Your thoughts about PCI-e SSD drives?

[glricht]

I've been upgrading customer PCs from SATA HDs to SATA SSDs for a while and the speed performance and reliability has been great.

Been looking at the PCI-e SSD drives and wondering if they're something worth considering. Speed? Reliability? Cost? Most of the reviews have talked about how fast they are, but we already knew that SSDs are faster than standard HDs.

I'm also assuming they're a candidate only for desktop/tower PCs and not laptops.

 

[Markverhyden]

I stopped looking at the PCI-e cards once SATA SSD's dropped in price. What is there to gain unless someone has a special application.

 

[sapphirescales]

The Samsung 950 Pro is out of this world. Over 2,000MBps read speed. My laptop boots in under 3 seconds. I haven't upgraded my desktops to the PCI-e 950's yet (mostly because I never really turn them off so boot up time is irrelevant), but I hope to do so within the next few years or so.

The cost is very high compared to a hard drive or even a normal SATA SSD. I've done a few high end (think $3,000+) builds with PCI-e SSD's, but not many.

 

[Krynn72]

My X1 Carbon has one and like sapphire's it boots insanely fast. If I restart my phone (lg v10) and my laptop at the same time I'm already working on my laptop before I hear the t mobile jingle.

It's absolutely better, but it is a cost/benefit decision for most customers. If they have the money, then I'd go for it every time.

 

[glricht]

@sapphirescales & @Krynn72 - you both talk about how fast the PCI-e SSD is, but a question: are you comparing the PCI-e SSD to a SATA SSD, meaning that the PCI-e SSD is a lot faster than a SATA SSD, or are you comparing the PCI-e SSD to a normal HD (in which case we all know that a SSD is faster than a normal HD)?

 

[sapphirescales]

@sapphirescales & @Krynn72 - you both talk about how fast the PCI-e SSD is, but a question: are you comparing the PCI-e SSD to a SATA SSD, meaning that the PCI-e SSD is a lot faster than a SATA SSD, or are you comparing the PCI-e SSD to a normal HD (in which case we all know that a SSD is faster than a normal HD)?

With a normal SATA SSD you're lucky to get 500MBps read speeds. With the 950 Pro you get about 2,000MBps (4x faster than a super fast SATA SSD). It's important to note however that the crappy PCI-e SSD's that come in Dell's and HP's (and even Alienware laptops) usually top out at 500MBps to 1,000MBps. Only the 950 Pro can maintain 2,000MBps reliably.

 

[Krynn72]

@sapphirescales & @Krynn72 - you both talk about how fast the PCI-e SSD is, but a question: are you comparing the PCI-e SSD to a SATA SSD, meaning that the PCI-e SSD is a lot faster than a SATA SSD, or are you comparing the PCI-e SSD to a normal HD (in which case we all know that a SSD is faster than a normal HD)?

I don't use normal hdds in any of my computers anymore, so my experience is compared to them. My main desktop is better spec'd than my X1 Carbon, except its got a sata ssd instead. The boot time difference is very noticeable to me. Regular usage after boot time probably would be also, but it's fast enough either way that I haven't bothered to make the mental effort to compare them.

 

[Easy PC]

Every new laptop we now install for our customers are automatically upgraded to a 240gb SSD, and even our refurb desktops we do the same.