SAMSUNG SM950 PRO NVMe SSD

[larryccf]

I peeled it fwiw. First of all there is no warning about removal. Second, the pamphlet that comes with the 950 says the label contains important after sales support information, quote; "so please watch out for any label damage". I put it safely back into the clamshell and can stick it right back on if need be.

I didn't say there was a warning not to remove, but my concern is that removing it, in the event of warranty svc being needed, samsung can easily take the position that the ssd was "mis-handled" or modified or the user made an attempt to alter the ssd, similiar to when mfgrs put a sticker over a screw well, the screw in that well needing to be removed to access the chassis interior.

It might well be sammy wouldn't take that route just for removing, but i'm just not interested in exploring that possibility.

fwiw

 

[Redstorm]

I wish they would hurry up and get stock in NZ!

 

[Redstorm]

Finally got my hands on one, Samsung migration of Existing BIOS/MBR system worked flawlessly.

System
ASRock X99 OC Formula
i7 5820
16GB quad channel
Gigabyte 980Ti G1
Samsung 950 Pro in Motherboard Ultra M.2 slot. (samsung driver loaded)

I converted my windows 7 install to GPT/UEFI using gparted and the windows 10 install media to do the creation of the EFI system partiation. (lazy way)

http://www.geektech.co.nz/convert-mbr-to-gpt-without-data-loss

 

[larryccf]

in case, samsung has already updated Magician from the version they released a couple weeks back with the 950 PRO - it's now v4.9

and kind of odd, but while samsung's migration software worked beautifully cloning my buddy's xp941 over to the 950 PRO, today, after trimming his C partition down (mainly by removing the copy of Windows 10 microsoft had quietly downloaded onto his computer, we went to clone the 950 PRO back to the xp941, just to keep as a backup - and it wouldn't or didn't recognize his xp941. I went into disk management and it was showing that the xp941 was "offline" with a msg that there was an identification conflict with the OS drive

fwiw

got the xp941 back online - btw the issue keeping it offline was "signature collision". I managed to wipe the individual partitions, then it went back online but samsung's data migration software doesn't recognize it, and easeus throws up an error code when i select it as the target drive to clone to.

 

[fvbounty]

I've been waiting for a sell on the 950 and this morning Fry's has it with my promo code for $298, I'll pick it latter this morning. I was hoping for Amazon but I don't think they will be this low? Hopefully I don't run into many problems with the install of the OS....Here's the link to fry's website, check out the price of the 850 Pro 512 gig for $198.

http://images.frys.com/art/email/111515_sun010aps/sun_web.html?site=cemail111615#set2

 

[larryccf]

johnnylucky posted a promo code for 10% off on amazon, the other day in his thread over on Tom's - don't know if the promo code is still good, but that's still $15 or $17 more than your discounted Fry's price.

Don't know if the satisfaction of buying from amazon is worth the extra to you

 

[fvbounty]

johnnylucky posted a promo code for 10% off on amazon, the other day in his thread over on Tom's - don't know if the promo code is still good, but that's still $15 or $17 more than your discounted Fry's price.

Don't know if the satisfaction of buying from amazon is worth the extra to you

It is the easy return is worth it but Amazon doesn't have any right now, and you know a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush...really dating myself aren't I...lol

 

[larryccf]

"...really dating myself aren't I...lol"

that would make you almost as old as i am

sorry - i was confused, promo code was for newegg, and apparently they're already sold out

taken from johnnylucky's post

"Newegg special promotion today. Select Samsung ssd's 10% off with coupon code EMCKBKN25.

The 10% off includes the 950 Pro.

Here is a link to the newegg promo page:

http://promotions.newegg.com/neemail/latest/index-landi...

Here is a link to all of the Samsung ssd's that are eligible for the 10% discount:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=E...

Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the 950.

EDIT - NEWEGG SOLD OUT ALREADY!! Just after I made the original comment I went back to newegg to purchase a few more items. When I was finished I went back to the shopping cart. I discovered the 950 had been removed. I checked the 950 page and sure enough newegg was sold out. ETA is the 1st of December!!!


Life is a glitch! "

 

[razel]

I've been waiting for a sell on the 950 and this morning Fry's has it with my promo code for $298, I'll pick it latter this morning. I was hoping for Amazon but I don't think they will be this low? Hopefully I don't run into many problems with the install of the OS....Here's the link to fry's website, check out the price of the 850 Pro 512 gig for $198.

I saw that too. It is an unknown whether some of my laptops support NVME, so Fry's return policy is perfect to answer that question for me. I guess I'll see you there!

 

[fvbounty]

I saw that too. It is an unknown whether some of my laptops support NVME, so Fry's return policy is perfect to answer that question for me. I guess I'll see you there!

Just got back with the 950....how is the return policy at Fry's? I never had to return anything there before!

 

[razel]

14 days on PC components like CPUs and memory.... but SSD = HDD and HDDs I think are 30 days? I'd check the back of the receipt. Good news for me at least. The m.2 works and is detected in the BIOS. It cannot boot NVMe, but in the Windows install you can create a small UEFI MSR and boot partition off another drive then your Windows partition off the NVME disk. Win10 found the disk, but off Win7 you must install the NMVe driver on the choose disk screen. Awesome! Reduced latency here I come.

 

[larryccf]

"... It cannot boot NVMe,..."

have you tried the samsung nvme driver for the 950 PRO?

http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...t/downloads.html?CID=AFL-hq-mul-0813-11000170

 

[fvbounty]

14 days on PC components like CPUs and memory.... but SSD = HDD and HDDs I think are 30 days? I'd check the back of the receipt. Good news for me at least. The m.2 works and is detected in the BIOS. It cannot boot NVMe, but in the Windows install you can create a small UEFI MSR and boot partition off another drive then your Windows partition off the NVME disk. Win10 found the disk, but off Win7 you must install the NMVe driver on the choose disk screen. Awesome! Reduced latency here I come.

Thanks for the info...

 

[fvbounty]

Up and running, six minutes to load W10 Threshold 2, from a usb 3.0 thumbrive using rufus to do the thumbrive using GPT. Only one hickup on the install windows only got to the format and partition page and wouldn't go any farther so I shutdown restarted and bingo it installed fine. Using the Samsung nvme drivers and Magician 4.9....2600 reads and 1562 wires, atto scores where lower same for assd 2200 reads 1441 writes. Still installing all my stuff, doesn't take very long to install stuf...lol

 

[phillyman36]

Just curious why you all picked the 950 over the Intel 750? Are most of you all using it in the m.2 slot or attaching it to a pcie adapter?

 

[yinan]

M.2 slot

 

[Deders]

M.2 slot. The 750's advantages are mostly skewed towards datacenter type loads with multiple queue depths. The 950 is tuned more for general use.

Also the 750 is a lot more expensive.

 

[fvbounty]

Just curious why you all picked the 950 over the Intel 750? Are most of you all using it in the m.2 slot or attaching it to a pcie adapter?

I'm using the Asus M.2 adapter card...I wanted more space 512 gigs for the Pro to 400 gigs for the 750 and $50 more for the 750...

 

[Redstorm]

Just curious why you all picked the 950 over the Intel 750? Are most of you all using it in the m.2 slot or attaching it to a pcie adapter?

M.2, 950 is better suited to a client workload than the intel 750, is cheaper, faster, more power efficient and larger than the 400GB intel.

 

[eddieobscurant]

I was messing around with my samsung 950 pro, and i decided to try it on an old motherboard without uefi support and only legacy bios. The motherboard was an asus maximus 2 formula (lga 775 , p45 chipset).

I was quite suprised to find out that the bios recognized the drive and i could boot from it and install windows.

How is this possible? It doesn't recognize sm951 and as far as i know the 950 pro doesn't have an option bios rom like kingston hyperx predator.

For some reason in bios the 950 pro appears an ide device but during windows installation, everything goes fine and windows install the nvme drivers.

So i ask again, how is this possible?

I also did some benchmarks with the drive empty, before i could realize i could install windows in it. There is a cap at 1600mb/s due to the pcie 2.0 x4 lanes of the motherboard.

I'm really excited though, and i consider leaving it on that pc and buying another one for my main rig.

UEFI installs of Windows simply show up as "Windows Boot Manager" in my experience.

any ideas Christian ?

 

[miki_8]

Hello everyone

I was searching web regarding discussion about 950 PRO and I stumbled upon this (very active) thread so I decided to join!

Since I am working with large files in Adobe programs I am very tempted by new 950 PRO performance. Before I even decide to buy one, I would like to hear from experienced members is my PC ready for 950 PRO:

Intel i5 4570
Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H
Crucial 1 x 8GB 1600MHz
Samsung 840 EVO 120 GB (this will be installed on old comp if 950 PRO comes)
Western Digital 4 TB (external storage)

I have additional noob question. If you dont have native M.2 interface are there alternatives that will gain same speed when 950 PRO is connected?

 

[fvbounty]

Here's some temps of the 950 pro running Cystalmarks...

http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz143/fvbounty/HD Sentinal3.jpg

 

[razel]

I was messing around with my samsung 950 pro, and i decided to try it on an old motherboard without uefi support and only legacy bios. The motherboard was an asus maximus 2 formula (lga 775 , p45 chipset).

Looks like you got lucky that it boots. It is possible to use NVMe on any computer. As long as it plugs in the correct place (PCIe/m2) and you have OS support. It's booting from an NVMe drive that's the big question mark. That's where you got lucky. In my situation, I couldn't boot off the NVMe disk, but I certainly was able to create a boot partition off another drive, then Windows and all it's goodli-ness was on the NVMe drive. I was very surprised that I could do this within the Win10 installer.

By the way chances are your BIOS is UEFI, it just doesn't give you many options. 1st time I encountered a consumer laptop with UEFI was 2006/7-ish.

 

[Redstorm]

I was messing around with my samsung 950 pro, and i decided to try it on an old motherboard without uefi support and only legacy bios. The motherboard was an asus maximus 2 formula (lga 775 , p45 chipset).

I was quite suprised to find out that the bios recognized the drive and i could boot from it and install windows.

How is this possible? It doesn't recognize sm951 and as far as i know the 950 pro doesn't have an option bios rom like kingston hyperx predator.

For some reason in bios the 950 pro appears an ide device but during windows installation, everything goes fine and windows install the nvme drivers.

So i ask again, how is this possible?


any ideas Christian ?

Post a shot of your disk layout from Disk Manager, I suspect that you will find a System Partition (100MB) sitting on your RAID Array, and that is what it is booting off with the OS files sitting on the sm951.

 

[larryccf]

Here's some temps of the 950 pro running Cystalmarks...

http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz143/fvbounty/HD Sentinal3.jpg

curious what you're doing in the way of cooling that 950 - have you got a fan on it, or a heatsink?