Question NVMe SSD X4 w/PCIe Riser on Z97 Motherboards !!!SUPERTHREAD!!!

[razer1073]

Hello all:

After much searching and headache over this issue, I've decided to create a superthread in order to consolidate everyone here.

The main issue we all have is getting our old DDR3 1150 CPU's to run with the big dawgs with X4 NVMe.

As we all well know, this is a PITA as the Z97 chipset was really meant only for X2, BUT! some of the mfgs have provisioned for X4 speeds using a PCIe riser and if I have read correctly the ASRock Extreme 6 and 9 support it without.

Price is our main concern of course, we are trying to make our hoopdie fly and for most of us the ASRocks are a nogo, costing as much as a new mobo...we have the SSD's the, processors and the old GFX cards and we just can't bear to see them go to waste, we know that some chump out there will buy our old sh*at for a few hundred bucks and we can walk away slumdog millionaire. But deep in our hearts, there is more to it than that...we have that bone inside of us that likes to put the extra fine finishing touches on our frankenstiens, deep in the bowls of Midgar, we want the mf to run X4 dagnabit and will go psycho OCD to do it!

Which is where I'm at now, and after much perusement I have found alot of threads with no replies and bad/weak info. So this thread hopes to put an end to the madness and help all of those out there trying to eek out the last drops of gaming blood from this chipset by definitively laying down the info straight on Z97 X4 NVMe SSD.

Don't post here unless you know FOR SURE that your or a rig does X4, screenshots would be appreciated along with exact model numbers/BIOS version of SSD, mobo and riser.

Thanks!!!

 

[razer1073]

So to begin;

I have a few Z97 boards that I have been testing on and have found some good info. I have three:

Asus Z97-Pro Gamer
Asus Z97-A
Asus Z97-K

All bios have been updated to the latest version.

I have found that the Asus Z97-Pro Gamer DOES work at X4 with a PCIe riser and a Western Digital Black 500Gb NVMe SSD, links below (I am having trouble posting scrnshot):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GFDVXVJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MH2P5ZD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Note that this cfg only works with the first two PCIe X16 risers and will drop an SSD into X2 on the third so SLI is a no go for this setup.

Also note that I have a 802.11ax PCIe card that DOES run with this cfg so all green lights for the ASUS Z97-Pro Gamer! (But if you try to run anything in the third PCIe long slot it will drop the SSD into X2)
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The same SSD and riser on the Z97-A and K will ONLY run at 2X. I am going to contact ASUS about this to figure out why and will update then. The bios has the option to select Gen3 on both risers but when you look at the grey lettering it displays "X2" after setting it to Gen3 and rebooting, hwifo confirms in windows.

The Z97-A and -K do run the wireless card but will drop the NVMe down to X1 mode when it's plugged in, which sux. My recomendation is to avoid these mobos.
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So for now the Z97-Pro Gamer IS confirmed to operate an NVME at X4 and will ALSO still allow you to hook up an X1 perif....it goes without saying that your gfx card will run in X8 mode but that should not be a problem, any card you would logically use with such a setup will have enough bandwidth.

Finally I want to add that this all stemmed from my Z97 Gaming 7 dying on me with a USB overvoltage issue, the board boots but after a few days it won't allow it to do so anymore, I could not find a solution but if I recall the PCIe NVMe SSD I had in there was running at X4, don't quote me on this, I will try to confirm and if anyone wants to save me the hassle please do. Also I do not recall if an X1 perif did function with that setup as well. Also not that I was running 16Gb (4x4) TridentX 2666 which is the best DDR3 ram for OC but the Gaming 7 did NOT like that RAM and I constantly had issues with it. I did fix the problem by finding a thread but after a few years it disappeared leaving me stranded. With the ASUS Pro Gamer I didn't have to jack with anything but standard timings AND was able to OC the ram to 2800...this board is a solid bet.

For anyone reading this thread you could probably bet that anything Z97 from ASUS Pro Gamer and above will serve your needs very well.

What we really would like to know though is what the deal is with MSI, namely the Z97 Gaming 5, 3 & G45...these boards are in the right price range and we just need people to come in here, enlighten us and put this topic to bed once and for all!