@Fernando
I did exactly what has been suggested:
1. Downloaded the latest BIOS from Z87-PLUS support page.
2. Used UEFITool from the first page to insert the uppermost (29kb) EFI module into the DEX volume. Here is it:

3. Renamed the modified BIOS file with asus BIOS renamer tool.
4. Put it on a clean FAT32 formatted USB stick.
5. Plugged the USB stick into USB 2.0 port and flashed the BIOS (firstly with FLBK button which was to no avail, then booted to UEFI and tried to flash using EZ flash tool).

The error I got when flashing with EZ Tool is "Security Verification Failed". While flashing original untouched BIOS completes smoothly, flashing modified BIOS (with nvme module inserted) leads to this error. Meaning the motherboard rejects the modified BIOS because it can not verify the integrity of the modified file.

Hi @Fernando! First, thanks very much for this excellent and thorough guide. I've made an account to report my results and also ask for some assistance.

I've successfully modded and flashed my Asus Rampage IV Extreme, as well as my Rampage IV Black Edition (why both I'll get to in a moment).
I'm able to boot from a Samsung 960 Pro without issues.

After booting, I'm encountering some strange behavior in my system. After an apparently random interval, my graphics subsystem encounter some performance issues. Basically, they system starts behaving as if the graphics cards were under a stress test level of load. Window dragging is extremely stuttery, opening new frames is extremely laggy, and the effect is also present under rendering loads like gaming (extreme FPS spikes as if there were insufficient resources).

CPU and GPU loads during this behavior are not impacted. CPU is usally below 10%, GPU below 5-7%. Additionally, DPC latency doesn't seem to be spiking, though I may be missing something there.

I've not been able to deliberately trigger the behavior either, despite running Linpack and GPU loading tools to attempt to stress the system into the reaction. It seems to be completely random. Resetting the GFX driver through Windows does not fix it.

I've confirmed this behavior on two separate x79 systems (Different MB, CPU, RAM). The behavior only starts happening after flashing the modded BIOS. Removal of the NVME drive and reverting to AHCI with un-modded BIOS removes the behavior.

Any idea at all what I'm encountering? I initially though it was an issue with PCIe lanes, but I'm not consuming more than the provided count GPU1=16, GPU2=8, NVME=4

@Praxis,

Try a different bios release version perhaps. Use Ubu tool to mod the bios modules to different versions as well. Update your ME. Sounds like a compatibility issue.

@davidm71 Thanks for the suggestions!
After some additional testing with my R4BE, changing the module versions (SATA, LAN) doesn't seem to have fixed the issue.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'Update your ME', bios modding is a fairly new topic for me.

My next thought was to try extracting the NVME dxe from an x99 board and inserting them instead of using the Clover team driver provided in the first post.

My process would be to extract

C9A6DE36-FDFF-4FAF-8343-85D9E3470F43 - NvmeInt13
634E8DB5-C432-43BE-A653-9CA2922CC458 - Nvme
E5E2C9D9-5BF5-497E-8860-94F81A09ADE0 - NvmeSmm
 

And insert them in place of the clover team driver. Is this potentially possible? Am Missing dependencies?

Yes that's one other way to do it. Takes a little trial and error though.

Apparently so. I tried a few times with different modules extracted from various x99 boards, but none can see my drive (Samsung 960 pro). The Clover team DXE remains the only one that is bootable.

Is there a specific place I should be inserting these modules? Any other things I can try? I really love the speed of the drive, but if it's not stable with the rest of my system I'll have to give up and shelve it until I upgrade.

@Praxis,

I suspect some sort of a irq or resource conflict or timing conflict with the drive. You should run HWInfo and examine the device tree it prints out and look at each branch and what other devices are using the same bus and then disable that device. I would even recommend you try a different pci express slot such as the primary pci-e slot. Also make sure you update all the device drivers including the NVME drive's firmware to the latest. Of course make sure you have a fresh install of Windows to test from and don't install any oem software until you know the system is stable. In any case your sure it goes away when the drives removed?

Edit: About ME read this.

Zitat von Praxis im Beitrag #2052

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Apparently so. I tried a few times with different modules extracted from various x99 boards, but none can see my drive (Samsung 960 pro). The Clover team DXE remains the only one that is bootable.
Is there a specific place I should be inserting these modules? Any other things I can try? I really love the speed of the drive, but if it's not stable with the rest of my system I'll have to give up and shelve it until I upgrade.

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[OT] Samsung SSD 960 - Low Read/Write Speed Fix

If your Samsung Magician Performance Benchmark shows low Read ~1800MB/s and low Write ~1200MB/s speed, I have a solution for you!

1. Download and install free Defraggler: https://www.piriform.com/defraggler
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3. Done - Read 3000+MB/s and Write 1400+MB/s
4. Alternatively, you can format your drive and reinstall OS.

I know it's stupid to defrag SSD drive, but it works for my Samsung SSD 960 EVO 500GB!
Please note that built-in Windows 10 Optimize Drives tool (TRIM Performance Optimization) - doesn't fix the low Read/Write speed.

Alright, so i have been trying to get this to work for around a day now with no success. I'm not the best with computers and this is the first time i'm trying to do anything to my BIOS so bear with me if there are some rookie mistakes. I am able to mod the BIOS just fine but when i try to flash it with the EZ flash it just gives me a message that "Security verification failed." So i looked into it and found out that i need to either use the USB flashback method (which my ASUS Z87-K motherboard doesn't have) or the Aptio flash tool thingy. So i went for the latter option and dowloaded the file. I tried using the AFUDOS first which didn't work since apaprently it doesn't work on my PC so i tried the AFUWIN and i got it to start and the command prompt opened. It had the different commands i could use and it said "Press any key to continue" so i did, then i got more commands that i could use and the same "Press any key to continue" so i did that and it just shuts down then leaving me confused. So i went looking for advice on what to do there and i just got that i need to run it as administrator which didn't work either for me and that's where i am now. Is there a way to make it work for me or am i in a need of another motherboard that can run the SSD without modding the BIOS? Any sort of help is appreciated.

-Dolmi

Hi Everyone,
I wanted to post my success in following the instructions at the start of this guide.

I have an x79 that I modified for the NVMe protocol capability, and then proceeded to install some NVMe storage.
I am very pleased with the results. These results are with two video cards installed in crossfire (I later upgraded to two NVidia cards in SLI, but the results did not change)
The results I have from Diskmark 5.2.1 have some variance depending on what I am doing. My attached files show the score of what I get on average.
(Some people have said that going faster than normal has no benefit and it is a waste of money , but the same people complain that their games have long load times. I do not have long load times...)