[SOLVED] Before I purche M.2 Adpater and M.2 ssd for M5A78L-M LX PLUS

[neftali.4420]

Hello, and thx four all your help.

I have a Asus motherboard model: M5A78L-M LX PLUS (https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A78LM_LX_PLUS/specifications/)
Whit this expansion Slots
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
1 x PCI

I want to install the O.S. in a M.2 ssd drive Kingston A2000 250GB M.2 2280 NVMe with an Adapter BEYIMEI M.2 NVME a PCIE-M.2 a PCI-E3.016X (Amazon link)

I know that pcex16 v 2.0 have only 2000Mb/s at max r/w capability for this reason I want to buy this cheap SSD and M.2 adapter. (Only want to maximise the live of my old pc). I searched online but not have answer, and the manual of motherboard doesn't have information, I called to Asus tech assistance but always have problems in the call ("they hangup 😡")



My question is, Is it my motherboard capable to boot from M.2 installed in the pcie x16 port ?

 

[rgd1101]

nope. get a 2.5" ssd

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hello, and thx four all your help.

I have a Asus motherboard model: M5A78L-M LX PLUS (https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A78LM_LX_PLUS/specifications/)
Whit this expansion Slots
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
1 x PCI

I want to install the O.S. in a M.2 ssd drive Kingston A2000 250GB M.2 2280 NVMe with an Adapter BEYIMEI M.2 NVME a PCIE-M.2 a PCI-E3.016X (Amazon link)

I know that pcex16 v 2.0 have only 2000Mb/s at max r/w capability for this reason I want to buy this cheap SSD and M.2 adapter. (Only want to maximise the live of my old pc). I searched online but not have answer, and the manual of motherboard doesn't have information, I called to Asus tech assistance but always have problems in the call ("they hangup 😡")



My question is, Is it my motherboard capable to boot from M.2 installed in the pcie x16 port ?

Maybe...but not easily. It takes some wrangling if the adapter doesn't have an option ROM AND your BIOS will transfer boot control to it. Which is very insecure and in this era of high-security and UEFI there's not much call for that anymore. If your BIOS did have the ability to transfer boot control it would be a choice in the Boot Sequence menu.

But no matter... you need to understand it really won't speed up your PC much more than a SATA SSD will. NVME's really only help with large sequential reads and Windows just does not do that very much. SATA SSD's already make random seeks in next to zero time and that alone makes them as speedy as an NVME SSD for being a system drive.

The purpose of these NVME adapters is to hold large files and data sets for making frequent reads from. You don't need them to hold the OS nor to boot from for that.

 

[neftali.4420]

Maybe...but not easily. It takes some wrangling if the adapter doesn't have an option ROM AND your BIOS will transfer boot control to it. Which is very insecure and in this era of high-security and UEFI there's not much call for that anymore. If your BIOS did have the ability to transfer boot control it would be a choice in the Boot Sequence menu.

But no matter... you need to understand it really won't speed up your PC much more than a SATA SSD will. NVME's really only help with large sequential reads and Windows just does not do that very much. SATA SSD's already make random seeks in next to zero time and that alone makes them as speedy as an NVME SSD for being a system drive.

The purpose of these NVME adapters is to hold large files and data sets for making frequent reads from. You don't need them to hold the OS nor to boot from for that.

Thx for your help and quickly answer, so in summary if the mother board doesn't have support for M.2 even old version, it could be difficult or impossible to boot from the M.2 SDD via pcie adapter 🙁. Well maybe i'll try to install the boot in the main HD segate barracuda 2T and the system files in the m.2 drive. Wish me luck.

 

[Karadjgne]

Not gonna work. Physically, yes, it's doable, but that motherboard/cpu does not have the capability to run NVMe as OS drive. Bios simply will not recognise it.

Your only option is to use a standard Sata drive, whether you MacGyver it with adapters to use the m.2 form factor, or just use a plain 2.5" Sata3 drive.

M.2 is a form factor. It's identical to Sata3, just shaped differently. You don't get any performance bonus, just the lack of need for a power/data cable. NVMe is Sata3 on steroids, doubling (mostly) bandwidth and r/w speeds. And a different set of drivers than what comes with Sata3.