7010 Mini Tower no M.2 slot - use existing PCIe slot for NVME SSD?

And I need to add a fifth question:

5.  If I do this, will my Optiplex 7010 MT boot successfully from this NVMe SSD plugged into one of my PCI slots?  My BIOS is fully updated to version A29 (Date 6/28/2018).  I ask because a post in a different thread here indicates it will NOT.

Thanks.

Hello @glnz , it's very easy to add an NVME SSD to your system using PCIe adapter card.  Connecting the adapter to the x16 slot wired as x4.  Since your system is very old, it won't give you the full advertised speed of today modern NVME but it will be very fast over the old spinning drive or SATA SSD.

Natively, your system won't boot from PCIe slot but you can use CLOVER.  It's very simple method and the system can boot to windows just about 12 to 14 seconds.

Also, your system should work well with windows 11, it's a lot snappier than with windows 10.

If you install nvme ssd in 7010 Gen 2 PCIex16 slot (wired as x4), you may expect read.write speed around 1700 MB/s. 

In comparison if you install a sata 2.5 ssd the speed is round 500-550 MB/s.

If you install the nvme ssd in the PCIex1 slot, speed is comparable to sata ssd.

If you install nvme ssd in 7010 Gen 2 PCIex16 slot (wired as x 16), speed is same as that in the x4 slot because the ssd can not use more than 4 lane.

you certainly can not install it in the old fashioned PCI slot.

You can use registry fix to bypass Windows 11 cpu tpm and secure boot check and install Windows 11 in 7010 (ivy bridge Intel 3rd Gen cpu), but no future MS update support provided.

To redxps630 - Thanks for your post above.  Since the above, I followed the excellent article at

https://www.tachytelic.net/2021/12/dell-optiplex-7010-pcie-nvme/ 

and modded my Dell Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower, and, as you predicted, am getting about 1,700 MBps on my 7010 with an i3 CPU.

However, that article shows the author getting 3,500 MBps ± on a 7010.  I do NOT know how he does it.

Is it possible that, if I change my CPU to an i5 or an i7 that is compatible with my motherboard (and I understand there are some i5s or i7s that are), I might get 3,500 MBps ±?  Maybe because the higher-level CPU provides some CPI-E Gen 3?

A few people have advised elsewhere that it won't work to get me 3,500, but then again the article indicates that it's possible.

Thanks.

this might help

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/samsung-970-evo-plus-nvme-m-2-slow-read-speed.3730547/

@glnz 

@redxps630 

3500 comes from very dangerous Raid 0 of DUAL M2 drives.  OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD card.

RAID 0 may be efficient in terms of speed, but it is not reliable.

Because RAID 0 splits all data into blocks and spreads them across all disks in the array, experiencing a loss of just one drive loses All DATA.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133990614059

owc_4 DRIVES_accelsior_4m2

Dual M2 in Raid 0

Speedstep - Sorry, but the 3,500 is not coming from Raid 0 or two NVME M.2s.

See the article I linked to above:  https://www.tachytelic.net/2021/12/dell-optiplex-7010-pcie-nvme/ 

You can see that the author has a single Samsung 970 EVO Plus in a single-card adapter, not the fancy setup you describe.

So, how does he get 3,500 MBps in an Optiplex 7010 with a Q77 chipset?  Does his good speed derive from a better CPU than I have?

@glnz 

Using the BLUE X16 Primary Video SLOT

 owc accelsior_4m2

Up to 6318 and 6775 MB/s reads

and writes in RAID 0

He doesn't specify which CPU he has.

Claims to be able to do that with

MZV7S500B B07M7Q21N7

MHQJRH B07JJTVGZM

There are no more answers without spending money.

PCIE 2.0 X4 has 2000 MB/s of bandwidth available, but version 2.0 has more overhead than 3.0 - so you won't see the full 2000 MB/s which is why RAID 0 and X8 or greater is required.

PCI-E 3.0 uses 128b/130b line code

PCI-E 2.0 uses    8b/10b line code

This is not a sound byte nor is it simple.

pci express3 implementation considerations

You will have to do your own research.  Not going to answer for someone else with endless answers to known questions.

Speedstep - you know everything but you never slow it down for us non-techs.

If I follow the article with exactly the single Samsung M.2 and the adapter you link to (which I already have), and if I put an i7 in my Optiplex 7100 and I finally start getting speeds of 3,500 MBps ±, are you saying that the driver the author added to the BIOS is unstable and likely to cause a massive failure?

He has lots of comments to his article, including an IT guy who has modded hundreds of Optiplexes with this technique, and no one is saying that Raid0 is causing blowouts.

But your difficult-to-decipher comments are always food for thought.  Thanks.

Just FYI that I successfully modified my 7010 Mini-Tower to boot from a NVME M.2 SSD and am getting 3,400 MBps throughput on that NVME, which is 15 times faster than the old HDD.

See the article link at Tachytelic I posted above, and all the very helpful comments.

One more question, however, because I might do the same on a second used 7010 Mini-Tower.

Question: I could buy either
  Western Digital 2TB WD Blue SN570 NVMe Internal Solid State Drive SSD - Gen3 x4 PCIe 8Gb/s, M.2 2280, Up to 3,500 MB/s - WDS200T3B0C
  for USD $170 on Amazon ◄ cheap
or (again)
  Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB NVMe M.2 Internal Solid State Hard Drive w/ V-NAND Technology, Storage and Memory Expansion for Gaming, Graphics w/ Heat Control, Max Speed, MZ-V7S2T0B/AM
  for USD $210 on Amazon ◄ not so cheap

Is there much difference between the two?

Not sure if this will influence your decision - I have the older WD SN550 500GB variant in my main gamer PC, and I've had no issues with it so far.

Although major kudos to you for getting an old 7010 to work with NVMEs - I'm not sure if I would have gone that far in my 9020!

Beside no DRAM and a tiny SLC cache, the SN570 just work like the Samsung.  If you don't transfer large files, you won't notice the write speed drop to 600 MB/s, and if you don't write a lot, half amount TBW comparing to Samsung shouldn't be a concern neither.

And, China de Oro -- to add to my two questions to you immediately above --

3)  What other brand model would be comparable to a Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB NVMe M.2 but less expensive?

Chino de Oro - thanks for your comment!  On occasion, the files WILL be large -- possibly entire folders being transferred.

1)  I'm not familiar with DRAM or SLC - where does one find those specs and what do they mean (sort of)?  Happy to take a link to a background article instead of taking up your time.

2)  And -- sorry -- what means "TBW"?

Thanks!