Gigabyte z97m-d3h NVMe Support

[Agraf273]

Hello, as the title says, I have a mobo Z97M-D3H by Gigabyte and I am about to buy a PM961 ssd NVMe by Samsung to instal Windows 10 or Mac OsX as a boot drive via a PCIe x4 adaptor. My problem is the bios. My Bios version is F8 the latest one. And as I can see correctly there is no NVMe configuration anywhere in there. NVMe is supported by the F6 version but I can't downgrade it. Is there any solution? Will the bios see the ssd in the boot list finally?

 

[Calvin7]

It is since F6 for NVMe support.

Here is a little guide:

The background here is NVME SSDs do not appear within the BIOS until Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector. Your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver.

1- The M.2 drive has to be the only drive installed.

2 - Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.

3 - Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, not windows UEFI.

4 - Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.

5 - Insert a USB memory stick with a UEFI bootable ISO of Windows 10 on it, USB3 is quicker but USB2 works also. A Windows DVD won’t work unless you’ve created your own UEFI Bootable DVD.

6 - Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.

7 - Windows 10 will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.

8 - When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.

9 - Click on secure boot again but now set it to WIndows UEFI mode. (see #3 above)

10 - Click on key management and install default secure boot keys

11 - Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install. Once you have Windows up and running, shutdown the PC and reconnect your other SATA drives.

I would also recommend installing the Samsung NVME driver at this point to replace the Windows one. (optional)

 

[Agraf273]

Thanks for your answer. And also one more question can l install the ssd in the first PCIe slot? it is PCIe 3.0 x16 while the second one is PCIe 2.0 x4. How l am going to get the max write/read speeds?

 

[bholarizwan]

M.2 storage option is not available in Z97M-D3H Mobo?
Are you referring to Z97-D3H?