ASRock Z97 Extreme6 Tests Samsung XP941 M.2 x4, Plextor M6e M.2 x2 and Samsung 840 Pro SATA 3 SSDs

PLEXTOR M6E PCIE GEN 2 X2 M.2 SSD

The Plextor M6e is the only native PCIe M.2 SSD that is available for purchase in the consumer retail chain right now.  We like the way that Plextor has marketed it as they include a PCIe Gen2 adapter card so this M.2 SSD will function in older systems as well as new, still allowing full PCIe x2 performance regardless of the system or age.

Plextor M6e PCIe M.2 SSD With Adapter

It is also the only native PCIe M.2 SSD that contains its own boot files, this being evident when you install it and turn your system on as a Plextor bios initiates before the system bios, making this SSD bootable. For today’s testing, we will be connecting the M.2 SSD directly to the Extreme6 and not using the adapter whatsoever.

Plextor M6e PCIe M.2 512GB SSD PCB Top2

ATTO DISK BENCHMARK VER. 2.46

M6e ASRock Z97 Extreme6 ATTO

 Once again, performance is relatively the same as original testing, even after a great deal of use with the Plextor M6e.

CRYSTAL DISK BENCHMARK VER. 3.0 X64

M6e ASRock Z97 Extreme6 CDM

The Plextor M6e definitely breaks that SATA bottleneck but it would sure be nice to see higher low 4k random write scores; these again being consistent with previous tests.

AS SSD BENCHMARK VER 1.6

M6e ASRock Z97 Extreme6 AS SSD BenchM6e ASRock Z97 Extreme6 AS SSD IOPSAS SSD results are actually a bit lower than Crystal DiskMark, unlike what we saw with the XP941.  Copy Bench results still pulls up some pretty decent ISO and Game transfer times though…

M6e ASRock Z97 Extreme6 AS SSD Copy Bench

ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL (BETA)

M6e ASRock Z97 Extreme6 Anvil

PCMARK VANTAGE X64 HDD SUITE

M6e ASRock Z97 Extreme6 Vantage

The PCMark Total Score of 82190 is consistent with the drive in use and we can see a top speed of 507MB/s while testing in Media Center. As we follow through in out tests, the initial throughput difference between the drives really doesn’t seem to be drastic, however, different tests definitely separate PCIe x4 from x2 throughput.

43 comments

  1. blank

    Thanks for the article Les!
    It’s great to see you opening up your reviews to more hardware while still keeping it relevant
    to storage technologies!
    I like the mobo but i still say that two 840 pros in raid 0 are still the way to go perf wise.
    That said i can clearly see the patern of where the industry is moving and that’s the M.2.

    • blank

      Can you elaborate on that? All the benchmarks suggest that’s not the case, but I could be misinterpreting the data as I’m new to the I/o performance conversation.

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        I am just happy to see the XP941 being so fast as is. For me it’s win-win as the size of my 1U’s shrink, and at they same time they get faster, and bootable. I will use them to load my data into a RAM template, and rarely write to them. Lets hope our M$ gatekeepers will let us use 24GB out of 32GBs w/o any performance issues.

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        Hi I am glad I look at this site quite often I think you do
        a real good job on everything ssd.

        Also I am thinking of buying an extreme 6- Z97 1150 socket with a 4790k canyon this xmas.

        Plus the Samsung M.2 XP941 128 I just don’t know?

        I was originally going for Asus Maximus Ranger plus the
        4790k Canyon and two Samsung 120 gb 850
        EVO SSD’s Many thanks if you can help.

      • blank

        It’s easy.
        You’ve seen the 840p results. Multiply by 2X and take -10% out.
        You’ll find that you are around the same “1GB/S” read/write territory as the M.2’s.
        BUT you also get to enjoy that sweet fast ramp up in performance in the low end up to 8K. The 4k write will also be about double.

  2. blank

    Just curious, are the M2 slots eligible to be included in a RAID set?

    • blank

      Of course the could be used that way but you have to consider that the RAID set of two XP941 SSDs would be restricted to the lowest speed which is dual lane travel. That might get you a negligible improvement on the XP 941 alone in the ultra M.2 slot. Just to be sure I will try to do this prior to taking off for China in a few days…

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    I wonder…what if there were 2 M.2 x4 slots on that board….combined with 2x XP941….

    • blank

      Then any thought of decent gfx, other than integrated…might be gone. Intel needs to increase total PCIe lane count for something like that.

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        I wouldn’t care for 1x8PCIE for Graphics ( don’t think it would hurt performance much) and 2x4PCIE lanes for M.2…but you’re right…Intel needs to increase lanes to 24+ for something like this to happen properly…

      • blank

        X79! 40 pci-e lanes if using a 6 core SB-E or Ivybridge-E. Too bad it came out in 2011 and X99 isn’t here yet and no X79 boards with M.2 connectors.

      • blank

        I’m actually pretty satisfied with Intel’s iGPU.
        I’d love to see two M.2 slots running at PCIe x4, combined to RAID 0, and which can be booted from. Oh my…

      • blank

        Exactly, like if an X79 board were to sprout some M.2 connectors in a larger than regular ATX size then one would have 40 PCI-e lanes with which to delegate 8 lanes to GPU A, 8 to GPU B, 4 or 8 to your m.2 SSD’s, and use the rest for the other crap that needs to ride the pcie bus. Perhaps in X99?

  4. blank

    Such a great article, so glad M.2 is finally arriving…

  5. blank

    It’s great to see you opening up your reviews to more hardware while still keeping it relevant

    to storage technologies! https://goo.gl/ai61Qh

  6. blank

    How does this m2 port work anyway?
    IS it similar to NVMe setup as these disk also uses PCIe slot??

  7. blank

    can you run the samsung xp941 at Gen3 x2?

  8. blank

    so the xp941 is gen2 ?

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    What about overclocking CPU? Have you tried it with this mobo?

  10. blank

    I was wondering if I could use the XP941 with a PCIe 2.0 x4 adapter on a PCIe 2.0 x 16 slot in my old Dell T7500 precision Desktop?

  11. blank

    LES – Great review. I’ve read the other reviews for the motherboard and the XP941. The other reviews weren’t exactly positive about two items. I figured if anyone knew it would be you.
    1. Can Microsoft Windows 7 be installed and used with the XP941 and the ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 motherboard? Some authors were under the impression that Windows 8 or 8.1 would work but Win 7 would not.
    2. Will TRIM work with the XP941 or does it have to rely on native garbage collection without TRIM?
    This year Samsung is already mass producing and distributing their new SP951 successor to the XP941. The new model is PCIe 3.0 x4 instead of PCIe 2.0 x4. How about a review?

  12. blank

    Hey LT.
    Happy with the Z97 / XP941. Thank You.
    Right now I run only on die GFX and a single PCI-e 1X connector to an external Analog Devices DSP Rack, and the XP941 w/ OS+Apps. on a Vertex 4.
    So my question is can I dump my ancient Vertex 4 OS+Apps. SSD, and use the 2X M.2 with the M6e w/o any bandwidth issues.
    This means no GFX card, on die GFX only, 1 x PCI-e 1X for connections, an XP941 in 4X slot, w/ a new M6e in the 2X slot. Dual M.2’s means a new smaller 1U too.
    Have you tested both slots simultaneously….Thanks.

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    Atthapon Wongwaijonya

    Thanks you for your Review

  14. blank

    hello, I do not understand, the intel i7 4790k has only 16 pci lines, and to use the PCIe x4 M.2 requires 4 lines pci espress. by connecting a video card gtx760 on x16 pci expres not work well to find only 12 ???? thank you very much

  15. blank

    Can I have 2 M.2 SSDs on one motherboard? (one for OS and Applications, the other for media and gaming)? Motherboard Ex: ASUS mRampage V X99 ROG or ASUS X99 Deluxe?

    • blank

      Absolutely! You can also RAID both if you wish and, if that board was an ASRock, you could run both at 4 lanes, getting full potential.

      • blank

        Hello could you help me out with some info iv got an asrock exteme 11 x99 board and 2x 240gb ultra m.2 that i have slot in the boad is there a way i can raid them both together to make it 480gb?in the the bios i have selected raid when i reboot there is no option for raid when i press ctrl-i hope someone can help me out thank you 🙂

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    Jérôme Lanteri

    I have this mother board with i7 4470 and XP941 SSD 256Go on port M2_1. Boot on Archlinux via grub… add 2 HDD WD 2To and 1 SSD OCZ Vertex2 256Go. All on SATA3 port (not ASmedia).
    Also, i have problem with the mother board and the SSD OCZ. On the Bios, it see the SSD drive, but sometimes not read it on boot menu (but ok, this i don’t care). But… 80% of boot times, the SSD is not show and then i can not mount him. I try change port, and put him on first SATA3 port… same problem.
    So, maybe you would be curious and want to try to add a SSD drive with this config for check if this is a bug from Asrock ? I send Asrock message and let message about that on there forum, but never answer and delete the messages on the forum (i think they don’t care and just don’t want potential customers know this problem).

    Asrock use his money for provide big adds on his product, but maybe this product his far from works fine, i would like to be sure.
    Thanks

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    Fernando Seiti Abbe

    Recently read your article Understanding M.2 NVMe RAID SSD Boot and 2 / 3x M.2 NVME SSD RAID0 Tested . I wonder takes to put two Samsung 950 Pro 512GB in RAID and boot in my Asrock Z97 Extreme 6 on Windows 7 , and knowing that one slot M2 is X4 and another X2 , the speed would be limited to the lower, or the average sum of the two ?
    Many thanks if you can help .

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