PC Specialist, can you help?!

[rajadd]

I was configuring a new desktop to purchase over the last few days and when proceeding to payment stage, I was notified that my SSD selection had gone out of stock, today!! I’m also very sad to see that the ETA for a new part was 16th February – quite a long time away!

M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3200MB/R, 1700MB/W)

Given how excited I am (and that I was going to take annual leave to play with my new machine!), I wonder if you could expedite getting the below part back in stock so I can order my desktop please? I would appreciate it!

Please let me know either way on when you’ll have this part back in stock?

Thanks!

 

[Rakk]

Do remember that the vast majority of forum users do not work for PCSpecialist, so there's a good chance that no-one at PCS will actually see your request here . You would need to phone or email them.

Hopefully it will come back in stock before the middle of Feb, but their estimate could be correct.

 

[rajadd]

Do remember that the vast majority of forum users do not work for PCSpecialist, so there's a good chance that no-one at PCS will actually see your request here . You would need to phone or email them.

Hopefully it will come back in stock before the middle of Feb, but their estimate could be correct.

Ok, thanks buddy! I thought it was worth the shot, I was sooooo excited to make the order!

 

[ubuysa]

That's probably the most popular M.2 SSD drive that PCS do and I'm sure they will be doing all they can to get more stock. Don't forget that the delay might not be PCS's fault, it may well be that their supplier is finding it hard to source them.

 

[rajadd]

That's probably the most popular M.2 SSD drive that PCS do and I'm sure they will be doing all they can to get more stock. Don't forget that the delay might not be PCS's fault, it may well be that their supplier is finding it hard to source them.

Thanks for replying - I'm not thinking about fault really, I'm just hoping for a faster re-supply date than 16th Feb. I was sceptical that it was the true ETA given that it's exactly 1 month from today.

 

[Oussebon]

One alternative would be to order the PC without it / amend the order to remove the SSD. Then you could purchase one yourself when it is in stock, either from PCS (they do sell SSDs as upgrades) or sourcing it yourself.

That may be more hassle than you feel it's worth to get the PC sooner, I just mention it as a possible option.

 

[rajadd]

One alternative would be to order the PC without it / amend the order to remove the SSD. Then you could purchase one yourself when it is in stock, either from PCS (they do sell SSDs as upgrades) or sourcing it yourself.

That may be more hassle than you feel it's worth to get the PC sooner, I just mention it as a possible option.

Thanks I thought about that option, but in all honesty, I consider myself completely inept at actually installing hardware components (I think I'll break something!) and wanted to rely on the certified experts at PCS to do the doing instead. I really should become more self-reliant!

 

[Freeley]

Well that's typical, no sooner do I order my PC then the SSD i chose goes out of stock. I've got a horrible feeling i'm going to upgrade to the 1TB version - wonder if they'd upgrade for free!

 

[Scott]

Well that's typical, no sooner do I order my PC then the SSD i chose goes out of stock. I've got a horrible feeling i'm going to upgrade to the 1TB version - wonder if they'd upgrade for free!

Not a chance given the price difference.... and I also believe the 1TB options may be out of stock too.

 

[Freeley]

Guess I'm in for a wait then, luckily I'm in no rush!

 

[rajadd]

Guess I'm in for a wait then, luckily I'm in no rush!

Hah, I was about to try to upgrade to 1TB and then realised that that too was out of stock!! Delivery also expected on 16th Feb, but hopefully sooner...

 

[rav007]

I have to say, theres no reason not to go for a 256gb version. I know its half the capacity you want at the moment, but I have a 256gb one in my laptop, in addition to a 960gb SATA SSD and 2TB HDD. The vast majority of applications on windows now are happy to be installed on the non-OS drives. I mean if I had the choice I would love a 512GB but I don't really need it. 3.25TB in a laptop is enough anyway... at the moment....

 

[rajadd]

I have to say, theres no reason not to go for a 256gb version. I know its half the capacity you want at the moment, but I have a 256gb one in my laptop, in addition to a 960gb SATA SSD and 2TB HDD. The vast majority of applications on windows now are happy to be installed on the non-OS drives. I mean if I had the choice I would love a 512GB but I don't really need it. 3.25TB in a laptop is enough anyway... at the moment....

But, if you're not going for a 2.5 SSD, instead just for M.2, then what's the purpose in having one? 3 hard drive don't make sense to me either.

 

[rav007]

But, if you're not going for a 2.5 SSD, instead just for M.2, then what's the purpose in having one? 3 hard drive don't make sense to me either.

It depends on your use. So I do a wide range of things from 3D modelling, sketching, photoshop, coding and engineering based simulation, optimisation and control. My laptop has 2 2.5in bays, and 2x M.2 ports which can either be configured as 2x M.2 SATA drives or 1x M.2 NVMe. So I opted for the NVMe as boot drive as it was quicker than 2 M.2s. The 2TB HDD for general data storage, things that I can browse effectively but their accessibility isn't time critical. The NVMe SSD is for the OS and because of the read speeds, my most hard-drive demanding software whose opening times are determined by drive read speeds. Then for my intermediate stuff I have the SSD over SATA3, so it runs quicker than a HDD but quick enough that I don't need to have it on the NVMe.

Based on this, my NVMe drive still has 150GB free. I don't anticipate needing to install much more on it either.

EDIT: I also should have mentioned the price doesn't scale linearly either. What I noticed is usually the price per storage ratio is generally smaller for larger SSD drives, but for NVMe, at least for the Samsung SM961, it's the opposite. So a 512GB is over 2x the price of a 256GB. When in most cases for a 2x increase, the price on average for SSDs was like 1.8x more.

 

[Freeley]

I just rang PCS to ask about the stock situation of the SM961, they confirmed that the 512gb is out of stock along with all the other SM variants. Worse than that there is no ETA available as they can't get hold of them.
The chap I spoke to suggested going to one of the Intel drives but based on what I've read on this forum that's not an option for me.
They do have stock of the PM series though - I've decided to wait for now and see what happens, if no stock comes in in the next month I'll consider changing then. Though knowing my luck by then the PM series will be out of stock too!
Interestingly he said that they've had no stock of the SM series since 22nd November so it would good to know if anybody has had a pc delivered since then with one.
Just thought I'd let everyone know the latest.

 

[Stephen M]

Looks like I was lucky, my last laptop was dispatched on November 22 with a 256GB SM961. Thanks for the information.

 

[rajadd]

I just rang PCS to ask about the stock situation of the SM961, they confirmed that the 512gb is out of stock along with all the other SM variants. Worse than that there is no ETA available as they can't get hold of them.
The chap I spoke to suggested going to one of the Intel drives but based on what I've read on this forum that's not an option for me.
They do have stock of the PM series though - I've decided to wait for now and see what happens, if no stock comes in in the next month I'll consider changing then. Though knowing my luck by then the PM series will be out of stock too!
Interestingly he said that they've had no stock of the SM series since 22nd November so it would good to know if anybody has had a pc delivered since then with one.
Just thought I'd let everyone know the latest.

Thanks for the posting that. I agree that the SM961 doesn't really have an alternative on PCS, so they can either supply it, or users will either downgrade or take their business elsewhere. I wonder how much business PCS will lose as a result...

 

[Freeley]

What I'd like to know is how much difference is there in terms of speed between the PM and SM series SSD's in real world usage?
I don't want to wait a month and then find that they're both out of stock. Having never had an SSD before I reckon I'd still find the PM series lightning fast.
Perhaps somebody has some thoughts on that?

 

[Oussebon]

If you've never had an ssd before then you certainly will find it lightning fast, since it can outperform even very good sata III ssds.

Which motherboard are you going for? If it has 2 M.2 slots you can get a PM961 and if you decide in the future you fancy even faster OS loading you can add an SM961 yourself into the other slot.

This shows some benchmarks of the SM961, PM961, and Intel 600p: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/samsung-960-evo-pm961,review-33657-2.html
While there's a measurable difference, both Samsungs are still ridiculously faster than an HDD and generally a good deal faster than the Intel drive.
There are some "real world" benchmarks on there that suggest you'd see relatively little difference between them.

 

[Freeley]

Thanks Oussebon as always. Will take a look at that later when I've got time, the temptation is to change to PM now seeing as they have the stock but I'll give it some thought first.