M.2 GLK-UC2X

Discussion in 'GLK-UC2X' started by SooS, Jan 8, 2019.

  1. SooS

    SooS New Member

    Hi All,

    thx for having me

    which m.2 storage supports the GLK-UC2X

    hope someone has the answer. thank you in advance
     
  2. HardwareGuru

    HardwareGuru Administrator

    1 x 2260/2280 SATA M.2 SSD (NVMe M.2 SSD is not supported)
     
  3. SooS

    SooS New Member

    Thx for your reply :)
     
  4. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    Getting a SATA M.2 2280 SSD would be fine.
     
  5. Paul

    Paul New Member

    Although NVMe is not supported, my Samsung 970 EVO does work. Obviously not at NVMe speeds, but still 450/400 R/W.
     
    Samuel likes this.
  6. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    We've reserved the x1 PCIe feature over the M.2 slot, however, many NVME SSDs do not support running at x1 mode.

    To avoid troubles, we would suggest using M.2 SATA SSD only, because it's impossible for us to find out which NVME SSDs on the market support x1 mode and which do not.

    For your case, congratulations! It supports x1 PCIe mode.

    We would very much like to make a full x4 PCIe slot, however, Gemini Lake does not have that many PCIe lanes, so it's better safe than sorry in our product description, please kindly understand, thanks!

    (Bandwidth-wise, PCIe 2.0 x1 mode and SATA 6Gbps are very close in real-world figures, but the costs of these drives can be VERY DIFFERENT...)
     
  7. Paul

    Paul New Member

    Sure, I totally understand, It's always good to avoid wrong expectations. I was fully aware that it might not have worked, but I had the 970 lying around, so I gave it a try.
    Worst case it didn't work and I had to swap out the SATA SSD from my laptop, happy I didn't need to, spared me a re-install of windows 10 on the laptop.
     
    Ken likes this.
  8. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    thanks for your understanding. we can't say NVME is supported because the slot is only x1, and some sticks may not work.
     
  9. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    Hi Paul,

    Could you please share your crystaldiskmark v5.5/v6.0 results of the 970 EVO on this mini PC with us? Thanks!
     
  10. Paul

    Paul New Member

    Here it is. I also added the internal C: drive for comparison.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Feb 3, 2019
    Ken likes this.
  11. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    Which tool did you capture that drive info? It seems like the EVO is running at PCIe gen 2 x1 mode.
     
  12. Paul

    Paul New Member

    It's CrystalDiskInfo. Is that PCIe gen 2x1 mode not the mode it's supposed to run in?
     

    Attached Files:

  13. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    I don’t think there is a choice of which mode to run, it should be decided by its firmware.
     
  14. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    We will purchase the Samsung PM981 to try after Chinese New Year holidays, let’s take a bet ;)
     
    Paul likes this.
  15. Paul

    Paul New Member

    I'm curious what you findings will be.
     
  16. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    Arriving soon, let's see, I think it will be supported. :D
    After all, we've reserved this feature on purpose.

    Want to try this one as well:
    amazon.com/Crucial-1TB-NAND-NVMe-PCIe/dp/B07J2Q4SWZ/

    the top speeds are not important, as the bottleneck would be the Gen 2 x1.
    PRICE MATTERS!
     
    Samuel likes this.
  17. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    amazon.com/Kingston-SA1000M8-240G-Internal-Performance/dp/B07BMXS6SH/

    Kingston A1000 value series NVMe SSD? US$49.99

    1. PCIe NVMe Gen 3.0 x2 interface
    2. 4-channel Phison E8 controller
    3. 3D NAND Flash
    4. this drive offers read and write speeds up to 1,500MB/s and 1,000MB/s

    As the GLK-UC2X supports x1 NVMe only,
    maybe this is a good choice if the price is not much higher than the SATA drives?
     
  18. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    Here are our findings:

    1.) GLK-UC2X supports both SATA & NVMe M.2 SSD
    2.) Gemini Lake doesn't support automatic mode switching
    3.) So, either pure SATA 3.0, or pure NVMe x2, or SATA 3.0+NVMe x1 mode
    4.) GLK-UC2X is the 3rd kind - SATA + NVMe x1
    5.) Performance-wise, NVME x1 has no advantage over SATA 3.0

    Conclusion: Get a CHEAPER & RELIABLE SATA drive,
    don't waste money on getting a fast NVMe drive
    as this platform isn't ready to unleash its full power.
     
  19. Samuel

    Samuel Member

    Yes... I installed Crucial P1 M.2 2280 500GB at HK$6xx (Gen3 x4), but it's also worked in GLK-UC2X
     
    Ken likes this.
  20. Samuel

    Samuel Member

    My result on Crucial P1 500GB... a little bit slower than samsung 970? (but costing from $9xx to $6xx)

    upload_2019-3-3_11-42-16.png
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2019
    Ken likes this.