[SOLVED] BIOS gives low speed for NVMe SSD on Windows 10 desktop.

[laurencewithau]

Hi everyone,
I have just installed a Crucial 1000GB PCie NVME M.2 SSD on my Asus Z97-AR motherboard.
On the SSD label it says Gen 3 X4.
In the BIOS it says that PCi ex 1-1 and 1-2 run at x1 mode. And that M.2 runs at x2 mode. So I chose the M.2 mode.
But the SSD , I presume, is meant to run at x4.
Also, the motherboard is meant to support UEFI, but the UEFI firmware option is missing from the page you get to when you go Settings, Update and security, Recovery, Advanced startup restart, Troubleshooting and Advanced options.
What that indicates, I do not know.
I'd be grateful for any advice. thanks, Laurence

 

[Rogue Leader]

Thats not surprising:

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z97AR/specifications/

There is no indication in the specs that the M.2 slot runs in full NVME PCIex4 mode. The drive is an x4 drive yes, but the motherboard is not capable of it. Standard is x2

 

[USAFRet]

"M.2 runs at x2 mode "

Yes, that is normal for a motherboard of that vintage.
Doesn't matter what the drive says if the motherboard is not capable of that x4 performance.

 

[laurencewithau]

Hi everyone,
I have just installed a Crucial 1000GB PCie NVME M.2 SSD on my Asus Z97-AR motherboard.
On the SSD label it says Gen 3 X4.
In the BIOS it says that PCi ex 1-1 and 1-2 run at x1 mode. And that M.2 runs at x2 mode. So I chose the M.2 mode.
But the SSD , I presume, is meant to run at x4.
Also, the motherboard is meant to support UEFI, but the UEFI firmware option is missing from the page you get to when you go Settings, Update and security, Recovery, Advanced startup restart, Troubleshooting and Advanced options.
What that indicates, I do not know.
I'd be grateful for any advice. thanks, Laurence

Thanks very much for your reply.
The motherboard goes back to 2014, so I should have realised.
But Crucial scanned the computer and said the Asus Z97 drive was compatible. Well, strictly speaking it is, so my fault.
I see online that there is such a thing as a x4 adapter. Would that do the trick?
If not, then I need a new motherboard. I'd be grateful for any recommendations.
The board would have to be not only x4 but also the same or better high specs; because I do a lot of video making and editing. Thanks again.

 

[laurencewithau]

Thats not surprising:

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z97AR/specifications/

There is no indication in the specs that the M.2 slot runs in full NVME PCIex4 mode. The drive is an x4 drive yes, but the motherboard is not capable of it. Standard is x2

"M.2 runs at x2 mode "

Yes, that is normal for a motherboard of that vintage.
Doesn't matter what the drive says if the motherboard is not capable of that x4 performance.

Hi. Thanks for your reply. Now I understand why nothing I did seemed to work. I don't know whether an adaptor card would solve the problem. Thanks again.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Hi. Thanks for your reply. Now I understand why nothing I did seemed to work. I don't know whether an adaptor card would solve the problem. Thanks again.

An adapter will not solve the problem.

Your motherboard has multiple PCIe slots however 2 of them are wired direct to the CPU. If you were to put an adapter card in one of them it would work at x4 BUT it would take 8 PCIe lanes from your GPU possibly lowering your GPU's Performance. All the other slots are x1 or x2 which means they would be the same as using the onboard socket.

It is 100% NOT worth losing 8 PCIe lanes from your GPU for this. It doesn't make that much of a difference in real life use. You'd probably never even notice. Also replacing the motherboard is problematic. There are few if any LGA1150 motherboards available new anymore. You'll be looking at the used market. If its that important to you (like I said even in your use case I doubt you'll see much if any performance difference in real life) you're better off with a full system upgrade.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

It is compatible. You just won’t get the performance out of it because your motherboard is too old

 

[laurencewithau]

An adapter will not solve the problem.

Your motherboard has multiple PCIe slots however 2 of them are wired direct to the CPU. If you were to put an adapter card in one of them it would work at x4 BUT it would take 8 PCIe lanes from your GPU possibly lowering your GPU's Performance. All the other slots are x1 or x2 which means they would be the same as using the onboard socket.

It is 100% NOT worth losing 8 PCIe lanes from your GPU for this. It doesn't make that much of a difference in real life use. You'd probably never even notice. Also replacing the motherboard is problematic. There are few if any LGA1150 motherboards available new anymore. You'll be looking at the used market. If its that important to you (like I said even in your use case I doubt you'll see much if any performance difference in real life) you're better off with a full system upgrade.

Hi, Thanks for bearing with me. I see what you mean about it not being worth the hassle.
Not quite sure about the significance of its being an LGA 1150. You mean, I take it, that if I replace the motherboard with one with the right PCie configuration, it would have to be an LGA1150 for all the units I've attached to the motherboard to work.
I was thinking of returning to PC Partspicker, which I used when I built the PC, and checking the new motherboard, perhaps whichever model has replaced the Z97 at Asus, against all the components attached in one way or another to the existing Asus Z97, to make sure they are compatible.
There are technical reasons, I think you would say, why they would turn out not to be compatible; hence the full system upgrade.
My problem, however, is that I'd soon get hopelessly confused as to what I could salvage from the old PC and what needed to be chucked overboard.
Better, I'm sure, to follow your advice and be content with the speed boost provided by the Crucial NVMe in x2 mode.
I can still transfer the OS to it, I suppose, though I'd be a bit nervous about attempting it.
Thanks very much for all your help and for your clear explanations.Cheers, Laurence

 

[laurencewithau]

It is compatible. You just won’t get the performance out of it because your motherboard is too old

Hi Mandark. Yes, I can see that now. Six or seven years old, in fact, which is old for a PC. Thanks. Cheers, Laurence

 

[Rogue Leader]

Hi, Thanks for bearing with me. I see what you mean about it not being worth the hassle.
Not quite sure about the significance of its being an LGA 1150. You mean, I take it, that if I replace the motherboard with one with the right PCie configuration, it would have to be an LGA1150 for all the units I've attached to the motherboard to work.
I was thinking of returning to PC Partspicker, which I used when I built the PC, and checking the new motherboard, perhaps whichever model has replaced the Z97 at Asus, against all the components attached in one way or another to the existing Asus Z97, to make sure they are compatible.
There are technical reasons, I think you would say, why they would turn out not to be compatible; hence the full system upgrade.
My problem, however, is that I'd soon get hopelessly confused as to what I could salvage from the old PC and what needed to be chucked overboard.
Better, I'm sure, to follow your advice and be content with the speed boost provided by the Crucial NVMe in x2 mode.
I can still transfer the OS to it, I suppose, though I'd be a bit nervous about attempting it.
Thanks very much for all your help and for your clear explanations.Cheers, Laurence

LGA1150 is the socket type of CPU you have, so you would need a motherboard that takes an LGA 1150 CPU. There is no replacement for the Z97 (which is the chipset, so there are many "Z97" motherboards from all manufacturers).

So should you do a full system upgrade all your other parts would work except your CPU and Memory. No current generation stuff accepts DDR3 memory so you would need new DDR4 memory. And new Intel CPUs use a different socket LGA1151.

As for Migrating to the M.2 as your OS drive, I've used this software before to great results:

https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager-guide/migrate-os-to-ssd.html

 

[laurencewithau]

LGA1150 is the socket type of CPU you have, so you would need a motherboard that takes an LGA 1150 CPU. There is no replacement for the Z97 (which is the chipset, so there are many "Z97" motherboards from all manufacturers).

So should you do a full system upgrade all your other parts would work except your CPU and Memory. No current generation stuff accepts DDR3 memory so you would need new DDR4 memory. And new Intel CPUs use a different socket LGA1151.

As for Migrating to the M.2 as your OS drive, I've used this software before to great results:

https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager-guide/migrate-os-to-ssd.html

Hi. Thanks again for all your help. The Crucial NVMe drive turned out to be deceased, or so I assume from the fact that the PC has not recognised it. I'm sending it back tomorrow and asking for a refund.
If they query it, I'll point out that I bought it after the Crucial scan of my PC revealed, or so I was assured, that there was compatibility when in fact the drive would run at half speed unless I risked affecting the performance of the GPU. That, of course, was if it had worked in the first place.
I can do it because of the information you've provided, on the basis of which I feel more confident about attempting a full system upgrade, now that I know which components will have to be replaced/upgraded along with the motherboard.
So problem solved, thanks to the contributors to this thread, and a very special thanks to you.
And yes, I'm sure a times 2 NVMe SSD would give me all the speed I need, even for videomaking, but when I built this PC six or seven years ago, starting from a position of complete ignorance as to the hardware needed, it was a very fulfilling experience.
I can still re-live, in memory, that moment when it was all ready and I turned the PC on, with friends and family gathered around, and the thrill of it when the screen went from darkness into light.
I'm looking forward to a similar experience again.
Cheers, Laurence