ssd or M2?

spanishguy · 18 Oct 2014

As you can see from my pc specs I have an Asus Z97K Mboard that supports M2. My question is am I better off using my existing ssd as the boot device or would it pay me (in speed) to add another M2 drive. The M2 is supported at 10MHz while the ssd is run via sata at 6GHz. No one seems to know that much about this and my local supplier seems to think there is no advantage as I lose 2 sata connection but I don't need them anyway. I want my machine to boot up fast and would like it to be optimised for general use as I'm a bit long in the tooth to be playing games so that's not an issue.

I will be using win7 installed off a usb stick that I have already used on my existing pc and it does work by installing to my old machine. I will be doing a new install on the new one not an upgrade. Do I need to stick with bios or go uefi? Is there benefit and if so what are the pitfalls that obviously lie waiting for a noob like me...lol.

Sorry to be a bit longwinded but any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Ztruker · 18 Oct 2014

Never heard of M.2 (not M2) before. Found this for your Asus Z97K:

With two native PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth, M.2 supports up to 10Gbit/s data-transfer speeds. It is the perfect choice for an operating system drive, making your whole PC work that much faster. It supports Intel® Rapid Storage Technology to ensure even faster access to data, refresh applications automatically and awake from sleep in just seconds!*

Sounds like that would be the better and faster option.

It would be interesting to try both and see which performs better for you.

Just found out M.2 is a new generation SSD drive.

NoN · 18 Oct 2014

Maybe you should try to find out if your motherboard M2 slot is PCI-e/Sata or just Sata...seems it does make a difference.

I do not know well this kind of SSD set up as i do not own this newer chipset but quickly readed that some have PCI-e/Sata shared and others not.

spanishguy · 19 Oct 2014

It is PCI-e/Sata and if I use it I "lose" 2 sata ports, since I have 6 on the board I don't think that's much of a loss. Like I said I just want to discover the best and fastest way to boot and run and the "professional" advice seems to say it's not noticeably quicker although they did qualify that by saying it's to new for them to really know! I'll have to cost it out as I don't have an unlimited budget and still need to factor in a graphics card plus I already have a sata ssd and not sure if I can justify to myself spending loads on this for what might be little gain.

NoN · 19 Oct 2014

I'm using all of my Sata ports and this will not be a real solution for me as for example.

My set up is Raid0 (HDD/SSD) with intel smart response, is working fine.

I could not see why it shouldn't be the same configuring with the SSD M2 port as your main Boot or Raid if it does work that way too. You will lose 2 Sata connections with M2 but it frees one back if you choose it as Main.

It does let me think that if your M2 port goes through Sata ports only, will it be the same as normal SSD mounted on Sata header?? M2 through PCI-E only could it be faster?

spanishguy · 22 Oct 2014

Well I install my Kingston V300 240Gig ssd and a Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD, I put the operating system (using a usb stick) onto the ssd with no problem and then proceeded to install the drivers that came with the board (Asus Z97K). That's when it went pear shaped, I installed the Intel Chipset driver and as it came up with the box to click finish the USB ports closed down and I was unable to do anything with it. I eventually did a restore in safe mode and got it working again but cannot get it to load that chipset driver. I then tried loading the os to the HDD and used that and everything loaded no problem including all the Intel chipset drivers. I am in Legacy mode on the board as that was the default and I never changed it. I also tried to load my os from a Uefi usb stick that I made using the advice on here but it wouldn't load it although it did come up in the boot menu. Maybe it's because its not a genuine windows copy the Uefi will not accept it. I'm thinking of cloning the HDD to the ssd and see what happens then. Anyone have any other ideas?

spanishguy · 25 Oct 2014

It's now 6 days down the line and finally I am up and running, turns out to have been a "bad" driver. Contacted Asus helpline, who were quick to respond they pointed me in the right direction and away I went. I'm just wondering if it's possible to use the M.2 slot to put a small (120Gig) ssd in and run Intel Quick start software. I know they say use it with a HHD but I don't see any difference between using my existing ssd with the os on it to a HHD. Maybe I should order one and just see how it goes. Thanks for all the great tutorials on this site they are a life saver for a dork like me.