NVMe boot time

[Cru012]

With MSI fast boot enabled and using onboard graphics card, I got a BIOS load time of 5 seconds. I haven't changed any setting on BIOS except enabling XMP profile (3200Mhz; 8GB x2 in dual channels). Is this all settings I need to enable for the NVMe drive that I have?

[Husky]

To optimize your boot time, there are a few additional settings that you can change.

 

• Make sure that the boot mode is UEFI only, and that CSM is OFF, as well as any Legacy support.
• Shorten or disable the startup delay if your motherboard has this option so that you don't have to wait at the UEFI splash screen where is prompts for you to press a key.
• Disable any modules you don't need, such as extra ethernet ports, WiFi, Bluetooth, extra SATA controllers, extra audio controllers, etc...
• Disable UEFI network stack if you don't need to update your firmware from the internet and are happy to use a USB drive instead.
• Disable PXE network boot and disable any option ROMs.
• Enable any fast boot settings related to Memory. This can reduce memory training times.

 

These optimizations might help your boot time, but it depends from motherboard to motherboard. For example, my ASUS board has memory settings called "MRC Fast Boot" and "MCH Full Check" that when I changed, cut my POST time from about 45 seconds down to about 7 seconds.

[Cru012]

14 hours ago, Husky said:

To optimize your boot time, there are a few additional settings that you can change.

 

• Make sure that the boot mode is UEFI only, and that CSM is OFF, as well as any Legacy support.
• Shorten or disable the startup delay if your motherboard has this option so that you don't have to wait at the UEFI splash screen where is prompts for you to press a key.
• Disable any modules you don't need, such as extra ethernet ports, WiFi, Bluetooth, extra SATA controllers, extra audio controllers, etc...
• Disable UEFI network stack if you don't need to update your firmware from the internet and are happy to use a USB drive instead.
• Disable PXE network boot and disable any option ROMs.
• Enable any fast boot settings related to Memory. This can reduce memory training times.

 

These optimizations might help your boot time, but it depends from motherboard to motherboard. For example, my ASUS board has memory settings called "MRC Fast Boot" and "MCH Full Check" that when I changed, cut my POST time from about 45 seconds down to about 7 seconds.

Thanks! I tried to adjust some of them, but by the way of a bit of background - I have two desktops:

1) ASUS GL12CP (i7-8700, 1x16GB hynix 2666 MHz, Crucial MX500 SATA M.2 SSD) and

2) a new build with MSI Z490 Pro A with i7-10700, 8GBx2 3200MHz in dual channels, Crucial NVMe P5 SSD.

 

I think in theory the new build should boot faster with faster RAM and NVMe SSD, plus it is a clean window installation and should not have much craps than in the old, and yet the boot time for the former was 2.5 seconds vs the latter at 5 seconds...

[Husky]

11 hours ago, Cru012 said:

Thanks! I tried to adjust some of them, but by the way of a bit of background - I have two desktops:

1) ASUS GL12CP (i7-8700, 1x16GB hynix 2666 MHz, Crucial MX500 SATA M.2 SSD) and

2) a new build with MSI Z490 Pro A with i7-10700, 8GBx2 3200MHz in dual channels, Crucial NVMe P5 SSD.

 

I think in theory the new build should boot faster with faster RAM and NVMe SSD, plus it is a clean window installation and should not have much craps than in the old, and yet the boot time for the former was 2.5 seconds vs the latter at 5 seconds...

Computers can be weird. The computers in my school POST faster than my rig, and they're like 12+ years old. It comes down to how the UEFI firmware is implemented by the manufacturer, and what hardware is being used. Generally, the more hardware, or the more complicated the hardware, the longer it takes to initialize it all by the firmware. The way the manufacturer has implemented the firmware also matters, for example, servers take really long to POST because the firmware takes extra steps to test and initialize the hardware and diagnose it more thoroughly than a standard desktop system.

 

Unfortunately there is not much that you can do about it other than make sure that your firmware is up to date and do those optimizations. In some cases, you might be able to flash an open source firmware called "coreboot" which has the potential to decrease POST times among other advantages, but it is not recommended at the moment and is likely not even available for your motherboard.