Experience with Samsung PM1733 U.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSDs?

Hardware HDD's & SSD's
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HI guys,

since for some reason I’m looking for other SSDs than the ones from Intel I was window shopping a bit.

I’m also only building Zen 2/X570 systems since last year and even tough there were some teething issues things work OK for me right now so PCIe 4.0 is a viable option.

Samsung’s PM1733 U.2 SSDs have caught my eyes since they seem to be the first U.2 models with PCIe 4.0 that are available for end costumers for the foreseeable future (I would bet that Intel holds their PCIe 4.0 NAND and Optane SSDs back until they can actually ship the Ice Lake-SP platform).

I’m a bit concerned since I’m using PCIe slot- and M.2-to-U.2 adapters for my current builds with U.2 drives. These work perfectly fine with PCIe 3.0 x4 U.2 SSDs (no PCIe bus errors et al. at all) but I’m a bit sceptical regarding U.2 cables since I’ve read quite a few reports about PCIe risers causing trouble with PCIe 4.0 GPUs in Zen 2 systems where the link quality is not good enough for PCIe 4.0 and the UEFI fails to auto-downgrade to PCIe 3.0.

Does anybody have any hands-on experience with PCIe 4.0 U.2 SSDs?

Thanks & regards!
aBavarian Normie-Pleb

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Before making a pricy mishap: Can anyone shed light on the physical interface of the PM1733 SSDs?

When thinking of 2.5" U.2 NVMe SSDs I think of the SFF-8639 connector, like on this photo of some OCZ SSDs:

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On Samsung’s rendered product pictures I see four quadratic “coverings” for connectors I’ve never seen before…

Does anybody know what’s up with these?

I thought that maybe these are U.2 ports but wouldn’t these render the SSDs incompatible with standard U.2 NVMe backplanes?

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Thats air ducts

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Oooo weee - Thanks!

(going into a corner, wiping a single tear from the shame I’ve brought upon my ancestors)

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A good reminder to generally look at all things in life from different points of views! :wink:

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Damn, unexpected road block:

In Germany, Samsung “officially” offers their Enterprise-level SSDs for OEM customers only, meaning no end customer support at all to use their 5-year warranty.

German retailers that serve end customers are only obligated by law to accept receiving and handling defective products for up to 2 years after the purchase.

Meaning if there is an RMA case after 2 years I can throw the SSDs out as bricks :frowning:

Is there an EU country with “retail” laws that are more consumer-friendly?

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