Thanks @100PIER and @Fernando ,

The m2 pcie bus speed on this mobo is 2x, asus says this only in the "overview" site page of product, no one word in the manual or in the "specifications" site page! Asrock Z97 has x4 U.2 slot and that's why m2 was faster on previous system!!

Again thanks!

Bye, Robby

@ilrobby,
I do use a PCIe x4 V3.0 add-in card adapter (DTL120, Kryo, etc..) to use a M.2 SSD device on my 'old' x99 mboard. I don't use the native M.2 slot of the X99 mboard. Setting the PCIe x4 v3.0 add-in card into any PCIe x4 (or x8, or x16) available slot does give the best performances. BIOS settings (link speed, Gen3) should be manually modded because generally the proposed default values (like 'auto') are not working properly. ASUS does not document their BIOS limitations. It is the user to experiment the best manually BIOS settings.

@100PIER and others,
Would you guys look at this screen of my NVMe drive's speedtest and tell me if you think it confirms my sys info reports which say that it is running at PCIe x4 v3.0?

It's in the vertical M.2 slot, bios not modded, AHCI, non-RAID. [Asus X99 Deluxe II (Wellsburg-X) | CPU = i7-6900K (Broadwell-E, Socket R3, LGA2011-3, 140 W, 40-Lane)]

Seq: r.2145 | w.1920
4K: r.45 | w.174
512K: r.796 | w.1833
64 x 4K: r.480 | w.425
Access: r.0.0894 | w.0.0235
Bench: 2586.1 | 5318.1 | 2732.0

http://www.filedropper.com/ismyhdoksamsu...8-12-2802-36-34

@eLaliPapa,
It is easy to check the proper settings of your NVMe using CristalDiskInfo (Transfer Mode info) and HWinfo (PCI Bus info) tools.
Here are attached the tests results for a 970PRO 512GB and for a 960PRO 1TB.
Yelow items does reflect the performance sensitive parameters.
You should get speedtests results similar to the 960PRO 1TB in the example:



Also be sure you have checked properly the write policies parameters:

@100PIER,
Thank you for being so helpul! I have some related questions, but please you should just reply "off-topic/not driver related" to anything. Also, '#) Yes/No' answers are fine.

I can confirm my 960Pro 512GB system drive is running in PCIe x4 3.0 off the motherboard's M.2 slot on an unmodded x99 Bios.
1) I guess that's normal -because your recommendation to mod the bios relates to running NVMe drives from PCIe add-in cards, right?
2) Do you see any unexpected differences in the 960Pro bench results of your and my drives?
3) Your NVMe drives have different firmwares and contrasting bench results. Are those facts connected? (Both are listed as "960 Pro", though you said one was a 970Pro..)
4) Driver issue? : "can be rebalanced" status of most of my devices (e.g. in the PCI-Z section of screenshot)
5) Do you think it's problematic that my system drive SSD's are all MBR and not GPT ? (TrishTech recommends GPT for Win10 system disks: How to Make Sure UEFI is Enabled Before Installing Windows 10)

Windows write-cache buffer flushing is currently enabled on all drives, though UserBench only flags the WD Gold 10TB Device SCSI\Disk&Ven_WDC&Prod_WD121KRYZ-01W0RB as being RAM Cached (it's on controller1 iastorA - Intel 9 Series SATA AHCI v.14.8.18.1066). I don't know why because I've never created a RAM cache.

Would you mind checking out the attached screen and tell me if you'd have any concerns? My concerns are labelled with arrows on the screenshot:
6) Anvil says "Alignment = Not OK", and it says that for at least one partition on each of 9 connected drives.
7) SSD-Z shows 3/4 and 2/4 partitions on some drives, but -nevermind, it's including the 5MB Over-Provision at the end.
8) Windows write-cache buffer flushing: Would you still suggest I turn it off (no liability inferred on your part, of course), given HWinfo shows 196 Unsafe Shutdowns and in 2 years I did once accidentally hit the outlet strip off-toggle while the win10 was booted; also our house electrics do get flickery, though I have my system running through these: APC Line-R-1200VA-Automatic-Voltage-Regulator | Tripp Lite Isobar 6 Outlet Medical Grade Surge Protector Power Strip (ISOBAR6ULTRAHG)

Thanks again for your kindness.

@eLalipapa,

some comments:
1) No, I think your original BIOS v1801 does support NVMe, so no need to be modded whatever the M.2 plug solution you use (M.2 on the motherboard slot or PCIe add in card)
2) when I used in the past W10 build 15063 (sept 2017) I got ANVIL score about 16150 for a 960PRO 1TB (no Spectre/Meltdown protection implemented at that time).
3) Yes, i do use about 15 SSDs devices with up to date firmware and drivers.
4) PCI-Z ?
5) You should set all your SSDs in GPT, tag the turn of write policy as indicated in post#66, do align all your SSDs (MiniTool Partitionner, or EaseUS13 (4K alignment)), do overpositionning to preserve SSDs reliability (Samsung MAGICIAN v5.3 do that perfectly, you can uninstall it after that), don't worry about "Unsafe shutdowns" SMART value.

@100PIER -All of your input has been put to use and my system is happier for it! I been really slow working on my system, but wanted to thank you again

..re "4) PCI-Z?" - something i found via PortableApps. PCI-Z by Bruno Banelli:

Zitat

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PCI-Z is a freeware lightweight system utility designed to provide information about (unknown) PCI (PCI-E, PCI-X...) devices and helps you find appropriate device drivers. PCI-Z is designed for detecting unknown hardware on your Windows based PC. It will help you determine vendor, device and certain details about device even if you don't have drivers installed. Software uses The PCI ID Repository, a public repository of all known ID's used in PCI devices: ID's of vendors, devices, subsystems and device classes. It is used in various programs (e.g. The PCI Utilities) to display full human-readable names instead of cryptic numeric codes. It is almost similar to lspci Linux command but with full Windows support.

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@eLaliPapa
here is a screenshot after some reconfiguration and drivers updates: last Samsung NVMe driver is used to handle a 960EVO 500GB, last Intel sSATA driver is now used to handle a classical Kingston SATA6G 120GB. I have removed some 960 PRO and 970 PRO ssds into another system based on z390.

@100PIER
Thanks for the update! Mine looks like below..but got another icydock and want to add more drives to it.

Do you have any recommendation for a brand or where I can look for info for a NON-raid PCIe card for at least 8 additional SATA ports? I guess an HBA type card that will give me full SATA 6GB/s bandwidth on each drive connected to it, and seems like i should spend 150-200 USD for a reliable PCIe 3.0 card and it should be an x8 slot card. In my searches it is hard to tell whether marketing is accurate about raid vs non-raid. One can find the same model number wiith same LSI controller model, but listed on one sight as raid/megaraid and as non-raid on another site. Currently have my eye on LSI Broadcom SAS 9300-8i 8-port 12Gb/s SATA+SAS PCI-Express 3.0 Low Profile Host Bus Adapter.

@eLaliPapa
I do ignore such LSI Broadcom Sata add-in card solution.
Maybe I can suggest to have a look on some Startech.com solutions ?

@Fernando

Hi, with UBU I updated iRST, intel LAN and CPU microcode in the latest official bios available for Asus X99 Strix Gaming and a RAMPAGE V EDITION 10, I noticed that there are two OROM Intel RST for SATA one v13 and the other v14, after the update they are both v14, is this normal? because my main purpose is to update the cpu microcode, the controller is set to AHCI for the moment so if the update of the raid firmware can create problems I leave what is there and update only the network and microcode.
can you please check if everything is ok? original and modded bios here > *ttps://mega.nz/folder/TolimQqL#g0XM09PPZnPdo3r_1aiIHQ <

thank you in advance.

Hi X99/C610 users. I have been entangling this issue for a few days and searching online didn't find any explainsion. I use one CPU E5 2678 v3 on the Huananzhi X99-AD3 motherboard. I connected ten disks. When I test the speed for all the 10 SATA ports, the speed is quite slow. It can't reach DMI 2.0's maxium 2GB/s.

The test result is on Window, the total write speed is around 1.1GB/s and read speed is 1.6GB/s.
While on linux, the total write speed is around 1.2GB/s and read speed is 1.6GB/s

What's the cause of the speed limit? CPU? motherboard? or PCH chip's ablity?
I don't see anyone else mentioned this issue on internet. I have also asked on Intel community forum but no answer. I have modified my bios using UBU and replaced the 14.8.16.1063 and 5.2.0.1194 controller, and I didn't setup any raid. Do other X99/C610 motherboard users have the same issue?

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This is Windows write test using cygwin dd, total speed is around 1.1GB/s


This is Windows read test using cygwin dd, total speed is around 1.6GB/s


This is write test using fio on linux, total speed is around 1.2GB/s


This is read test using dd on linux, total speed is around 1.6GB/s