Looking at M2 Sata SSDs - Need Help

I have a Sager NP8650. I bought it with a standard HDD and bought an SSD and installed it myself. It doesn't fit quite right because the thickness on the HDD only just barely (with some slight bending on the port) gives enough free space for the SSD. I have a friend willing to buy my old SSD off of me, so it's cheaper for me to get a M2 drive. I want one because I'm concerned about the long term life of both the SSD and the laptop

What I want are any performance (or any other concerns) problems that come with M2 Sata SSDs and suggestions for good ones. I'm not looking for an upgrade from my current drive, and I'm not willing to spend more than 150 dollars (would prefer it to be 100 dollars).

My current SSD is a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB. I did find a M2 SSD matching it (also a samsung 850 evo) for about 100 dollars, but I want to know about performance issues or better options before I decide on it.

 

There are no performance concerns with M.2 SSD's. They perform identically to SATA-based 2.5" SSDs, in most cases, if not better.

As for what SSD to get? Good call on the Samsung 850 EVO M.2 in 250GB. That's a very reliable, affordable, top-performing drive that sits exactly in your $100 desired budget range. Go for it.

 

I would stick with what you have working now.

M.2 SSD's; run hot, throttle their performance and are worse than a 2.5" SATA SSD of comparable quality is (at QD1).

No reason that I see for you to change it. It was designed for that use, after all.

 

The reason is that the port it's plugging into is PHYSICALLY BENDING. So I'm concerned for its long term use. The guys that I bought it from not only refused to let you buy a regular SSD (like the one I have) but also told me, after I posted on here what I did, that it was a bad idea. (PowerNotebookPC is who I bought it from) I had to use half the screws on the hard drive cage because it did not fit otherwise (basically on screw on one side for one drive, etc.. so they're diagonal from each other)

I'm afraid that eventually physical trauma is going to wear it down (since I do travel with this laptop almost every day)

now I know that heating issues were present in the previous iteration of mini pci-e SSDs, I don't know if they are for m2 still (or at least, as much of a problem)

 

So, I thought about this again, and why your two drives would cause SATA ports to bend at all. You bought the wrong type of hard drive, and tried forcing it into your laptop.

I looked up the specs for your specific laptop: Sager NP8650 (also known as Clevo P650SA)
Storage Specs: 1x 9.5mm 2.5" SATA drive or 2x **** 7mm**** 2.5" SATA drives

If you just bought "standard" HDDs without paying attention, then you probably bought a 2.5" SATA mechanical HDD in 9.5mm height. That would explain why both drives screw in to the SATA drive brackets, but cause your SSD to have to physically bend the connectors / ports in order to plug in. It's because your SSD is 2.5mm misaligned.

So, your two options here are:
1) Go back and buy the correct spec hard drive. 2.5" SATA mechanical HDD in 7mm height; or
2) Keep your existing 2.5" SATA mechanical HDD, and just accept that you won't be able to use the 2nd SATA port in that laptop.


Personally, I'd return / sell the 9.5mm height drive, and buy a 7mm height drive isntead. You can easily find one of those for $100.

 

I looked into that, and couldn't find one for 7mm for a HDD. That is the FIRST thing I looked for. If you found one, let me know and I'll think about it, but it's not seeming likely.

the HDD I'm using is the one that was provided with the laptop sent by powernotebook. The size of it was not listed, nor was the size restriction. I didn't notice the restriction on their configurator for the hard drives until after I had already purchased both the laptop and the SSD

and what you just said, I already realized all of that a long while ago. I don't need to know why, just wondering about m2 SSDs, all I've heard so far is that they're good (heresay) or that they're a fiery death (also heresay) and I haven't been able to find anything else about them on my own (that's credible at least)

and also, I mentioned in my original post, that if I do this I'm selling my SSD to a friend. I'm doing this to mitigate the cost because right now, I don't see myself having an extra 100 dollars for this any time in the next several months. In this case I'm spending about a net of 30 dollars.

and there is a third option, which is the one I'm asking about now.

 

WD Blue 1TB Laptop 7mm Hard Drive: 2.5 Inch, SATA 6Gb/s, 5400 RPM, 8MB Cache WD10SPCX
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DCM91WQ/ref=cm_sw_r_em_awd_U8Mbwb56MWC1Y

But in any case, its up to you. You're kind of in a pickle, because I would want a final configuration of both a 7mm HDD and an m.2 SSD, to give me the option of adding another 7mm HDD in the future.


Personally, I would go with an m.2 SSD, and not worry about the overheating, because it isn't an issue. I have never heard of drives overheating, and I'm a hardcore tech nerd that follows tech news and reviews daily. I know at this point it's just two dudes on a forum telling you opposite things (hearsay). But here's some data to back up my claim.

1,000,060,000 - number of results when you Google "m.2 review"

9,440,000 - number of results when you Google "m.2 SSD is great"

7 - number of results (related ro computer ssds) when you Google "m.2 overheat". And most of these results are reviewers saying that drives WONT overheat.




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Yeah, a lot of people were worried about throttling and I was wondering how much it actually throttles

The thing is going to be a boot drive for a couple of operating systems (and one will probably be virtualized via virtual box) where my current one is basically just a boot drive for windows 7 and holding a few programs that I commonly use.

I'm not really worried about storage space too much, I just want some that can be carried around more easily than my giant 2TB external (by giant, I mean it is physically large, and requires an AC adapter for it) I just needed the HDD for large programs and files (disk images, video games, virtual instrument packages, video recordings, etc..) that I was actively using (and with me being a packrat, didn't want to not have easy access to) So I'm not so worried about not having that second slot (and if it really bothers me, I will get 2 7mm mechanical drives eventually, but at least if I do this, I won't have to worry about physical problems as much)

I kind of misunderstood what one of the options was, sorry about that.

Thanks for helping me understand and showing me that HDD

 

See:
http://www.legitreviews.com/samsung-sm951-512gb-m-2-pcie-ssd-review_161689/3

Of course, they still end up recommending this drive.

I find it a broken product. Going from 1,500MB/s to 70MB/s is not what I would call working to spec.

The above was a 0.28 google search for 'M.2 ssd overheating'.

Everyone else is welcome to make their own conclusions.

It's just that when I evaluate computer components, platforms or complete systems, excessive heat (especially when it impacts performance so drastically) is a sign of poor design. The fruity company is usually the worst offender, with Dell right behind. Aftermarket M.2 ssd's as they are offered today for mobile systems (non-OEM) are a waste of time. Maybe the next gen will be better. But what must change is notebook design to properly cool them in operation.




The above image is not how to cool your storage subsystem.

 

The Samsung SM951? The prototype at-the-time (and first) NVMe M.2 SSD that we have seen? The one that had to be extracted by PCPer from a pre-production (at the time) Intel NUC?

Sorry, but I don't quite see the one M.2 model overheating being an indictment of every M.2 drive out there. That is more of the exception, than the rule.

Follow the same rule as any product... If one model is bad among multiple different options (that otherwise work fine), then don't buy that one model.

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Also, from one of the only reputable (professional) review sites that appeared when googling "Samsung SM951 oeverheat"

http://techreport.com/review/28446/samsung-sm951-pcie-ssd-reviewed/2

"The uncooled XP941 experiences similar [thermal throttling] slowdowns, just to a lesser degree. It's the only other SSD we've seen exhibit this behavior."

So of all the M.2 SSDs these guys have seen, read about, or tested, there were two models that thermal throttled. M.2 SSDs as a category are fine. Just avoid those two specific models.








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I'd have to disagree. Most M.2 models were tested on DT systems with M.2 adaptors (with heat sinks even).

See:
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Samsung-XP941-Plextor-PX-G256-M6e-M-2-Qualification-575/

Your search results show limited M.2 models with issues. Mine show everyone has the same issues to varying degrees (pun not intended).




Considering that all it took to make the above happen is copying ~103GB of files, these drives are less than worthless on any mobile system that is non-OEM...

 

Right.. see here: