Asus X99a running my 960 pro with 2 x 4 interface

[quakebeard]

I just bought a 960 pro (512GB) NVMe drive and configured it as a boot drive. It works really nice but when I run magician it is showing my interface as 2.0 x 4, not the 3.0 x 4 I thought I was going to get.

I have downloaded and installed the latest NVMe driver from Samsung. I have recently re-flashed my BIOS to the latest version on the Asus website. When I'm in BIOS I cannot seem to find a direct settling for the M.2 slot's interface value(s), just the PCI 16_4 that shares the lanes (goes dormant when using an M.2 drive). There is nothing plugged into PCI 16_4. That PCI slot is spec'd at 3.0 x 4 and the X99a manual says my MOBO is compatible with M.2 drives running at 3.0 x 4. I have forced the slot to run at GEN 3 (changed from AUTO) in BIOS but it does not seem to change the interface the M.2 drive appears to be operating at.

Is there another setting I am not finding/seeing that I am missing? Is my MOBO to old to properly support an M.2 drive at 3.0 x 4 interface?


Any help suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[BC_Homegrown]

Hi, it looks like your board does not support M.2 at pcie 3.0 x4 through the M.2 slot

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2912903/asus-x99-slot.html

The manual is definitely not very clear on this but you SHOULD (not for sure as I don't have the same setup) get the full speed by getting a M.2 to PCIE adapter and installing it in pcie slot 4 or 6

 

[quakebeard]

Hi, it looks like your board does not support M.2 at pcie16x4 through the M.2 slot

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2912903/asus-x99-slot.html

The manual is definitely not very clear on this but you SHOULD (not for sure as I don't have the same setup) get the full speed by getting a M.2 to PCIE adapter and installing it in pcie slot 4 or 6

Thanks for the suggestion: I'll pick up an adapter on my way home today and try it out. Will update with results.

 

[BC_Homegrown]

NP good luck

 

[quakebeard]

NP good luck

I picked up a SIIG adapter on the way home and installed in into slot 16_4. On first boot Magician still saw a 2.0 x 4 interface. I restarted and went to BIOS and manually changed slot 16_4 bandwidth to X4 MODE (when I attempted this with the 960 Pro installed in the M.2 slot the MOBO lost com with the SSD and I could not boot). When I rebooted Magician now sees the 960 Pro as a 3.0 x 4 interface.

Your solution worked.

Thank you very much.

 

[BC_Homegrown]

No problem man, glad it worked out for you!

It is a shame you had to spend more money to get the rated speed, but at least it wasn't a new mobo. I think ASUS should really clarify it a bit better in the manual.