Fernando,

The only difference between for Asus X79-DELUXE with the latest:

Version 4805, 2016/03/02 (Improve system stability) with the previous
Version 0902, 2014/09/19 (Improve system stability) is those 3 NVMe files.

I have checked both of the bios'es line by line. The hint, lies inside the other files. I have catched a flu right now, but soon, I will explore file by file, both bios'es and will search where the trick is.

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #2507

---

I generally do not recommend to flash a BIOS, which has been designed for another mainboard model, especially not for newbees. The risks of a bricked mainboard are extremely high.

---

The new bios calls those files from ??? don't know. Hey, I have spended 2 years at Bilkent University Computer Programming between 1993 - 1995, many years passed, but I am not a newbie! :))
Well if I can find a cure, I will wrote it down.
For now, I can not advice more to anyone.

Will see soon, but a couple of months later maybe!

But actually, there is a much better way than a single NVMe drive.
I am using LSI- Avago - Broadcom 9311-8i controller with 8 Corsair GS 128GB drives with Raid 0
Read and write speeds are 4.300GB/s and 3.900GB/s according to ATTO Disk Benchmark as you may guess, that is much more higher than a single NVMe drive. For that reason I am not reallly keen on buying an expensive SSD for now which is slower than that I currently use.
People who have difficulties with a NVMe drive may prefer a Raid 0 configuration. Samsung 960 Pro is more or less equal to 5 to 6 piece Raid 0 SSD's, depending on the model. Buying 6 units of regualar Sata SSD's may cost lower than a Samsung NVMe unit.

So, not being successful with NVMe sticks are not the end of the world! There are many mainboards present with 6 channel Sata controllers.
Trim is also possible for Raid 0 units by using "SSD Tweaker Pro 3.7.1" but with paid version and if you wish to overprovision your drives you may use "Solid State Doctor 3.1.4.2" and you may reserve your total space with it! I spared/disabled 64GB from 1024GB.

Note: For Raid 0, LSI- Avago - Broadcom 9311-8, 9217-8i and 9210-8i are really fine controllers. The upper on board cache being units are slower at maximum read and write speeds with Raid 0. Those can be used other than Raid 0, with 5-10-50 what so ever. If you configure them with Raid 0, they disable their on board caches, so there is no need to pay/use them for Raid 0!

Fernando, I could kiss you! Thank you so much for your detailed tutorial, and everyone involved! It's really easy to follow with each step explained. I've successfully set up a Samsung NVMe SSD as the boot drive on a Z77 motherboard.



Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe
BIOS: v2104 updated with latest UBU + EFI NVMe BIOS module NvmExpressDxE_3 (uncompressed)
Adapter: ASUS Hyper M.2 x4 Mini Expansion Card
SSD: 250 GB Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe SSD

EDIT by Fernando: Absolutely off-topic and inadequate parts removed

That is fine, I get angry a bit....

hi fellow raiders

I was able to insert module 3 and flash my bios with no issue. Now i need to buy an adapter. Of course the main thing is not to sacrifice performance, but a cooling solution also seems like a good idea. I like the ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Mini Expansion Card but I dont have an ASUS motherboard and read it was incompatible with other manufacturers. My current is Asrock. Does anyone have experience with that? Any other recommendations? thx. After the mod, can i use the built in RAID on the motherboard to increase performance using multiple NVME drives?

@ESRR
We have the exact same ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe machine, same size RAM, same BIOS modded the same way, however not the same CPU.
Here is the ANVIL score I got after migrate OS from 950 PRO 512GB to 960 EVO 500GB on last June and also benchmarked on last October.
You note that I used at that time a different W10 version, Samsung NVMe Driver v2.2.0.1703 and a 960 EVO 500GB model with v2B7Q firmware.





960EVO 500Gb is specified R/W sequential: 3200/1800
960EVO 250GB is specified R/W sequential: 3200/1500
The expected ANVIL score should be higher with 960EVO 500GB than with 960EVO 250GB, your test does produce better result.
How can you explain ?
I have updated recently to firmware v3B7Q via Magician tool. But not done new benchmarks.
A1s you know new 960PRO/EVO firmware are totally buggy and does produce freezes, unstability and may be does seem progressively destroy the SSD.
A new firmware version 4B7Q is expected on next January.
Some 960PRO/EVO users do recommend to use MS NVMe native driver instead od Samsung driver to limit the problems.
Do you have observed the problems on your machine ?
(nota I don't use the MS e_Drive encryption technology that 3B7Q was (miss)-designed for.)

@lev , I bought cheap m.2 adapter simply because there is nothing complicated in such adapter. I can not understand why some "branded" adapters cost so much. They are simple PCBs with few passive components on them. My mobo is P67 Extreme4.

I have already done the process you described at start. Now expecting my 960 Evo + my pcie controller in next 2-3 days and will make the testing.

Since I got Asus Sabertooth x79 (with flashback option) I guess worst case scenario is if something goes wrong to reflash with original bios with bios-flashback procedure again (special usb port on board for this, no cpu/ram/etc needed).

Will get you all updated if works.

Thanks again,
Manos

@100PIER
Thanks for your feedback, I didn't know about the buggy 960 firmware; as I just bought the SSD. I will definitely update when the new firmware becomes available. But for now I haven't encountered any freezes or anything bad since I installed it a week ago.

I'm guessing the actual speed of your SSD depends on what other components you have in your system. We have the same MB, but everything else is different (otherwise it would be an incredible coincidence). For example I have 4 sticks of Kingston HyperX 4GB 2133MHz KHX2133C11D3K4/16GX internal memory running at 2133MHz XMP. Those differences might influence the speed, let alone a different model and driver of the SSD.