How do you get Area 51 to recognize a M.2 SSD Drive

Keep us posted if things change!

Thanks.

So. Finally got my Samsung 960 Pro 512 GB SSD.



Pretty bad results. Here is my 950 Pro 512 M2 SSd for comparison:


Newest NVMe Driver, new Dell Driver, BIOS A10.
Tried different Slots, different M2 Adapters (Dlock, Aquacomputer Kryo M2 with Cooler). Nothing helps. It is probably the ******* Mainboard again. Thank You Verry Much Dell.

Windows Setup was fine. Just slap the new SSD in and run Windows Setup from USB Drive. After first reboot hit F2, go to the Boot Options and pick Hard Drive Windows. Save and proceed.

After BIOS Update from A08 to A10 the PC could not find the M2 SSD.
After BIOS Reset the PC found the SSD but froze during the Welcome Screen. I was forced to pull the Plug.
After second BIOS Reset and proper Setup I was able to Boot into Windows.
Long Story Short: Don't Update Your BIOS if You Have M2 SSD Installed.

I'm confused. While maybe the 960's benchmark is not quite what you were expecting, isn't it better than the 950's bench shown?

Its one of the better results and even then it doesn't look that good. the upgrade wasn't worth it because the Board can't handle the speed. sorry, but this Board is definitely something else. CPU OC = Problem, higher RAM speed = problem, M2 slot = what M2 slot?. the list goes on and on.

I've been looking around online and noticed that alot of people use Crystaldisk instead of as ssd. So let me try this when I get home.

I also downloaded Mortal Kombat X and few other games. now I can compare real world performance. later more....

Crystal Disk Benchmark tells almost the same story. And I can't see any difference in real world performance. 960 Pro and 950 Pro are basically the same except Temps. 960 Pro runs about 7 - 10 °C cooler.

Thanks for the update. When I compared your results to my Kingston Hyper X, the 960 Pro is 2-3 times faster than what I have now.

So what slot and adapter did you end up using?

I end up using the 3rd PCIe x 16 Slot with the Aquacomputer M2 Adapter.

www.amazon.co.uk/.../B01H0BC8FG

Probably the best passiv cooler for M2 SSDs. The Temp of the Drive never passes 30 °C. It's amazing.

Don't get me wrong. M2 SSDs are awesome. Especially for fighting games. MK-X fights load under 2 seconds. open world games run much smoother. M2 SSD improves the performance across the board.

My advice? get the Samsung 960 Evo. they are cheaper. You will never be able to max out the 960 Pro SSD anyway.

I preordered Tekken 7 for PC. can't wait anymore. 4K gaming with M2 SSD will be glorious. :D

btw: we use the same Asus Monitor. my sample suffers from Edge bleeding. :(

Have you not seen a reduction in performance from the GPU by using the PCI bandwidth? There was always a risk that having the PCIe adapter with m.2 mounted would theoretically use the bandwidth usable bandwidth from the GPU cause a bottleneck?

no. why should I? we all have x99 CPus with atleast 28 Lanes. GPU uses 16 Lanes (PCIe Slot 2) and M2 SSD needs only 4 Lanes (PCIe Slot 3). So 28 Lanes are more then enough.

It only happens with mainstream CPUs. the i7 7700K for example has only 16 Lanes. So if you use the M2 Slot, you have only 8 Lanes for your GPU left.

Or did I miss something?

Ok thanks for that, info on how the SLI setup usage of PCIe lanes is sometimes conflicting, a good example is the link below:

www.tomshardware.co.uk/.../whats-sli-pci-x16-x16.html

I think your right and that even in SLI the lanes do not exceed 16 (8x + 8x) so with 28 lanes available with the x99 CPU's here should be ample. Just remember a conversation on it some time back.

Just a few heads-up and differences from Carbon’s method

I did follow this method down to even that apparent useless BIOS visit and it worked perfectly.

Differences:

1. My Bios is A10
2. I made a USB stick instead of a DVD
3. My m.2 to PCIe adapter is a $5 no name of eBay, seemed very well built has 2 little LED indicators for data and power and worked perfectly straight up. (There is no cooler on it and I doubt that most people will ever burn a hole in the drive due to heavy usage).

When you make the bootable stick DO NOT make it with anything else but Windows own Media Creation Tool and insert the USB stick ONLY in a port on the computer (no hubs powered or not, no usb port extension lead etc., etc., etc., nothing, just a port on the PC itself) (I had issues until I made a new stick with Windows own MCT, may matter may not, but give yourself the best cache)

Disconnect everything of the PC, except a wired mouse, a wired keyboard, the internet and the monitor (leave the internet connected so if Windows need something during installation will go and get it itself as opposed to get stuck and throw errors (I had issues until I installed Windows with the modem connected, may matter may not, but give yourself the best cache again)

The 960PRO is not in BIOS, never ever appeared but WIN10 saw it immediately, asked be make it GPT. WIN10 was my perfect partner all through the process while the BIOS is nothing but a slim down pieces of garbage (may even be the most pathetic BIOS in the computer’s kingdom bar none)

• The speed I am getting with Crystal and ATTO and AS SSD is +/- 3400 which is phenomenal with Magician I am getting around d 2900, no idea why.
• The boot and reboot is noticeable fast but is not lighting my Alien on fire so to speak and frankly, since start installing anti-viruses and anti-malware and this and that and the other, the boot and reboot time had obviously degraded quite a bit since I tested it with WIN10 Pro only, on board.
• Is it worth the obscene amount of money this 960PRO commands. Well if you like benchmarking and have money to burn and like to brag to friends, sure, but if you don’t care about none of the above much don’t go rob a bank since if you don’t have it residing in your rig you haven’t missed anything really. Bit of a hype, bit of a toy, useful and very, very smart but….I am still not sure.

Coolshrek wrote:

Just a few heads-up and differences from Carbon’s method

 

1. I did follow this method down to even that apparent useless BIOS visit and it worked perfectly.

 

2. Differences:

1. My Bios is A10
2. I made a USB stick instead of a DVD
3. My m.2 to PCIe adapter is a $5 no name of eBay, seemed very well built has 2 little LED indicators for data and power and worked perfectly straight up. (There is no cooler on it and I doubt that most people will ever burn a hole in the drive due to heavy usage).

When you make the bootable stick DO NOT make it with anything else but Windows own Media Creation Tool and insert the USB stick ONLY in a port on the computer (no hubs powered or not, no usb port extension lead etc., etc., etc., nothing, just a port on the PC itself) (I had issues until I made a new stick with Windows own MCT, may matter may not, but give yourself the best cache)

3. Disconnect everything of the PC, except a wired mouse, a wired keyboard, the internet and the monitor (leave the internet connected so if Windows need something during installation will go and get it itself as opposed to get stuck and throw errors (I had issues until I installed Windows with the modem connected, may matter may not, but give yourself the best cache again)

 

4. The 960PRO is not in BIOS, never ever appeared but WIN10 saw it immediately, asked be make it GPT. WIN10 was my perfect partner all through the process while the BIOS is nothing but a slim down pieces of garbage (may even be the most pathetic BIOS in the computer’s kingdom bar none)

 

• 5. The speed I am getting with Crystal and ATTO and AS SSD is +/- 3400 which is phenomenal with Magician I am getting around d 2900, no idea why.
• 6. The boot and reboot is noticeable fast but is not lighting my Alien on fire so to speak and frankly, since start installing anti-viruses and anti-malware and this and that and the other, the boot and reboot time had obviously degraded quite a bit since I tested it with WIN10 Pro only, on board.
• 7. Is it worth the obscene amount of money this 960PRO commands. Well if you like benchmarking and have money to burn and like to brag to friends, sure, but if you don’t care about none of the above much don’t go rob a bank since if you don’t have it residing in your rig you haven’t missed anything really. Bit of a hype, bit of a toy, useful and very, very smart but….I am still not sure.

we were interrupted by forum update and i didn't notice your reply.
this thread did not survive the transition very well. the order of the posts is all over the place and the pics don't work for me. however, back on topic.

1. my Samsung 950 setup guideline is not valid anymore since new BIOS version is out. so scratch that.
the so called "apparent useless BIOS visit" was necessary. otherwise Area 51 could not find the Windows boot manager.

2. i installed windows from USB flash drive just like you.
the cooler is needed in my eyes because the SSD is mounted next to the Titan X with reference cooler and it gets realy hot. but hey, whatever works for you i guess.

3. didn't need to do that. worked with all USB devices connected.

4. fully agree.

5. how did you manage to get 3400 MB+ with AS_SSD? my highest score was with CrystalDiskMark.

and only after playing around with power settings and command center.

6. i don't know. my games boot up faster. i notice much less texture pop ins and all that.

7. i agree with that point. but you can say the same thing about the Area 51 itself.