Asus Z170i mini itx new build.....Questions

[Malcky]

Hi folks,

I have just put together a new build for the first time in about 10 years consisting of the following items:

Asus Z170i pro gaming mini itx mobo
i5-6500 cpu
16gb G.Skill Tridentz ddr4 3200mhz (2x8gb)
512gb Samsung SM951 M.2 pcie ssd (NVME Version)
BeQuiet pure power 9 psu (500w)
Noctua NH-D9L cpu cooler


And with all fingers crossed the computer switched on and went to post screen without any issues....phew.

Now there is a whole load of stuff that can be configured in a bios these days and I didn't alter much...if anything really, just looked around at what stuff there was to get familiar with things.

One thing I was worried about was if the samsung M.2 sad would be recognised in the bios, which thankful it does in the boot order section, however on the main screen of the bios it lists any sata devices and any M.2 devices, but for me it shows as N/A next to the M.2 device???

Does anyone know if that is normal at this point or if there is other setting somewhere I need to change for it to show up there?

I have flashed to the latest bios already too.
There is NO operation system installed yet as don't have one for now.

Thanks

Malcky

 

[DillonJ3K]

There is an option to set boot order. MAke sure its set to the samsung drive. Itll show up. Once it set. Its all good from there.

 

[Malcky]

Its the only drive in my computer so there is no other options to choose from, it already shows up in the boot list.....but it also says that my M.2 slot is empty????

Will this only show up once an operating system and relevant driver is installed?

 

[DillonJ3K]

Theres always more boot options to choose form regardless if theirs a drive in them or not. Your Mobo has boot order, an itll go down the list checking each one for a os regardless if there is a drive in the slot its checking. Better to make sure the drive with os on it is the first one on the list. And yea Having all the up to date drivers can solve a lot.

 

[Malcky]

Here is a pic of my main Bios screen.

[/URL][/img]

 

[DillonJ3K]

Press F7 an go into advanced mode, more options an settings will appear.

 

[geofelt]

sm951 is not a retail product and may not be supported.
The Samsung 950 PRO would be the one officially supported.
And... even that needs a Samsung driver to run.

What to do?
Really, I would return the sm951 if I could and use a cheaper evo instead.
You will not notice any difference in performance.

 

[Malcky]

I know the SM951 is an OEM product but as the mobo is detecting the drive I'm assuming/hoping it will be fine, I just don't know if its because I've not yet installed any operating system or drivers that is won't show in the middle section of the picture I uploaded above.

I have seen on other sites and here I think that this SSD has been used on this mobo before.

 

[Malcky]

Here is a picture of the boot screen on advanced settings.

[/URL][/img]

 

[DillonJ3K]

Install windows an then get the appropriate drivers for everything, You should be fine. If not you can always ask more questions an well help. But the drivers should fix it.

 

[Malcky]

Well I couldn't install windows on the m.2 card as windows didn't recognise it or something....so installed it on a sandisk ultra ii ssd which went through smoothly, the m.2 card showed as a secondary storage drive.....so while looking through windows 10 (as that a new OS for me) i took a look at the disk management section and saw that the m.2 card had a partition of sorts already.....im guessing the person that sold it to me (eBay) must have had issues and gave up.

Anyway, so what I done was simply delete the m.2 volume within the disk management system of windows 10 which then made the whole drive as unallocated space, then shut down, unplugged the sata and power lead from the sandisk, plugged the windows 10 install usb drive in, booted to the bios, loaded optimised defaults, and changed the boot priority to boot from the uefi partition then saved and exit.....windows installed without a hitch this time onto the m.2 drive.

 

[Malcky]

Only weird thing now is that the bios still shows the m.2 slot as being empty, even though it has always recognised the drive....I will assume this is because its a OEM drive???? unless someone knows of other tweaks i need to do somewhere?

My main bios screen looks like this now....

[/URL][/img]

 

[DillonJ3K]

As long as it recognizes the drive in the boot order an you can boot to it with out any issues, Its nothing to worry about. But do make sure you install all the latest drivers for everything.
But also watch this video. It can explain things with visual aid an in ways i cant over text.
https://youtu.be/No-ct8pQcIg

 

[Malcky]

So I done a hard drive bench mark to see how things look, anything look out of place here?

[/URL][/img]

 

[DillonJ3K]

Looks good