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taylorjimbo
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November 10th, 2018 20:00
Vostro 3470, NVMe M.2
I installed a Samsung 970 EVO NVMe M.2 drive in my Vostro 3470, but it is not recognized is bios or after booting. If fact I don’t even see a bios option, but I know you can order a 3470 with a M.2 SSD
Any Ideas? In already updated the bios.
taylorjimbo
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Posted November 10th, 2018 23:00
Thanks!
I am new to M.2 format drives. Thanks for the lesson.
Do you know if the Vostro 3470 will allow the 970 EVO NVMe M.2 drive with a PCI-e adapter to be a boot drive?
Adapters look to be $10 to $20 dollars.
I don't see why not, as long as the BIOS is set to UEFI (which I think is the default). If it comes up, note any disk/USB stick booting when set to UEFI must be formatted GPT (FAT32 might work as well), not MBR - otherwise it won't boot.
As already mentioned, you won't be able to add a discrete graphics card later if you want, since the x16 PCIe slot will be used by the M.2 adapter for the 970. What's important to you all depends on what you're using the machine for...
WishIKnewMore
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Posted November 11th, 2018 21:00
I have the exact same problem. Because I'm not that familiar with these different connectors, could you please share the link of the adapter that would work (i.e. that you purchased)? (Dell actually recommended the 970 NVMe M.2 for my Vostro 3470, and I bought it directly from Dell. It would have been nice if they had informed me that an additional adapter would be needed.)
I've used the SYBA SI-PEX40110 (also known as I/O Crest IO-PCE4X-M2 - same device, either may be shipped) in another machine with a Samsung 950 PRO. Available here or here.
EDIT: My reasons for choosing the above was its flexibility to also support 110 mm sized M.2 SSDs and I wanted to pick my own heatsink. Heatsink chosen for it's large surface area was this one from OINVMEIO. Keeps SSD about 11 degrees Celsius (20 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler when under load, especially writes. (Note this system runs at PCIe 2.0, so cooling the M.2 NVMe SSD isn't as important as it would be running at PCIe 3.0.)
taylorjimbo
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Posted November 12th, 2018 11:00
I'm glad to see I was not the only one to make this mistake. Before seeing Techgee lastest post about the /O Crest IO-PCE4X-M2 I ordered a GLOTRENDS M.2 NVMe Adapter Card with Heatsink from Amazon for $16. It will be here on 11/14 and I'll post the results.
WishIKnewMore
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36722
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Posted November 14th, 2018 08:00
I ended up ordering this adapter. I was able to successfully install the 970 EVO ssd and boot from it. The ssd is indeed much faster!
Many thanks to Taylorjimbo for posting this question and Techgee for the awesome answer!!!
Hi, I am trying to install an NVMe M2 Crucial ssd on a Vostro 3268 via PCIe x4 adapter. I can see it in Windows and did a clean OS install via recovery USB but am still not able to boot up with the SSD. It’s saying no hard disk found. How did you guys successfully get the BIOS to recognize the SSD?
Any screenshots with BIOS settings would be appreciated!!
Blimpy Bubble
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Posted October 4th, 2019 13:00
Sorry i am new to the forum and i have been probably just as frustrated with this as all of you. They should come up with an upgraded BIOS for this PC to rectify the problem. Thanks for sharing the adapter resolution.
Blimpy Bubble
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Posted October 4th, 2019 13:00
If your solution is correct then why is the M.2 located in the PCI section and not the SATA controller section.
In the BIOS of the 3470, the BIOS shows Slot 1 x16, Slot 2 x1 and Slot 3 = M.2.If the M.2 is SATA only then why shouldn't the M.2 slot be in the SATA controller section with the other 4 slots? As i
have actually contacted tech support and they told me specifically that the M.2 was in fact NVMe.Just curious ...
Techgee
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Posted November 10th, 2018 21:00
Vostro 3470 manual states that the M.2 SSD slot is for a SATA M.2 SSD. The Samsung 970 EVO is a NVMe M.2 SSD.
If you want a Samsung 970 EVO in the Vostro 3470 - or any NVMe M.2 SSD - you'll need to add a NVMe M.2 to PCIe adapter card to the x16 PCIe expansion slot. I see no reason why the Vostro's x16 slot wouldn't be capable of running at full NVMe SSD performance (~3500 MB/s). Usually, the x16 slot would be used for a discrete graphics card. Of course, this means you can't have both a discrete graphics card and NVMe M.2 SSD in the Vostro 3470. Note a NVMe M.2 to PCIe adapter card requires at least a x4 PCIe slot - the x1 slot in the Vostro won't work.
Alternatively, you can buy a Samsung 860 EVO (or any SATA SSD) in either it's 2.5" format or M.2 format (which should work in the Vostro 3470 M.2 SATA SSD slot). You should get typical 550 MB/s SATA performance.
Note performance numbers are only for larger files, transfer rates of smaller files (like 4k) will be about the same for NVMe and SATA SSDs. For many applications, performance will be about the same due to this and because drive speed isn't always the limiting performance factor. But, the performance of even SATA SSDs is generally much, much better than spinning hard drives.