[SOLVED] Z97 Nvme complications

[olaf]

So i have an Asus Z97-C (https://goo.gl/MNFgiH), with the latest UEFI version that's available recent as it is, the damned thing won't boot from a M.2 NVME while the Sata controller is in RAID. The problem is i have a 4 drive Raid array that is a pain to dismantle and i am not inclined to do.
So i am thinking of getting a M.2 to PCI-E adapter. But i am not sure if that would adversely affect my existing PCI-E devices that are :
top 1x Slot -Creative XFI
2nd 16x 3.0 slot - GTx 780TI

The rest are empty , also using the onboard lan. Please don't bother suggesting changing out the mainboard as that will not happen, at that point the cost will be simply to much for all this to actually make sense.

 

[mdd1963]

There should be enough lanes for the installation of a PCI-e X4 lane adapter in 2nd x16 slot (runs in X4 mode, which is all you need)

Pg 9 of your manual seems to imply your 2nd full length PCI-e slot can run 4x bandwidth without issue, but, it might imply in PCI-e 2.0 mode (half speed compared to 3.0):

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/Z97-C/E9748_Z97-C_v2_manual_web.pdf

 

[olaf]

There should be enough lanes for the installation of a PCI-e X4 lane adapter in 2nd x16 slot (runs in X4 mode, which is all you need)

Pg 9 of your manual seems to imply your 2nd full length PCI-e slot can run 4x bandwidth without issue, but, it might imply in PCI-e 2.0 mode (half speed compared to 3.0):

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/Z97-C/E9748_Z97-C_v2_manual_web.pdf

Yeah they aren't making things easy ... The M.2 adaptor i found are all 4x cards ... and on PCI-E that will bottleneck the NVME drive ... but i guess it's still faster then a SATA ...

 

[SkyNetRising]

Using second x16 slot in x4 mode will disable both x1 slots.

BTW - what's the use case for M.2 NVME? Why do you need it?
If just for boot drive, then real world performance is not much different from sata SSD. Difference mainly in benchmarks.

 

[olaf]

Using second x16 slot in x4 mode will disable both x1 slots.

BTW - what's the use case for M.2 NVME? Why do you need it?

My use case scenario is that i got it for free, and its double the size of my current sata ssd.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Then there's no real need to use it in this pc.

 

[karenjoly]

The M.2 drive will serve well. Note that if you slot it in the second x16 pcie port which the bios can configure to run at x 4, the device will run at pcie 2 x 4, slower than its optimum performance but still faster than a 2.5 ' sata AND that the first x1 slot , where you have the creative card, is disabled. Ouch ! But on-board sound these days is likely as good as that card can produce in any event./

 

[Rogue Leader]

Yeah they aren't making things easy ... The M.2 adaptor i found are all 4x cards ... and on PCI-E that will bottleneck the NVME drive ... but i guess it's still faster then a SATA ...

No it won't. NVME drives run at PCIe 3.0 x4 . Using it in any 3.0 x4 slot will give you the same speed as an M.2 slot. Your problem is that you don't have any PCIe 3.0 slots other than the one your GPU is in.

Your M/2 socket should work as I'd imagine you aren't using the SATA EXpress plug, but just the 4 gray SATA plugs. That said in order to boot from that M.2 drive and keep your raid it requires a combo of using Intel RST and setting up the raid that way. I'm not sure you can get an existing RAID to work that way.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005815/technologies.html

I don't know if your board supports this.

If you go the PCIe slot card route your board may not support booting from a PCIe slot. Many boards do not, usually only y6th gen or newer do, but their may have been a BIOS update that allows that. You'd need to contact ASUS. Also as per specs with your Sound card installed that slot will only run at PCIe 2.0 x2.