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M.2 Memory Question

DeadKerbal
By DeadKerbal
in Storage Devices
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Hello All,

 

Looking for some advice on a m.2 ssd purchase.  Currently using an ASUS Z97-A  (https://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/Z97A/) Mobo and looking for an ssd to use in the M.2 socket purely for the OS (Windows 10).

 

Getting a bit confused regarding NVME, AHCI, what capacity I'll need ans whether this will actually offer me any speed advantage over just using a regular ssd on a SATA connection. 

 

Any advice appreciated.

 

 

DK

 

i5-4690k @3.5GHz 16Gb DDR3  

2X Sapphire R9 290x 

ASUS Z97-A  Windows 10 Home 64-bit

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Just now, DeadKerbal said:

Hello All,

 

Looking for some advice on a m.2 ssd purchase.  Currently using an ASUS Z97-A  (https://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/Z97A/) Mobo and looking for an ssd to use in the M.2 socket purely for the OS (Windows 10).

 

Getting a bit confused regarding NVME, AHCI, what capacity I'll need ans whether this will actually offer me any speed advantage over just using a regular ssd on a SATA connection. 

 

Any advice appreciated.

 

 

DK

 

long story short, NVME is fast as fuck but doesnt boot all that quickly, AHCI over M.2 is still pretty fast but still kinda slow to boot, AHCI over SATA is fastest to boot but slowest throughput overall.

 

 

Home PC:

CPU: i7 4790s ~ Motherboard: Asus B85M-E ~ RAM: 32GB Ballistix Sport DDR3 1666 ~ GPU: Sapphire R9 390 Nitro ~ Case: Corsair Carbide Spec-03 ~ Storage: Kingston Predator 240GB   PCIE M.2 Boot, 2TB HDD, 3x 480GB SATA SSD's in RAID 0 ~ PSU:    Corsair CX600
Display(s): Asus PB287Q , Generic Samsung 1080p 22" ~ Cooling: Arctic T3 Air Cooler, All case fans replaced with Noctua NF-B9 Redux's ~ Keyboard: Logitech G810 Orion ~ Mouse: Cheap Microsoft Wired (i like it) ~ Sound: Radial Pro USB DAC into 250w Powered Speakers ~ Operating System: Windows 10 Enterprise x64
 

Work PC:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1275 v3 ~ Motherboard: Asrock E3C226D2I ~ RAM: 16GB DDR3 ~ GPU: GTX 460 ~ Case: Silverstone SG05 ~ Storage: 512GB SATA SSD ~ Displays: 3x1080p 24" mix and matched Dell monitors plus a 10" 1080p lilliput monitor above ~ Operating System: Windows 10 Enterprise x64

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3 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

long story short, NVME is fast as fuck but doesnt boot all that quickly, AHCI over M.2 is still pretty fast but still kinda slow to boot, AHCI over SATA is fastest to boot but slowest throughput overall.

 

 

Is the ability to work in either AHCI or NVME determined by the Mobo?  Looking over the ASUS website there isn't any mention of NVME so I'm assuming the one doesn't support it anyway.  

i5-4690k @3.5GHz 16Gb DDR3  

2X Sapphire R9 290x 

ASUS Z97-A  Windows 10 Home 64-bit

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10 minutes ago, DeadKerbal said:

Is the ability to work in either AHCI or NVME determined by the Mobo?  Looking over the ASUS website there isn't any mention of NVME so I'm assuming the one doesn't support it anyway.  

If it is an PCIe M.2 slot, it will support NVMe, if it is an SATA M.2 port, it will support AHCI. But some M.2 slots support both.

(Most decent motherboards have NVMe M.2 slots)

 -+-+- This is a reminder to clean the dust filters of your PC! -+-+-

 

Main PC:

Ryzen 5 1600 3.8GHz - RX 570 4GB - 2x8GB DDR4 - ASUS Prime X370-Pro - Shadow Rock 2 - Define S - Seasonic Prime Gold 650W

500GB NVME SSD - 1TB SATA SSD - 1TB HDD - Windows 10 Pro

Dorm PC:

i5 4590 - GTX 960 4GB - 2x4GB DDR3 - ASUS H81M2 - Dark Rock 3 - Define R3 - 250GB SATA SSD - Seasonic S12 430W - Windows 10 Pro - Linux Mint

NAS:

Pentium G4400 - 4GB DDR4 - Fujitsu Esprimo P556 - 250GB SATA SSD - 2 x 4TB NAS HDD - 12V PSU - OpenMediaVault

Laptop:

Dell Latitude E6520 - i5 2430M - 2x4GB DDR3 - 250GB SATA SSD - Windows 10 Pro - Linux Mint

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10 minutes ago, GrayTech said:

If it is an PCIe M.2 slot, it will support NVMe, if it is an SATA M.2 port, it will support AHCI. But some M.2 slots support both.

(Most decent motherboards have NVMe M.2 slots)

99% true, i have a b85m-e mobo which lets me boot over PCIe using AHCI but not NVME.

Home PC:

CPU: i7 4790s ~ Motherboard: Asus B85M-E ~ RAM: 32GB Ballistix Sport DDR3 1666 ~ GPU: Sapphire R9 390 Nitro ~ Case: Corsair Carbide Spec-03 ~ Storage: Kingston Predator 240GB   PCIE M.2 Boot, 2TB HDD, 3x 480GB SATA SSD's in RAID 0 ~ PSU:    Corsair CX600
Display(s): Asus PB287Q , Generic Samsung 1080p 22" ~ Cooling: Arctic T3 Air Cooler, All case fans replaced with Noctua NF-B9 Redux's ~ Keyboard: Logitech G810 Orion ~ Mouse: Cheap Microsoft Wired (i like it) ~ Sound: Radial Pro USB DAC into 250w Powered Speakers ~ Operating System: Windows 10 Enterprise x64
 

Work PC:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1275 v3 ~ Motherboard: Asrock E3C226D2I ~ RAM: 16GB DDR3 ~ GPU: GTX 460 ~ Case: Silverstone SG05 ~ Storage: 512GB SATA SSD ~ Displays: 3x1080p 24" mix and matched Dell monitors plus a 10" 1080p lilliput monitor above ~ Operating System: Windows 10 Enterprise x64

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Just now, DnFx91 said:

99% true, i have a b85m-e mobo which lets me boot over PCIe using AHCI but not NVME.

Are you talking about a M.2 slot?

 -+-+- This is a reminder to clean the dust filters of your PC! -+-+-

 

Main PC:

Ryzen 5 1600 3.8GHz - RX 570 4GB - 2x8GB DDR4 - ASUS Prime X370-Pro - Shadow Rock 2 - Define S - Seasonic Prime Gold 650W

500GB NVME SSD - 1TB SATA SSD - 1TB HDD - Windows 10 Pro

Dorm PC:

i5 4590 - GTX 960 4GB - 2x4GB DDR3 - ASUS H81M2 - Dark Rock 3 - Define R3 - 250GB SATA SSD - Seasonic S12 430W - Windows 10 Pro - Linux Mint

NAS:

Pentium G4400 - 4GB DDR4 - Fujitsu Esprimo P556 - 250GB SATA SSD - 2 x 4TB NAS HDD - 12V PSU - OpenMediaVault

Laptop:

Dell Latitude E6520 - i5 2430M - 2x4GB DDR3 - 250GB SATA SSD - Windows 10 Pro - Linux Mint

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Just now, GrayTech said:

Are you talking about a M.2 slot?

nah M.2 to PCIe riser in a fullsize slot. Kingston Predator drive. See my spec in sig

Home PC:

CPU: i7 4790s ~ Motherboard: Asus B85M-E ~ RAM: 32GB Ballistix Sport DDR3 1666 ~ GPU: Sapphire R9 390 Nitro ~ Case: Corsair Carbide Spec-03 ~ Storage: Kingston Predator 240GB   PCIE M.2 Boot, 2TB HDD, 3x 480GB SATA SSD's in RAID 0 ~ PSU:    Corsair CX600
Display(s): Asus PB287Q , Generic Samsung 1080p 22" ~ Cooling: Arctic T3 Air Cooler, All case fans replaced with Noctua NF-B9 Redux's ~ Keyboard: Logitech G810 Orion ~ Mouse: Cheap Microsoft Wired (i like it) ~ Sound: Radial Pro USB DAC into 250w Powered Speakers ~ Operating System: Windows 10 Enterprise x64
 

Work PC:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1275 v3 ~ Motherboard: Asrock E3C226D2I ~ RAM: 16GB DDR3 ~ GPU: GTX 460 ~ Case: Silverstone SG05 ~ Storage: 512GB SATA SSD ~ Displays: 3x1080p 24" mix and matched Dell monitors plus a 10" 1080p lilliput monitor above ~ Operating System: Windows 10 Enterprise x64

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Just to note, that there are also M.2 slots with PCI Express 2.0 connection, which do not support NVMe. Different from those ultrafast PCIe Gen3 4x ones.

HAL9000: AMD Ryzen 9 3900x | Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black | 32 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 MHz | Asus X570 Prime Pro | ASUS TUF 3080 Ti | 1 TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus + 1 TB Crucial MX500 + 6 TB WD RED | Corsair HX1000 | be quiet Pure Base 500DX | LG 34UM95 34" 3440x1440

Hydrogen server: Intel i3-10100 | Cryorig M9i | 64 GB Crucial Ballistix 3200MHz DDR4 | Gigabyte B560M-DS3H | 33 TB of storage | Fractal Design Define R5 | unRAID 6.9.2

Carbon server: Fujitsu PRIMERGY RX100 S7p | Xeon E3-1230 v2 | 16 GB DDR3 ECC | 60 GB Corsair SSD & 250 GB Samsung 850 Pro | Intel i340-T4 | ESXi 6.5.1

Big Mac cluster: 2x Raspberry Pi 2 Model B | 1x Raspberry Pi 3 Model B | 2x Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

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Actually, to support NVMe by default, UEFI BIOS only needs a NVMe boot module.
Most manufacturers don't add those to older platforms, BUT you can inject it manually. Here's a useful guide : LINK.

NVMe support is EFI based (software), not Motherboard based (hardware).
You can have NVMe support on LGA 775 (Clover method - LINK) : LINK.
 

CPU : Core i7 6950X @ 4.26 GHz + Hydronaut + TRVX + 2x Delta 38mm PWM
MB : Gigabyte X99 SOC (BIOS F23c)
RAM : 4x Patriot Viper Steel 4000MHz CL16 @ 3042MHz CL12.12.12.24 CR2T @1.48V.
GPU : Titan Xp Collector's Edition (Empire)
M.2/HDD : Samsung SM961 256GB (NVMe/OS) + + 3x HGST Ultrastar 7K6000 6TB
DAC : Motu M4 + Audio Technica ATH-A900Z
PSU: Seasonic X-760 || CASE : Fractal Meshify 2 XL || OS : Win 10 Pro x64
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