SN5100 or SN850X

[vidhubhushan]

i need to change the boot drive for my system.
ASRock B450 Pro4
Ryzen 3400G
2 X 8gb
right now 256 gb mx500 is used as boot drive which is working fine but since it is used for 6 years, i am thinking of getting a new one immediately as prices has already gone insane and might increase even further.
i am thinking of getting a 1tb SN850X as the difference between SN5100 and SN850X is only around 1100.
later some time, this nvme might be shifted to a new system which i may get so i was thinking of getting it.
what say guys?
does 850x requires a heatsink in normal use cases i.e. no heavy gaming or large video editing / converting?
thanks.

 

[patkim]

As per this *shop.sandisk.com/en-in/products/ssd/internal-ssd/wd-black-sn850x-nvme-ssd?sku=WDS100T2X0E-00BCA0

SN850X with Heatsink is recommended for PlayStation 5. But for Windows 10+, heatsink is not mentioned as mandatory. It comes with both options with & w/o heatsink. Heatsink is of course recommended for gaming PC.

I am using SN850 that did not come with heatsink but my board has pre-installed heatsink for M.2 slot. So, I am using that heatsink and during normal operations (General computing) temps remain below 45 C.

If your mobo has pre-installed heatsink for M.2, use it, if not, try using the SSD for a few days and observe the temperature, if crossing 55 – 60 during general computing then consider buying a separate M.2 Heatsink with thermal pad from Amazon or so.

As such when I was using Samsung NVMe SSD, I could bring down temperatures from 50 to 44 simply by installing 2 – 3 thermal pads on it. But my use case has always been general computing.

I guess 5100 is DRAM-Less but 850X is likely to have DRAM so it should be better than 5100. Where did you notice difference of 1100 between the prices?

 

[vidhubhushan]

As per this *shop.sandisk.com/en-in/products/ssd/internal-ssd/wd-black-sn850x-nvme-ssd?sku=WDS100T2X0E-00BCA0

SN850X with Heatsink is recommended for PlayStation 5. But for Windows 10+, heatsink is not mentioned as mandatory. It comes with both options with & w/o heatsink. Heatsink is of course recommended for gaming PC.

I am using SN850 that did not come with heatsink but my board has pre-installed heatsink for M.2 slot. So, I am using that heatsink and during normal operations (General computing) temps remain below 45 C.

If your mobo has pre-installed heatsink for M.2, use it, if not, try using the SSD for a few days and observe the temperature, if crossing 55 – 60 during general computing then consider buying a separate M.2 Heatsink with thermal pad from Amazon or so.

As such when I was using Samsung NVMe SSD, I could bring down temperatures from 50 to 44 simply by installing 2 – 3 thermal pads on it. But my use case has always been general computing.

I guess 5100 is DRAM-Less but 850X is likely to have DRAM so it should be better than 5100. Where did you notice difference of 1100 between the prices?

thanks for the reply. normal use case is general computing except some video clip cutting occassionally. there is no pre-installed heatsink for m.2 nvme ssd. i asked the local vendor and the prices are 14500 plus gst and 15500 plus gst which i think is 18% so the difference comes around 1100.
have checked heatsink and months back thought of getting this one if i go for 850x *www.amazon.in/ZORBES®-Heatsink-Aluminum-Thermal-Silicone/dp/B0BGNGQHQB/

 

[vidhubhushan]

purchased WD SN850x 1TB for INR19500. tried to use it and it doesn't work. checked and found out that it doesn't work with ASRock B450 Pro4. now need to look for a pcie nvme adapter card to use it.

 

[Desmond]

Why didn't it work?

Was it not detected?

 

[bssunilreddy]

purchased WD SN850x 1TB for INR19500. tried to use it and it doesn't work. checked and found out that it doesn't work with ASRock B450 Pro4. now need to look for a pcie nvme adapter card to use it.

Did you upgrade the bios and tried?

 

[vidhubhushan]

Why didn't it work?

Was it not detected?

it was not detected. i checked for some time and found this -

"www.asrock.com/support/qa/Technical%20NNotes%20-%20Storage%20Device%20Compatibility.pdf

and also this -

"www.asrock.com/mb/amd/b450%20pro4/index.asp#Storage


all PCIe slots are free. ultra m.2 and m.2 slots are free. the shared sata ports are also free.

Did you upgrade the bios and tried?

as far as i remember i am on latest bios. all newer ones listed after that are beta.

 

[Desmond]

Perhaps the beta BIOS have added support for this? Then again, perhaps you should contact their CC to confirm.

 

[vidhubhushan]

Perhaps the beta BIOS have added support for this? Then again, perhaps you should contact their CC to confirm.

last time when i had some issue, they didn't respond properly, even their forum too was dead. so i did not try that this time.

sent the query to asrock and posted in their forum as well. will wait for 2 days for their response if any.

i am thinking of getting this one "www.amazon.in/Verilux%C2%AE-Adapter-Aluminum-PCI-Express-Expansion/dp/B0FM89RQYB/
but their cc too is very silly. i asked them if it will work and they responded after 2 days with a generic reply and not answered either the tech question nor about any retailer / distributor.

 

[vidhubhushan]

Perhaps the beta BIOS have added support for this? Then again, perhaps you should contact their CC to confirm.

asked and got this :-

View attachment 1773660270727.png


i think i should get this one "www.ugreenindia.com/products/ugreen-nvme-pcie-adapter-pcle-gen4-x16-to-m-2-expansion-card-m-2-ssd-to-pcie-4-0-x16-x8-x4-card-with-heatsink-m-2-pcie-converter-compatible-with-thunderbolt-3-30715?_pos=1&_psq=pcie&_ss=e&_v=1.0

or the verilux one mentioned earlier

 

[patkim]

After a very long time I managed to get into this forum. Every time I login, I am automatically logged out. It’s understood that this is server-side caching issue but with no one looking into it, I have actually asked Mods to delete my account, so these could possibly be my last posts on this forum.

I have assembled a number of desktop PCs so far and while I look into QVL, I could never strictly go by that list either because the parts were very expensive or the parts were not available in India. They were never meant to be sold in this region. A part not listed on Storage QVL by default does not make it incompatible when a standard is in place. Otherwise I believe a disclaimer needs to be put in place by the manufacturer on their specs and support sections.

SATA, M.2 form factor & PCIe NVMe is a standard and all interfaces need to make themselves compatible with the standard. This appears to be some sort of design error on part of ASRock. Moreover it’s also fishy that they have not linked the PDF from their affected board’s support section. It’s a lone floating document on their server without any reference or links from existing pages. Hence easy to be missed by search engines.

There would be no reason for OP to doubt that SN5100 or SN850x would be incompatible with ASRock B450 board. But unfortunately, we have hit a rare event of incompatibility. That’s the main reason I do not give very specific buying recommendation by the make/model number. Giving a very specific recommendation requires lot of homework!

As a general comment, a common question users have in mind when buying a PCIe NVMe adapter card is - will it make the system bootable. Unfortunately, there’s no definitive answer. It depends upon how BIOS sees the PCIe card. If BIOS supports it, it will be bootable. Try checking with ASRock support if they have any meaningful response on such a query.

 

[vidhubhushan]

After a very long time I managed to get into this forum. Every time I login, I am automatically logged out. It’s understood that this is server-side caching issue but with no one looking into it, I have actually asked Mods to delete my account, so these could possibly be my last posts on this forum.

I have assembled a number of desktop PCs so far and while I look into QVL, I could never strictly go by that list either because the parts were very expensive or the parts were not available in India. They were never meant to be sold in this region. A part not listed on Storage QVL by default does not make it incompatible when a standard is in place. Otherwise I believe a disclaimer needs to be put in place by the manufacturer on their specs and support sections.

SATA, M.2 form factor & PCIe NVMe is a standard and all interfaces need to make themselves compatible with the standard. This appears to be some sort of design error on part of ASRock. Moreover it’s also fishy that they have not linked the PDF from their affected board’s support section. It’s a lone floating document on their server without any reference or links from existing pages. Hence easy to be missed by search engines.

There would be no reason for OP to doubt that SN5100 or SN850x would be incompatible with ASRock B450 board. But unfortunately, we have hit a rare event of incompatibility. That’s the main reason I do not give very specific buying recommendation by the make/model number. Giving a very specific recommendation requires lot of homework!

As a general comment, a common question users have in mind when buying a PCIe NVMe adapter card is - will it make the system bootable. Unfortunately, there’s no definitive answer. It depends upon how BIOS sees the PCIe card. If BIOS supports it, it will be bootable. Try checking with ASRock support if they have any meaningful response on such a query.

i have asked them the same and have sent links of 2 verilux and 1 ugreen cards to ask if it is compatible. both these companies have said that it will be able to work though i forgot to ask if it will boot the system which i have asked now. thanks.