Intel SSD 600p Series (1.0TB, M.2 2280 80mm NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4, 3D1, TLC) Reseller Single Pack

Pros: Install was easy into the M2 connector. It is even smaller than it looks and is literally like a gum stick. After the setup all seems to be running well on my MSI X99S board.

Cons: It was not recognized by Win7 until I found a hotfix download with the standard MS NVMe driver. I opted to do a clone of my existing SATA-SSD drive instead of a clean install. I use dual boot between Win7 and Win10 and still utilize Win7 for day to day ops. After the hotfix its now my boot drive and so far so good. Win10 already had the NVMe driver it recognized the PCIE drive when booting from the other drive.

Overall Review: FYI here is the link the MS hotfix for NVMe native support on Win7: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2990941 Otherwise if you do a clean install on Win 7, 8 or 10 it should install standard MS NVMe drivers and boot without any issues. I don't see any remarkable difference between it and the SATA SSDs I've used but it does seem to boot a little bit quicker.

Pros: - Fast drive! - M.2 is simple to install, and takes up such little room

Cons: - if you know what you're getting, then ZERO cons!

Overall Review: This drive is really fast.. faster than a fast SATA SSD, so it's great. It's priced competitively with the Fast Samsung SATA SSDs, and it outperforms them. This is NOT the FASTEST drive.. if you're looking for all-out speed at any cost, then the Samsung 950 pro and 960 pro M.2's are where you're going to want to look. BUT if you're looking to be faster than a traditional SSD, but not break the bank, well then this is the perfect drive for you. Put this in my ASRock Z170M Extreme4, the drive model was not on the QVL list, but other Intel drives models were, but I've not had any troubles.

Pros: -Great reads for the price (1800MBps). -Very small form factor -Cheap for capacity, twice the capacity of Samsung's 950 for 20 bucks cheaper.

Cons: -Writes are comparable to performance SATA III (560MBPS) -There are much higher performing m.2 NVMe's out there, for a price. -Don't handle 4k as well as they should.

Overall Review: To be honest, I don't care about programs loading up 2 seconds slower than the performance models. For the capacity this is a pretty good deal. I don't write large capacity things very much, and when I do, I usually step away from the computer and let it do its thing while I do something else. The biggest writes I do are usually downloaded games from Steam. Typically, your bottleneck in that situation would be your network connection. Unless you've got 10gigabit connections and a mobo that can support that, and you aren't into using hardcore 4k video editing, I don't see a reason to get something any faster.

Pros: Benches out at expected levels comparing to reviews using CrystalDiskMark5 software. Works on my Asus Maximus VIII Hero. For the price I think this is a good value.

Cons: Slightly slower than my Plextor 1tb NVMe PCIe card.

Overall Review: I lost or was missing my m.2 standoff screw from Asus motherboard, so I improvised with regular standoff. To modify, I mounted in head of drill and sanded off the post using a file until it fit in hole, then used superglue to secure. Worked like a charm! Looking at alternatives, some people were charging 25 and 50 dollars on E for a screw. Outrageous.

Pros: Cheap, excellent real world performance, best in class price to GB ratio.

Cons: Software suite wont be out for it until November so it is missing some functionality that other NVME drives have. Mounting screw did not come with the package, not exactly surprising given that this is a re seller pack (basically OEM) However the rarity of the screw is quite annoying. I have screws from 8 builds spanning a decade, as well as a pretty massive hardware screw collection and none of them would fit the slot. None of the three hardware stores near me carried the screw, neither did any of the 10+ tech stores. The only way to get the screw is to either get lucky with your local hardware store having one on hand or to order one online. I recommend the latter just to be sure. Either way if you end up not having the needed screw some high temperature electrical tape can be used instead.

Overall Review: Overall it is an excellent product but I stress the importance of purchasing the needed screw prior to installation.

Pros: - consistent writes (encrypting entire drive took a while, 30 min?, but disk never throttled/paused for 30 secs with 0% I/O like previous m.2 ssd) - copy 42GB of VMs (2 huge files) was consistent. No big dips, ups. - all chips on one side, so for laptops that come with heat spreader for m.2 it's great

Cons: -active power is for "average" usage, not copying/backing up files. Sticker on back says 1.2A at 3.3V so 3.96 Watts. The drive was near burn your finger hot when i encrypted entire drive(bitlocker/win 10). However, it never halted all I/O like other SSD. Drive light didnt go solid on for 30 secs with 0% I/O while it throttled/cooled down and everything got halted because all I/O was stopped.

Overall Review: -seems like shared firmware with 530 or 540 2.5" drive(forget which) where they guarantee 100MB write always instead of being all over but faster sometimes. I bought because the active power usage was listed at 100mW to get very cool drive for laptop. That seems to be very false. During active usage it was burning hot so likely the almost 4W listed on sticker. Not sure if its worth it versus a Samsung 950 Pro. However, as it never throttled, Intel knows what they are doing, I assume it is operating as Intel expects and should have long life. Might return as im bummed about the super heat during very excessive operations. Seems like a keeper/long term reliable for laptops because i would only be doing the backups infrequently. It was very cool otherwise. But that's likely true of Samsung 950 Pro too.

Pros: -Fast!!! -Small! -Easy installation! -Cheaper than Samsung 950/960 series (although not as fast) -1TB

Cons: None that I can think of.

Overall Review: I've had this for a few weeks now. It is in an Intel Skull Canyon NUC and it works great! Installation was simple - insert the card and screw in one screw, that's it. I think its even easier than installing RAM. I haven't benchmarked it, but it does *seem* to be faster than a standard SSD. True, it isn't as highly speced as the Samsung 950/960s, but it also is not as expensive (got it on sale, it was nearly half as expensive as a comperably sized Samsung). Also, at least with the Intel cards, the larger the drive the faster it is, so this one is faster than the (cheaper) 512gb or 256gb models, while being slightly cheaper per GB. Overall, it seems like a great jump forward for solid state storage!

Pros: Small form factor. Fast. Easy to install. Cheap price compared to others.

Cons: No real cons.

Overall Review: Didn't want to consider this a con since I should have done a little more research before purchasing... Was unable to install Windows 7 on it because 7 would never recognize it no matter what I did... seems like a known issue after researching further. I wanted to do the free upgrade from 7 to 10 with the new build... oh well, looks like I will be buying a copy of 10. 10 recognized it without issue.