Question Can Asrock H81M-G boot from SSD via PCIe adpater?

[elvaquero]

Hey guys,

I have an ancient Asrock H81M-G and wonder of I can boot Win 10 from NVME SSD if I used this adapter?

 

[Lutfij]

What are the specs to your current build?

How many devices are populating the PCIe slots on your motherboard? Discrete GPU? The other x1 slots are all rated for x1 lanes...so that is pointless.

I also recall seeing something about adapters like the one you've linked above, to be only possible for platforms from the 6th Gen from Intel and above, for AMD, I think it's RyZen/Threadripper only and not below.

With all due respect, instead of wasting lanes that could be allocated towards PCIe devices like wireless/networking adapters and given the limited capability of that board, you're best off going with a SATA based 2.5" SSD that your wallet will allow you to get, like the 860/870 Evo from Samsung...or Crucial's MX500.

 

[USAFRet]

Almost certainly not.
And even if you could, any speed from an NVMe would be cut in half, or more.

The PCIe slots are:
2.0 x16 (presumably you'll have a GPU in there?
2.0 x1.....completely killing any performance of an NVMe. A SATA III SSD would be faster than an NVMe in that slot.

 

[USAFRet]

While "SSD" is usually a good answer to a storage need, "NVMe SSD" often isn't.

 

[elvaquero]

I don't have anything in the pcie slots and it's likely it stays that way as the box is a headless plex media server. So assuming the x16 slot stays free I can have the x4 link for this adapter and a transfer rate of ~1 GB/s, right?

Question remains - can the board boot from there though? CPU is I7-4790 fwiw

 

[USAFRet]

I don't have anything in the pcie slots and it's likely it stays that way as the box is a headless plex media server. So assuming the x16 slot stays free I can have the x4 link for this adapter and a transfer rate of GB/s, right?

Question remains - can the board boot from there though?

No it cannot boot from that.
That board came out before consumer NVMe was a thing. It does not speak NVMe.

And "transfer rate" only counts between two devices. What this data be transferring between?
As a Plex server, you've be gaining nothing vs a SATA III SSD, which WILL work.
Finally, as a PCIe 2.0 slot...the performance of an NVMe is cut in half, at best.

Don't obsess over the theoretical magical speed of an NVMe.
Put a SATA III SSD in there, and you'll never know the difference. (except for spending less money)

 

[Kalleb]

No it cannot boot from that.

Yes you can.
Upgrade your BIOS to version 2.30 which adds NVMe support.
I use

• ASRock H81M ITX
• SABRENT M.2 SSD NVMe PCIe Adapter (model EC-PCIE)
• Crucial P2 CT250P2SSD8 250GB
• Windows 10 22H2

I get 1522 MB/s sequential read speed out of the two PCIe lanes which is not super fast but a lot better than vanilla SATA.