Introduction
The Samsung SM951 is one of the first M.2 Gen3 x4 SSDs on the market.
Technical Specifications
The SM951 comes in three different data sizes; 128GB, 256GB and 512GB.
For me I got the 256GB drive and this is what I will be focusing on.
The SM951 256GB is meant to have a sequential read of 2150MB per second and 1200MB per second write, which at this point in time is faster than anything else on the market I am aware of without use of RAID.
Up Close
I got the OEM version of this chip so I did not get any consumer packaging others will later in the year. This M.2 SSD measures 80mm in length and 22mm in width.
Test Setup
I will test this in my main system (Note my OS Win8.1 will be installed onto the SSD first which could lower some of the benchmark results).
MB: MSI X99S SLI
CPU: Intel i7 5920K
GPU: MSI HD 7970 TwinFrozr III
AIDA64
Posting link to compare speeds since I’m not sure if I can include screenshots from The Guvnor here -
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/storage/crucial_bx100_1tb_ssd_review/5
ATTO
@128KB - 1268MB/s Write, 2167MB/s Read
@ 1MB - 1260MB/s Write, 2183MB/s Read
@ 16MB - 1272MB/s Write, 2175MB/s Read
Posting link to compare speeds since I’m not sure if I can include screenshots from The Guvnor here -
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/storage/crucial_bx100_1tb_ssd_review/5
Conclusion
The SSD put me back $300NZD or £150 including shipping to New Zealand.
I like the idea of no SATA cabling making for a clean install, although the SM951 currently is not a favorite for its PCB colour the fact its pretty much entirely hidden away on your motherboard makes up for that.
Although I can't see the crazy boot times this device will offer (My GPU doesn't support full UEFI) the SM951 offers the best performance SSD you can get as of March 2015.
The Samsung SM951 is one of the first M.2 Gen3 x4 SSDs on the market.
Technical Specifications
The SM951 comes in three different data sizes; 128GB, 256GB and 512GB.
For me I got the 256GB drive and this is what I will be focusing on.
The SM951 256GB is meant to have a sequential read of 2150MB per second and 1200MB per second write, which at this point in time is faster than anything else on the market I am aware of without use of RAID.
Up Close
I got the OEM version of this chip so I did not get any consumer packaging others will later in the year. This M.2 SSD measures 80mm in length and 22mm in width.



Test Setup
I will test this in my main system (Note my OS Win8.1 will be installed onto the SSD first which could lower some of the benchmark results).
MB: MSI X99S SLI
CPU: Intel i7 5920K
GPU: MSI HD 7970 TwinFrozr III
AIDA64

Posting link to compare speeds since I’m not sure if I can include screenshots from The Guvnor here -
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/storage/crucial_bx100_1tb_ssd_review/5
ATTO
@128KB - 1268MB/s Write, 2167MB/s Read
@ 1MB - 1260MB/s Write, 2183MB/s Read
@ 16MB - 1272MB/s Write, 2175MB/s Read
Posting link to compare speeds since I’m not sure if I can include screenshots from The Guvnor here -
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/storage/crucial_bx100_1tb_ssd_review/5
Conclusion
The SSD put me back $300NZD or £150 including shipping to New Zealand.
I like the idea of no SATA cabling making for a clean install, although the SM951 currently is not a favorite for its PCB colour the fact its pretty much entirely hidden away on your motherboard makes up for that.
Although I can't see the crazy boot times this device will offer (My GPU doesn't support full UEFI) the SM951 offers the best performance SSD you can get as of March 2015.