Is the dell Optiplex 9020 compatible with an NVMe ssd

9020 oem motherboard does not have native M.2 slot for the ssd.

you may use a PCIe adapter for the M.2 ssd.

User report:  Dell OptiPlex 9020 does not support bootable NVMe drives in its BIOS configuration (version A24)

OptiPlex 9020 benchmarked an M.2 NVMe SSD at 1600 MB/sec

Hey redxps630 - Wow - you are answering a question I posted here just 30 minutes ago,

I want to do maybe the same thing in an Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower that I bought around 2014.  It has no M.2 slots.

A few questions -

1. If I buy that converter, which PCI slot would I plug it into?  I have four PCI slots in my 7010:
   PCI Express x16 slot (wired as x4)
   PCI slot
   PCIe x1 slot
   PCI Express x16 slot
   -----  Which would I use if I do this? -----
   (The manual is available at https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_optiplex_desktop/optiplex-7010... )
   
   
2. If I do this, would I get full NVME speeds, or does this physical conversion slow things down?
   
   
3. You wrote above that an NVMe SSD plugged into a PCIe slot will not boot a 9020.  Do I have the same problem with my 7010?  My BIOS is fully updated to version A29 (Date 6/28/2018).
   
   
4. Anything else I should know?

Thanks.

redxps630 - thank you for very fast and clear answers.  I'm bummed about the no-booting - wanted to get this as a Xmas present to myself.

1. So - in your opinion, if I buy a SATA SSD (not NVMe) for my 7010 and copy (clone) over everything from my existing HDD, will I see a noticeable increase in speeds, especially booting?  Or not so much, given this old workhorse of a PC?  (For example, my RAM is DDR3.)
2. What newer Dell Optiplex Mini-Tower models have M.2 slots and can take full advantage of NVMe speeds?  What is the oldest such newer model that I might buy used? 

Thanks.

redxps630 -

Do you happen to know the oldest 3000 series model that
(a) boots from an NVMe but is NOT compatible for Win 11 and
(b) boots from an NVMe but IS compatible for Win 11.

I might look for one of those for my wife's mini-office for new employee - lots of accounting and logistics with some graphics but not so much video.

Thanks for super info !!!!!!

you can install the ssd in PCIe adapter in the x16 slot (wired x4) to maximize bandwidth.

you cannot boot from m.2 ssd via PCIe adapter in 7010 either.  the 7010 is older than 9020.  Dell bios does not support M.2 boot in these old models.

nvme ssd physical interface does not reduce speed, be it native m.2 slot or PCIe adapter.  it is how many lanes the interface is connected to that determines bandwidth/speed.  max lanes you can connect using current technology is x 4.

"a M2 slot on a motherboard actually runs on the Pci-e lanes anyway of the motherboard.
Using a M2 card on a pci-e expansion card to a free Pci-e slot gives you exactly the same data bandwidth as the M2 slot on a motherboard equipped with one"

"What does the X4 mean in an M.2 PCIe Gen 3.0 X4 NVME drive? The X4 is the number of PCI-E lanes used by the M.2 card. Older M.2 cards might only use 2 lanes."

Re: if I buy a SATA SSD (not NVMe) for my 7010 and copy (clone) over everything from my existing HDD, will I see a noticeable increase in speeds, especially booting

OS boot will be significantly faster from sata ssd compared to hdd.  internet browser speed or gaming speed would not change as those are more dependent on cpu, ram, gpu.

Re: What newer Dell Optiplex Mini-Tower models have M.2 slots and can take full advantage of NVMe speeds?  What is the oldest such newer model that I might buy used?

Optiplex 7080/7090 are the newest models that support bootable M.2 ssd with native M.2 slot on motherboard.  7090 is supposed to support gen 4 PCIe nvme ssd (although some user reports only gen 3 in practice), 7080 supports gen 3.

Optiplex 7060 also supports bootable M.2 ssd.

For windows 11 support the 7060 is the oldest that is eligible.  It has Intel 8th gen cpu.

the older 7050 is not eligible for Windows 11 (although you can still install 11 but no MS update support).

7050 supports bootable M.2 ssd. "boots from the M.2 SSD if I disable the SATA port for the internal HDD via BIOS page."

Finally, the oldest optiplex that supports bootable M.2 ssd is 7040 which uses Q170 chipset.

For each class of optiplex, the 7000 series is in general main stream optiplex with 4 DIMM slots, and the 9000 series high end.  the 3000 series is usually cheaper entry level model with only two DIMM slots for memory.erPoint Presentation (levnapc.cz)

7010 uses old Q77 chipset which has old PCIe gen 2 only.  so a PCIe gen 3 nvme ssd is automatically downgraded to slower gen 2 speed in 7010.

(1) the oldest 3000 series model that boots from an NVMe but is NOT compatible for Win 11

3050 MT

(2) the oldest 3000 series model that boots from an NVMe but IS compatible for Win 11.

3060 MT

The 3040 MT motherboard is cheap entry level and trimmed down that does not include M.2 on board.  5040 (main stream) and 7040 (high end tier) do have M.2 on board.

red - you are the greatest !!!!!  Thanks so much for great info.   I hit the kudos button on all your posts here. 

yw.   glad to be helpful.

redxos630 and others - Many thanks again for your detailed responses so far.

One of my ideas was NOT to buy new Optiplexes but to somehow get our two existing Optiplexes to boot from a newly installed NVME M.2 SSD (to which I would clone our existing hard drives).  But there is an issue with that - our older Optiplexes won't boot from a NVME M.2 SSD installed via an adapter into a PCIe slot.

I might at some point “give up” and get a SATA SSD, but I’m still thinking about the higher speeds supposedly available in an M.2 NVMe SSD, and there are indeed adaptors that would permit me to connect an M.2 NVMe SSD via my PCIe slots (using the x4 slot, which is recommended elsewhere).

The big issue is that my existing 7010 (and I also have an existing 3010 for my wife’s mini-office) simply won't boot from that configuration because (as explained in other forums) their older motherboards and their UEFIs/BIOSes simply don’t provide for that.

Now, there is apparently a workaround in this situation – use a boot loader called Clover that itself will make the PC boot from the M.2 NVMe in the PCIe slot. But the authoritative forum about Clover is not at all clear to me. See my post there at

https://www.win-raid.com/t2375f50-Guide-NVMe-boot-without-modding-your-UEFI-BIOS-Clover-EFI-bootloader-method-53.html#msg154677 

and then go to its page 1 to see the basic (?) instructions.

Clover itself is a github project, and you can find the latest version at 

https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/CloverBootloader/releases/tag/5142 

but, again, github does not explain what to do with these files or how to use them to create a Clover bootloader USB stick, and so I still don’t know what to do.

Thoughts on this? Thanks.

@glnz , I posted detailed instruction a few times but they got deleted.  To create the Clover drive, you can use USB or SD card with at least 200 mb.  Down load BDU and run it to create a bootable drive.  Open the drive in file explorer and copy EFI driver to 2 more locations (the path as instruction you read from win-raid).  Keep the Clover always plug in when booting, click on the first icon with MS EFI (you only need to do this one time), it will boot windows from your NVME from now on.  

I have zero experience w clover but it seems like an interesting idea. I am re posting OP question here so someone w experience may help. 
“
Hello everyone

please help me resolve my problem

my mb is msi ph67a-c43 (b3)

I succeed to boot from my nvme disk (on pcie x1 adapter) using clover

but here is a problem

when I use uefi clover booting type in boot options (set 1st in boot list order)
1st boot works perfectly, also clover automatically finds nvme and boots to it

but after 1st restart
pc restarts few times
resets boot list to defaults
than boots to csm clover (legacy mod bios)

and than I should manually select in csm clover my nvme to boot windows


for me there will be no difference use uefi or csm clover to boot to my nvme disk

the problem is that csm clover doesn't automatically boot (I need to choose every time which disk to boot)


please help me to resolve this problem “

Note:  To keep this post in compliance with forum TOS, I won't post detail to bypass Dell system but simply CLOVER basic information for discussion.  Source from others with more detail instruction for those interested. 

Basically, this is how it works:  BIOS/UEFI->Clover-EFI->NvmExpressDxe-driver->bootpartition@NVMe-drive->OS

As a bootable device, CLOVER contains NVMe driver and acts as a boot option ROM of the NVME drive.  It can be installed on a USB, an SD card (selected machine can boot from SD), or a small partition on you data drive (SSD, HDD).

After you create CLOVER, you will need to copy \EFI\CLOVER\drivers-Off\drivers64\NvmExpressDxe-64.efi to:

\EFI\CLOVER\drivers64\ (to boot from legacy BIOS)
\EFI\CLOVER\drivers64UEFI\ (to boot from UEFI)

Another step is edit  \EFI\CLOVER\config.plist with your favorite Editor.  Change the value:

Timeout
5

Change 5 to something smaller like 1 or 2, this will make your system boot a little faster (3 or 4 seconds).

On first boot, the CLOVER screen will provide you multiple devices to select, select your NVMe drive and it will remember from there on.

Back to the question from @redxps630 , it seems like the CLOVER drive was not prepared properly.  In either CSM or UEFI, once you point to the NVME drive, it will create a folder in CLOVER with system info and remember to boot that drive subsequently without user intervention.

The process is easy, it takes like 5 minutes of your times and the cost is almost nothing (you may have an old and outdated USB tucked somewhere).  But it will allow you to use NVME drive which is 4 times faster than your SATA drive.  It's so simple that it works on every machines I worked on.  It just plug and forget, sometimes users can't remember that it was there.  Some older NVME drives have ability to boot without CLOVER, I have a list somewhere but feeling lazy to look for it because those drives are old, hard to find and work slower to boot, not worth it.

I hope these information helps someone.

Chino -

EDIT - I had difficulty with your link but finally managed to download BDU_v2.1.2020.028b.zip - thanks!!

Its instructions are not entirely clear.  If I run the exe, what happens?  Will it give me the opportunity to install Clover onto a USB stick?

Also - I am not going to use this or Clover to boot a Mac.  I intend to use Clover to make a Dell Optiplex 3010 or 7010 boot from a NVMe M.2 SSD that is inserted into an adapter which in turn is plugged into a PCIe (x4) slot.

In such case, what should be my choices when I run BDutility.exe?

BUT MAKING PROGRESS !!  Thanks.

sorry, but run what?  What should I download from where, and how do I run it? 

I have the impression I need to install Clover onto a USB stick and then tell my PC to boot first from that USB stick.  But what do I download from where, and then how do I install what on my USB stick?

Sorry for my missing something basic.  Thanks for your patience.