l9s, also available in retail market), but other versions of their oem ssds. (maybe they're trying to ride on the reputation of l9s) imo they should provide at least the correct model number to buyers to do further research (like this guy, https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3621708 at least you know you can get a firmware upgrade from dell because they use the same in their systems, http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/...driverId=7DK2R).

it's not that old drives are bad. at least to me i wanna know what i am buying. (liteon is just a brand. it's the model number that we should look at also)

This post has been edited by horns: Jun 29 2015, 12:52 PM

bro actually your previous statement was correct. the max for s900 is 256gb. http://www.liteonssd.com/tw/datasheet/S900...onalChinese.pdf

note that s900's model number starts with scs, not lcs.

if it's the same drive (m3s), it should be released since 2012. although it's old, it's still good tbh.

this one is a new one. i think you can find this in dell or lenovo systems that have ssd. note that these manufacturers usually use multiple suppliers.

yeah it's better to check the model number first hehe

i know. i am referring to the liteon ssd website. that's the latest from liteon in that category

this is a new drive which is still lacking of reviews i guess.

the product information is kind of confusing. in the product specification page it's said it uses mlc nand flash. (http://ap.apacer.com/products/specification/Solid-State-Drive-Thundebird-AST680S) however in the product catalog it's said it uses tlc chip. (available at the download page of the same product) not sure which is which hehe.

wait for a proper review first if you're interested.

first, sshd is not ssd. what's wrong with your sshd by the way?

about reliability, from my limited experience, ssd is reliable for day-to-day usage, as long as you have a better practice in managing and optimizing them (e.g. ssd optimizations; good over provisioning; use hdd for downloads and storage only; use ramdisk to house temp and web cache folders, etc.). none of my ssds fail in terms of general use. none give me data loss. (laptops and desktops. some of them are more than 3 years old, and they are still at 100% health. one example is the plextor m5 pro xtreme 512gb) all in all, you get what you pay for. btw is your m.2 ssd a pcie type or sata?

as for tlc technology, the fact is that it will be replacing almost all mainstream drives really soon. again for general use, no issues so far (based on 840 evo. yeah it has some tlc-related bugs which was fixed in the latest firmware upgrade. tbh if they were careful enough, we consumers will most likely never found that out). the supporting technologies around tlc are getting better these days, via things like rapid mode, slc emulations. all these are bringing tlc performance very close to mlc chips. however, if you have the option to choose between tlc or mlc now, get synchronous mlc drives, for several reasons. (i.e. better physical characteristics, higher p/e cycles and things like that) it's not that tlc technology cannot be trusted. it's the company that produce it failed to give a timely firmware fix, and a win-win solution to resolve things when bad things happened to their products. samsung 840 evo happened to be the most favorable consumer drive before the news broke out.

in short, as of now, liteon is a good buy, especially its relative price points, and their many advantages (e.g. reputation, internal components, etc.)

what's the exact model for that g.skill ssd? it might be the older sata2 (3Gb/s) model (max r/w speed around 250MB/s. it might be lower). if you're getting a phoenix iii at myr 190, then you have gotten a good deal. it's selling at usd 188+ at newegg.

This post has been edited by horns: Jul 6 2015, 11:17 AM

i think for that part you might wanna do a small research by yourself. you can also scout garage sales for better price tags.

no idea about how good a gskill phoenix iii is. to me it's a typical sandforce sf-2281 drive, released in 2013. compared to s900, i will still pick up liteon.

the minimal requirement is ahci, which i believe is available in new mobos. no you don't need srt. it's for ssd caching.

no problem

you can use either intel rapid storage driver (normally the floppy version of driver will do the job) or native ahci driver from ms.

Check out the first page of this thread. The link is there. While you're at it, check out all the information posted there. There are a lot of good information.

Congratulations btw

samsung 850 evo and pro, 2tb:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/sam...0-pro-families/
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/samsu...d-review,1.html

Just a rough comparison: 1x gtx 980 ti reference is usd 650. 1x 850 evo 2tb is usd 800. (Pro is usd 1k) with the price of 850 evo 2tb, i can get 980 ti and 1x 850 pro 256gb dy (newegg is selling at usd 145. still have changes for 1x iced blended mocha large hehehe)

Siao.

maybe. however in terms of pricing, it's projected that in 2016 we will see ssds priced the same as hdd for the first time (ok i twisted this part hehe go look at the report), and it will continue to drop, http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/Evolution_of_All...y_Architectures