Boot OS from Samsung M.2 SSD installed on an older motherboard

[andrei.v.danci]

Hi,

I would like to upgrade my system with a Samsung M.2 SSD and make it boot my Windows 10 from it.

I have an Asus p8z68 Deluxe motherboard which by default does not have an M.2 slot built in, so I will need to use an M.2 to PCIe adapter card.

My dilemma is whether or not I will be able to make this drive boot-able from BIOS.

Reading up online, people have mixed opinions. Some say you can't boot with it on an old system build, because it requires an UEFI BIOS that supports NVMe drives, and could boot OS from the m.2 ssd slot (actually pci-e). Other people seem to have been able to do it with a caveat - it needs to be one of the Samsung Pro editions (i.e. Samsung MZ-V6P512BW 960 PRO) which has legacy bios support built in.

Could someone please confirm if I have any chances to get a Samsung M.2 SSD to boot OS on my system, if so, what model do I have to use - since it's just OS I want to run on it, 250 GB would be enough for me hence was thinking about an 970 EVO, or, to get legacy bios support will it have to be indeed a pro version - and what settings would I have to change in my BIOS to get this to boot from it?

Again my system details are:

Intel Core i7 2700K 3.5 GHz Quad-Core 8MB Cache LGA 1155 CPU Processor

Asus p8z68 deluxe MB

16GB RAM

Western Digital 1TB HDDs x 2 in RAID0

ATI Radeon GPU

Many thanks in advance!

 

[USAFRet]

1. On a Z68 board, I'd give that a near certainty that it will not work.
Even later ones, as new as a Z97 it is iffy.

2. Highly unlikely you'd see any real user facing difference with that drive vs a regular SATA III SSD.
And the SATA drive WILL work.

 

[geofelt]

Save yourself some angst and buy a simple 2.5" sata ssd.
Samsung 850/860 evo is good.
What you get with a pcie x16 device is faster sequential benchmark speeds.
But, the random I/O performance will not be different at all.
That is what windows does mostly.
Your raid-0 benchmarks look wonderful, but in reality, you will not get the benchmark numbers.
And, your random I/O performance will perhaps even suffer.
You will be very pleased with a ssd.

No need for the PRO version either. The performance benefit is very small, the main benefit from PRO is greater endurance.
Pro might last 20 years under heavy desktop usage while the evo might be 15.
Both will be long obsolete before they wear out.

If anything, buy a 500gb instead of the PRO, the larger size will tolerate more updates.

 

[Calvin7]

Z68 Chipset motherboards have no support for NVMe storage. That started with Intel Series 9 Chipsets.

You need a third-party BIOS mod for NVMe storage or software such as Clover.
https://www.win-raid.com/t2375f50-Guide-NVMe-boot-without-modding-your-UEFI-BIOS-Clover-EFI-bootloader-method.html