Questions About the 600p Before Purchase

[jren207]

Hi,

I am thinking about buying an Intel 600p M.2 SSD, but have a few questions.

Firstly, I see that it is NVMe, but I'm confused as to how this works or presents itself to the system. I say this, as I have purchased an M.2 SSD from Kingston, which seems to present itself as a PCB containing flash memory, and its own SATA controller connected through the PCIe bus.

Would an NVMe M.2 SSD like the 600p somehow link directly to the PCIe bus, without any reference to SATA and offer better performance?

I will be using this SSD with Windows 10, and I believe it has a native NVMe driver?

Another question I have is regarding the following, which is stated in my motherboard's (Asus X99-E WS) manual: "This socket supports M Key and type 2260/2280 storage devices. This socket supports PCIe mode only."

Would this make the 600p suitable. I can already see it is a 2280, and PCIe, but is it of the "M Key" type?

Lastly, it may not seem all that important, but I think it is, and that is regarding the front panel HDD activity LED.

Currently the Kingston SSD, when connected to my M.2 slot, makes the HDD LED lit constantly. (The LED functions normally without that SSD present, and so SATA connected devices make it flash on/off as required).

Does the 600p do something similar (either constantly off or on), or does it function correctly.

Contacting Kingston support resulted in being told HDD LED activity isn't defined in their SSD, and that it may be implemented in future firmware, but no timeframe is given. (Probably will never be implemented, but who knows?)

All help is appreciated.

[idata · Accepted solution]

Hello jren207,

Here are the answers to you questions:

• The Intel® SSD 600p Series works using PCIe* NVMe*, with no SATA components.
• It will display on your system as a disk drive, not a flash memory nor as a flash storage device. (Device Manager.png attached)
• It is recognized using the inbox (or built-in) drivers already provided with Windows® 10.
• It uses M Key edge connector. (M Key vs B Key.jpg attached)

As for your last question, I'm afraid our answer may be similar to the one given to you by Kingston®. Since this is a feature of your motherboard, not of the drive, the activity LED may or may not work properly.

Please let us know if this information helps, or if you have any additional questions.

Best regards,

Carlos A.

[jren207]

Thank you for your reply. You have been very helpful in answering my questions.

Again, I know this doesn't sound very important, but it's nice for things to work properly, so I was just looking for some clarification on the LED. For example, you must research and test things at Intel, so I was wondering what the behavior was of the LED during your tests in your labs during development and testing etc? This might then be something I could put forward to Asus if I could be sure it was an issue with the hardware or BIOS (should it not work if I were to buy the SSD).

I understand what you are saying though, and obviously I will have no idea until I purchase and see for myself (or by some coincidence, someone else with the same board and SSD visits these forums), but I was just wondering in general.

I'm interested in how these things work, and wonder if there is some standard between PCIe NVMe devices and what features are available through the PCIe bus. For example the Intel Rapid Storage Technology controller integrated into my board can make the LED blink, and is connected via the PCIe bus.

[idata]

jren207,

As I understand it, these HDD activity LEDs are controlled entirely by your motherboard. So it's possible that they may not work properly if your SSD isn't detected as it should (which shouldn't be an issue with the 600p).I tested the drive using a Windows® 10 installation on two separate motherboards (one of them Asus®, but not your exact model). The HDD activity LED blinked and worked as expected on both cases.We hope this helps.Best regards,Carlos A.

[jren207]

Thank you for your response, and for the testing.

If it works as expected in general, then it should be fine, but yes, I understand it's dependent on my board. That sounds good enough for me though.

I think I will buy one.