Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #3061

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@yellowyello:
It depends on the NVMe SSD model. If it natively contains an NVMe Option ROM (e.g. the Samsung 950 Pro), you can use both boot options.
The big majority of NVMe SSDs do not have an NVMe Option ROM. So in most cases you will have to use the GPT and UEFI boot variant.

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True. I modded the MSI P67S-C43(B3) BIOS Ver5.4 with a success. But here's some problem after I reinstalled 64-bit Windows 10 LTSB on my NVMe SSD in UEFI+GPT:
0.Intergrated Realtek ALC892 gone, no audio device available in Windows10 except the 'AMD High Definition Audio' provided by Radeon RX560.
1.The Model Name of NVMe SSD is not shown in the BIOS setting nor Boot Menu. The mobo describes the NVMe SSD as 'PATA: '
2.Windows reported that 1.2GB of RAM is reserved for hardware which makes my total 16GB DDR3 1600 RAM only 14.8GB available for Windows10.
3.The voltage setting seems not working in Windows10. I set Vcore=1.2500V and in BIOS setting menu it says Vcore=1.2486V but HWInfo/HWMonitor/CPU-Z/AIDA64 are all showing 1.361V for Vcore which makes no sense for a stock I5-2500K.
Is it possible that the insertion of NvmExpressDxe_Small.ffs might mess up with other section of BIOS?

Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #3020

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@lime:
Why do you want to create an Intel RAID0 array consisting of NVMe SSDs at all?
And what has your request to do with the topic of this thread?

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Sorry Fernando for taking so long to reply back, i don't want Intel Raid0 for these 2 SSD's/just SSD's. I was hoping i can get a adapter that allows to place 2 extra pcie boards in a 90 degree which at the moment i don't need 2 ssd's right now. Long story; short... i want one ssd to work at this time in 4x with my video card in 8x, since i have an extra 4x lane from cpu i was hoping if i can use that extra one for when i don't have anymore space for storage in current drives. It'll be a adapter which comes out the last PCIE slot for a mATX board which splices to two others. Hope that makes sense :S

Also the current "NvmExpressDxe_4" module, does it allow for Samsung 970 Pros?

Zitat von yellowyello im Beitrag #3078

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@Fernando
Switching to the "normal" NvmExpressDxe_4.ffs solved problem 2&3, now windows report only 44.5MB of RAM reserved for hardware which is much better and HWMonitor shows that Vcore stays in 1.248V rather than shoot up to 1.361V.
For problem 1, in BIOS device menu it still shows ‘PATA:’ but in boot menu it shows ‘UEFI:Windows Boot Manager(Asgard NVMe blablabla)'.
For Problem 0, Integrated Realtek ALC892 Audio Controller still missing (double checked the BIOS, pretty sure that Onboard Audio Controller set to Enabled and Realtek Audio Driver downloaded from MSI product support page successfully installed) but I purchased a USB Audio Adapter so it doesn’t matter anymore.
Thanks again for your advice.

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UPDATE: the moment i plugged in the USB Audio Adapter, the Integrated Realtek ALC892 Audio Controller shows up in Windows Device Manager. Must be the act of mighty god.

Zitat von lime im Beitrag #3081

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i want one ssd to work at this time in 4x with my video card in 8x, since i have an extra 4x lane from cpu i was hoping if i can use that extra one for when i don't have anymore space for storage in current drives. It'll be a adapter which comes out the last PCIE slot for a mATX board which splices to two others.

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Your G1 Sniper M5 Z87 supports SLI, which means the 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes from the CPU can be split to x8/x8 and you want to take advantage of that by using the full x8 for two x4 PCIe/NVME SSDs. So far, so understandable. :D The issue is that the chipset does not support further "bifurcation" of the PCIe lanes in that x8 slot. So with passive M.2 adapter cards, all the card sees is one x8 slot and the mainboard only sees one x8 card. Server chipsets and the X299 chipset support PCIe lane bifurcation as far as I know. For a consumer grade chipset like your Z87, you would need an acitve adapter card which has a PLX PCIe switch chip onboard. Those exist, see here and here, but they do cost about $450 and up, because of the PLX chip price gouging that is going on. At that price it does not make a lot of sense and the money is better spent on a larger capcity SSD to begin with. Maybe you would be fine with a PCIe NVME SSD and a M.2 SATA SSD on the same adapter. Those exist and work. The PCIe SSD gets power and data through the PCIe slot and the SATA M.2 SSD gets power through the PCIe slot, but has a cable connected to a normal SATA port. That way it is compact and you only have one cable connected. You won't get the super speed of PCIe on both drives though and no RAID. Otherwise, use the small PCIe SSD for as long as it suites you and once you need something bigger, sell it off and buy something bigger. That's about the only two viable options I see for your situation at the moment.


Now to my own post, which was the reason I registered yesterday:
Hey!
I just registered to write a big thank you for this thread! :D My system specs are in the signature. TL;DR: It all worked great!

Long rambling version:
I had a 500GB 840 Samsung SSD since 2013, the first TLC NAND SSD (with the bug). It was sorta fixed via firmware eventually, but the SSD still felt slow after using it a while. I didn't just want to upgrade to another 2.5" SSD and I didn't want to upgrade to another 500GB SSD. When the Samsung 950 Pro was released, I was tempted to get the 256GB version (~170€) just for my Windows partition and a game or two, because it had the Option ROM which meant it would work and it would have provided a nice upgrade in terms of speed, though not capacity. Never followed through, the small capacity was a turn off and the 512GB version was a bit too expensive for my taste. I kept an eye on the whole thing though. I saw several threads that discussed inserting NVME modules into older chipset BIOSes to get PCIe NVME drives bootable. And while I've done BIOS mods on my graphics cards and laptops to reduce voltage or increase frequency, I was still wary of messing it up and bricking my motherboard. So when I saw a good deal on a 960 Evo 1TB SSD (300€ @ Amazon.de), I started looking into it again. I noticed the Clover chainloading version and thought that sounded good and non-invasive. But once I actually clicked on all the "plus/spoiler" signs in the first post, I realized the BIOS editing did not seem too difficult and the brick potential was low. So before I even ordered the SSD and adapter, I edited my BIOS file and flashed it. Since I have a CSM version, MSI does not offer BIOS files on their website, they only update through software. But in the BIOS, one can save the BIOS file, which I did and I edited that. Then I saved the flashed file to confirm that the NVME module was present, which it was. All worked.

It was good timing as well, since I had to do some PC maintenance in any case. My CPU heatsink fans stopped reporting RPM numbers, which possibly meant they were dead (Dark Rock Pro 2 has two fans, one 120mm and one 135mm). And my case fans had a loose blade assembly (from being too old is my guess, 9 years), which meant they scraped against the case. So I replaced all the case fans, checked the CPU heatsink fans (which worked) and then inserted the Icy Box IB-PCI209 with my Evo 960 installed in the PCIe slot (it has another slot for a SATA M.2, which is powered via PCIe slot but connected with a SATA cable). I also disconnected both SATA drives and had my new Win 10 USB stick with version 1803 ready to go. Loaded up the BIOS and selected the "[UEFI] Patriot USB Stick" option. It loaded and I could choose the ~930GB SSD to install my Win 10. I let it do its thing, then shut it down and installed the 750GB 2.5" data HDD. The bootable thing is the "[UEFI] Windows Boot Manager", but in the overview it mentions it as "[UEFI] Windows Boot Manager (Samsung Evo 960 1TB)". I disabled the legacy boot stuff and enabled fast boot for the first time and I now load into Win 10 after 12 seconds. Before, I had it at [Legacy+UEFI] and normal boot, which was about 25-30 seconds or so.

I did one CDM benchmark with the default Win10 driver and one with the 3.0 Samsung NVME driver. Sequential speeds are pretty similar, randon speeds are a bit in Samsungs favor. So I think I'll stick with it for now.

If I wasn't such a fan of small cases and tidy installations, I probably would have gotten a Micron 1100 2TB 2.5" drive as my catch all. My current system is 500+750GB (Sys/Data), so 2TB would be plenty. And they are cheap-ish, at 330-350€ on ebay.de. But I do like the M.2 form factor, so I went with the PCIe NVME version for my system drive. I will likely get a 1TB M.2 SSD for my data drive, not sure if it'll be SATA or NVME/PCIe. SATA I could use right now with the adapter card. PCIe, I could use when I change to a Ryzen system (waiting for a nice mATX A450 board) with the M.2 slot onboard and the adapter card occupying the PCIe 2.0 x4 slot (native onboard 3.0 x4 would be my Evo 960 for system stuff and adapter card 2.0 x4 would be a Kingston A1000 which is 3.0 x2 fo 250€ right now, SATA M.2 is 210€ for 1TB on sale). We'll see. :D

Anyway, super grateful for the thread and the great first post guide. For anyone wondering, my BIOS settings weren't changed by this mod, my CPU still runs at 3.6GHz/1.0V, no weird things happened to my graphics card (32" 4k monitor @ DP1.2 and 22" 1080p @ DVI). My LAN connection might have a hiccup (Realtek chip), but that used to happen from time to time with no real reason before as well, unfortunately.

Cheers,
Lukas :)

Edit: It seems that the LAN issue is a cable issue. Switched it to another one and that seems to be working fine now. Opening/moving the case around must have exacerbated and existing cable issue.