M.2 Boot Drives - Some thoughts

Up until recently, I was using standard small SSDs in software RAID 0 drive sets as my fast system boot drive(s) for “silly fast” booting. These are sill fast but the Samsung M.2 drives are much faster and the price is nearly the same (assuming your motherboard has PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 interface).


Share some observations on M.2

Samsung has produced two high performance PCIe solid state drives that just blow away standard SSDs by their outstanding performance.

The first is the Samsung XP941 which is a PCIe V2.0 x4 device. http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-XP941-256GB-AHCI-MZHPU256HCGL/dp/B00J9V53M6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435326495&sr=8-1&keywords=xp941

The second is the Samsung SM951 which is a PCIe V3.0 x4 device. http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SM951-256GB-AHCI-MZHPV256HDGL-00000/dp/B00VELD92U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435326540&sr=8-1&keywords=samsung+sm951


The problem here is two fold, you need a motherboard with a x4 lane M.2 socket and you will need to boot with Clover to use these devices as your system boot drive.

Or you can purchase an PCIe adapter card that has one or two M.2 sockets. This is a tech selection to get the correct adapter for your motherboard (and is not a slam dunk).

Motherboards… If you plan to use one of these high performance devices, you need to be very careful in the selection of the motherboard as most M.2 sockets sit on a x2 lane PCIe buss and will not provide the noted high performance that the Samsung devices are capable of delivering. INSURE the M.2 interface is PCIe 3.0 x4 lanes.

Good modding,
neil

neilhart said:

INSURE the M.2 interface is PCIe 3.0 x4 lanes.

Click to expand...

Confirmed working:
Asus Rampage VII Impact/256GB SM951/10.10+/Clover

neilhart, can you recommend any PCIe adapter card that will work with the SM951 and 10.10.3?
Preferably an adapter card that can support 2 of the SM951's?

Can you describe the process of getting OS X installed onto the SM951? BIOS setup, which mobo you used, etc.?

Thanks!

vlad1966 said:

neilhart, can you recommend any PCIe adapter card that will work with the SM951 and 10.10.3?
Preferably an adapter card that can support 2 of the SM951's?

Can you describe the process of getting OS X installed onto the SM951? BIOS setup, which mobo you used, etc.?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I wish that I could go build one of these beasts... however I am committed to other things and just don't have the resources.

Check out post # 3 in this thread: http://www.tonymacx86.com/buying-advice/158610-m-2-ssd-bootable-other-parts.html as Going Bald documents his experience with a dual M.2 adapter with XP941's. Remember that the SM951 followed after the XP941.

My experience is with a 256GB XP941 on an ASUS Maximus VII Impact (mini-ITX) mother board with an i7-4790K and Clover after not be able to find a way to boot with Chimera and Chameleon.

And toleda has the same motherboard with a SM951 running about twice the speed of my XP941!

Good modding,
neil

My build is documented here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/retail-ca...-w-m-2-xp941-booting-os-x-via-clover-xw1.html