[SOLVED] Can my 9 year old motherboard support m.2 ssd?

stebobibo

Commendable
May 6, 2021
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I have a P8Z77-V Pro motherboard. Here's a link to the pdf of the manual: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8Z77-V_PRO/E7198_P8Z77-V_PRO.pdf
I couldn't find the word "m.2" anywere in the manual. I'm not very tech savy with regards to hardware so I don't know if that's even what to look for. I did see where it listed the PCIe slots on page ix, but I know PCIes are used for other things like the GPU, so I don't know if any of those are the right size.
I'm looking to get an NVME M.2 SSD because I've learned from some quick research online that they have way faster read/write speeds than SATAs. If my motherboard can't support the M.2 form factor, do you guys have other suggestions for a new SSD? I heard you could get a PCIe M.2 Adapter card, but I'm not sure exactly what I'd be looking for, could someone link to an example of one of these, and let me know what makes it compatible with my motherboard? Thanks a lot!
 
Solution
Simple answer is no. You should invest in a 2.5" form factor SSD, something like the Samsung 860 Evo or their ilk(Adata SU800).

img

Prominent
Dec 27, 2020
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its not worth it to put nvme on that system, as everyone else has said, just get sata ssd. You wouldn't be able to run them at full speed anyway.

I think speed is just one aspect of more - if he 'll buy new rig (or laptop) in the future he doesn't have to buy new SSD just transfer the existing (except if the SSD in the laptop is surface mounted), and 'll able to use @ full speed. For now, additional advantage of the lower speed is that the SSDs doesn't get hot, neither without a heatsink. I'm just thinking out loud, these are just considerations to make a better decision. :)
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
i had ssd on Z97 with a I5 4690K, a anti virus scan was often all it took to overload CPU and have it running at 100%. There is no point putting an nvme into that situation as bottleneck is CPU and in some ways, motherboard.

I can remember my ssd running at 16c in my last PC, my nvme is only that temp briefly at startup. and normally about 33c to 49c, depending on ambient. Case design has a little to do with that. My last case was way better at air cooling than current one is.
 

img

Prominent
Dec 27, 2020
48
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i had ssd on Z97 with a I5 4690K, a anti virus scan was often all it took to overload CPU and have it running at 100%. There is no point putting an nvme into that situation as bottleneck is CPU and in some ways, motherboard.

I can remember my ssd running at 16c in my last PC, my nvme is only that temp briefly at startup. and normally about 33c to 49c, depending on ambient. Case design has a little to do with that. My last case was way better at air cooling than current one is.

I understand. I forgot / didn't consider that my system boot drive is a SATA 850 Pro, I use the NVME 950s only for storage (large files for work, virtual machines).
 

stebobibo

Commendable
May 6, 2021
22
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1,515
Thanks everyone for the responses. I might just get a new motherboard. I can use a better graphics card anyways (requiring a new MB), and being able to put a NVME SSD in there if I wanted is another upside. Thanks again.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Make sure you can get a GPU before you even think about it anyway. They sort of hard to get at a reasonable price right now.

biggest speed jump you will ever see is from hdd to ssd, jumping to nvme is just going to spoil it. Especially PCIe 4 as you never get a speed boost like it again. Difference between pcie 3 & 4 is hardly worth the money. Or heat created.
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
That gen and prior don't have bios level pcie recognition at boot. Only able to be done by using Raid drivers, not AHCI. Pcie drivers as such are not loaded until Windows loads, so the NVMe can be used as a Storage device, but not as a Boot device.

It can be done, but requires more effort than is warranted, stands a Very unacceptable chance of bricking the mobo permanently and gets Zero realistic gains.