Maximus VII Ranger SSD Advice required

[BlueMax5000]

I have purchased an MVII Ranger for my son. It will have an i5DC and Pure Rock Cooler within an Aerocool Red/Black case and *gb of Red hyperx Memory...but I really need some advice on the boot SSD, as I am stressed over options!!!

To take advantage of this great MOBO I want to go for an M.2 PCIe SSD, however, I understand the M.2 slot is only at x2 , whereas the PCIe black slot is at x4. The issue is have is the very very limited number of SSD's around. I could get a Plextor M6e x2 2280 SSD, but its green and looks rubbish on the VII board. I could get the M6e Black edition, but its only x2 but uses the x4 slot on a PCIe adaptor, and is still only the old x2 M6e with a new dress. I could get a Kingston Predator, looks great in Black/Gold and is PCie x4 (20GB/s bandwidth!!!!!!!), but does not use the M.2 slot,it uses the x4 PCie black slot. I could get the Kingston predator in an M.2 2280 form factor without the Adaptor, would look good but I believe this would then be throttled from its native x4 down to the x2 that the MVII can cope with and would not be vfm running a 20GB/s SSD at 10GB/s slot.

1) What should I do!!! 2) Are there any good looking (Black) M.2 2280 form factor PCie x2 drives out there? 3) If I use the PCIex4 slot will this prevent other upgrades as it disables all the PCIex1 slots and the M.2?

I find it irritating that Asus bring out a great ROG Z97 MOBO, with the new M.2 slot, only to find its obsolete already as there are no decent looking x2 SSD's and with Kingston offering the Predator at x4 and Plextor soon to offer the M7e at x4, I suspect 10Gb/s SSD's are dead in the water.
Help/Comments

[kkn]

personaly i would go for a normal ssd, cheaper and more space compare to the M.2 card.


http://www.kingston.com/us/company/press/article/7547?Article-Title=HyperX-Launches-High-Performance...

http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-predator-240gb-shpm2280p2-240g-04-107905.htm <- canadian online store so you can see the price.

amazon -> http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-HyperX-Predator-SHPM2280P2-240G/dp/B00V01C376

only one i could find thats black.

speed between 1x and 4x is a good diffrence, and when instaling a M.2 card it will dissable the pcie slot its alined to or else it would have shared that port and mabye crash or compatible issues between 2 cards.

[BlueMax5000]

Thanks for the thoughts. Trouble is a normal SSD (6GB/s) SATA is no better than a SATA, so doe snot make use of the capabilities of the Board. The M.2 is 10GB/s at PCIe Gen2 X2 and the black PCIe slot is Gen 2x4 at 20GB/s. It s a pity that SSD makers seem to be going straight to Gen 2/3 X4 drives in 2015 leaving only a 1 or 2 in the market that will fit an M.2 Slot. If only the Maximus had a M.2 with x4 then it would be future proof!

I am probably going to put the Kingston Hyper X Predator Gen 2 X4 240Gb SSD in there. Its M.2 Form Factor, but on a Daughter board that fits the PCIex4 slot. That way I get a very fast drive, and if I get any issues I can always drop it in the M2 Slot .....10GB/s is still mighty fast and in the real world I probably won't be able to tell the difference. I still have the two Red PCIe x8 Slots for graphics Cards, its just the rest that are disabled!

[01_Wolverine]

m.2 on a z97 is a waste But kicks butt on x99 platform.Look at the following 15 min video

https://youtu.be/VMViUkgDeaY

here is a black 1 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231819

[BlueMax5000]

All I really want is a simple 120/240Gb PCIe x2 SSD with a nice black PEC to fit in the Ranger M2 slot as a boot drive. The M6e in black would be fine, but the M6e Black editiion comes as Daughter borad for x4 slot!!! but is not x4. I understand if you remove the 2280 M2 stick you invalidate warranty. So choice is green M6e in M2 slot,or black M6e in X4 slot......or put a x4 2280 in the M2slot eg Corsair,which is black,but a waste ofmoney runningit at halfspeed!!!!!