Samsung M.2 SSD + PCIe x4 Adapter on Maximus VII Ranger

[lenny73]

Hello everybody.
I've been thinking about buying an M.2 SSD for my system, I want this one:
http://www.samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/960-pro-nvme-m-2-ssd/MZ-V6P512BW/
According to what I've readed my motherboard (Maximus VII Ranger) can't use that drive at full speed because of the chipset or the interface or something, it's limited to 700/800 MB/s vs 3500/2100 MB/s read/write it can go up to.
I also readed that some people made them work at full speed with a PCIe adapter. I found a generic one:



- M.2 SSD to PCIe x4 adapter
- M.2 Specification Revision 0.9-3
- Serial ATA Spec. Reversion 3.2
- Supported dimensions: M.2 Type Card 2230/2242/2280*
- Supports: M.2 Socket 3 PCI-e-based SSD Module
- Supports: M.2 Key M Card Type
- Dimensions of the heatsink: 114x37mm
M.2(NGFF) PCI-e SSDs supported:
- XP941 (MZHPU128HCGM MZHPU256HCGL MZHPU512HCGL)
- SM951 PCIE-AHCI (MZHPV128HDGM MZHPV256HDGL MZHPV512HDGL)
- SM951 PCIE-NVME ( MZVPV128HDGM MZVPV256HDGL MZVPV512HDGL),
- PM951 PCIE-NVME ( MZFLV128HCGR MZFLV256HCHP MZFLV512HCJH),
- 950 PRO (MZVKV256 MZVKV512)

The only one I found. What do you think?? Will it work at full speed with that?
I want to be sure before buying, it's a lot of money.
The rest of my system just in case:
- Intel i7 4790k 4.4 Ghz.
- 16 GB DDR3 Kingston Hyper X Fury
- SSD Samsung 840 PRO 256 GB
- HDD WD Caviar Green 1TB
- Zotac Nvidia GTX 980ti reference
- PSU Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 800W

Thanks in advance.

Kind Regards. 🙂

[ottoyu34]

So the M.2 slot on your motherboard has a limit of 10Gb/s, likely with a protocol of PCIe 2.0 x2 line.
What others saying capping just under 1000MB/s seems to make sense.
Just FYI, Newer mobo has PCIe 3.0 X4 line with bandwidth up to 32Gb/s

As long as that adapter supports the throughput of 32Gb/s and installing it on your 2nd PCIE 16X slot, I don't foresee any major issues.

[maretodoric]

Sorry for reviving an old thread but now I'm in the same pickle.
If i purchase an adapter , something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Interface-Suppor-Express-2230-2280/dp/B07FFS22DV
can i install it in PCI-Express GEN2 X16 slot (Black at the very bottom) and still expect to perform the same or do i really need to install it in PCIe 3.0 X16 second slot?
And if i need to install it in PCIe 3.0 X16 slot on this same mobo (Maximus VII Ranger) will it lower my first slot to X8 and therefor suffer gpu performance ? It does says that if GPU is installed in second slot it will work on x8-x8, but does that apply for GPU only or not?