Will M.2 PCIe SSD work on Sabertooth 990FX R2?

[heyjude]

Hi there. I am a complete noob at this. Just built my first gaming rig, specs below:


SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0
AMD Fx-9590
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
GTX970
CORSAIR Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
CX750M CSU

I put in an old Kingston SSD I had laying around, but I'd like to get a newer on with faster read/write times. I've been reading a lot about the M.2 interface to add an SSD using PCIe x4 and it looks like the throughput is leaps and bounds better than a SATA SSD.

Here's what I've been looking at:
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SM951...GL-00000/dp/B00VELD92U/ref=pd_bxgy_147_text_y
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ue&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=A1YAK8U7QV5H1E

My question is, does the Sabertooth mobo have the lanes to support this and make it worthwhile? Will the BIOS recognize it and allow me to image it so I can use it as my boot drive?

Thanks so much, and please excuse my ignorance if my questions are not specif enough.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Just stick to SATA

 

[heyjude]

Just stick to SATA

Because it won't work, or it won't achieve the desired performance?

Thanks!

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Because it won't work, or it won't achieve the desired performance?

Thanks!

You're limited to PCIe 2.0 and you won't notice much of, if any, difference over SATA.

 

[RGone]

In addition if the board has no M2 slot then the bios may not see the M2 drive and not be able to boot from it or spend days trying to figure out what it is and not boot.

RGone...

 

[caddi daddi]

no it will not work.
over an ssd it's not going to be worth it either, it will decrease your boot time, it will not do a thing for you in game.
forgive me, yes it will do something for you, add heat to your case.

 

[Razor001]

Hi All,

I came across this thread while doing some research on the topic. I did get a M.2 SSD installed in a Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 board. These posts are from a while ago and since then, Asus came out with a updated Bios version which is required for this to work.
The Bios I needed to update to is 2901, I had the previous version of 2501 and as far as I know it was not possible to get a boot off of a M.2 SSD with a PCIe adapter card with the version 2501 Bios.
So if you are interested in doing this, the first step is to update the Bios to the latest for the board which happens to be 2901 (a few years old already, but is the latest). Bios settings have to be adjusted in order to Boot the OS (Windows) from this device.
Dell has a page on general settings which is applicable at http://www.dell.com/support/article...e-them-as-a-boot-drive-for-a-dell-pc-?lang=en
Make sure you know what you are buying in terms of the SSD and you'll need the adapter card.

I used the following for the SSD and the Adapter card:

SSD: WD Black PCIe NVMe SSD I got a 256 Gb one and the exact model is: WDS256G1X0C-00ENX0
Adapter Card: Startech x4 PCI Express to M.2 PCIe SSD Adapter exact model is: PEX4M2E1

Hope this helps. The board is old at this point but if you are doing a similar install maybe this will provide some useful information.

David

 

[AesopsRetreat]

Where did you find the 2901? I just upgraded to the lastest 2501 but don't see the 2901 anywhere.

 

[caddi daddi]

2901 is available from the asus site, checked win 10 through win8, both 32 and 64 bit.

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_990FX_R20/HelpDesk_Download/

 

[AesopsRetreat]

I just tried a 2901 but it said "Security Error." Then reading the model its for say Sabertooth 990fx R 2.0 and I have the Sabertooth 990fx R 2.0 Gen3. Is it the MB difference? Or the OS? I'm using Win7/64

 

[Razor001]

Hi AesopsRetreat,

The boards are different and it appears the latest for your board (GEN3) is R2501, which is not to say that it precludes you from getting it to work. I do not know if the 2501 for your board is the same as the 2501 for the board I have, but the release dates are pretty similar. Best thing for you I would suggest is to email ASUS tech support with the exact question and see if they can guide you in the right direction.

 

[AesopsRetreat]

Yeah, just did that. Bummer. I already bought this stuff thinking it was a shoe-in just through the PCIe adapter alone.
Wish Egghead would give a better Heads Up over possible compatibility issues. Like a big sentence that says: THIS MIGHT NOT WORK FOR YOU. CHECK YOUR MB & BIOS SPECS.

BTW: The two boards look exactly the same.

 

[Razor001]

Are you putting your OS on it. You can get it to work as a drive with the 2501 bios, at least I had no problem doing that, it's just to boot off the PCI is the issue.

 

[AesopsRetreat]

Not for Boot Up, just want it for game storage. Star Citizen to be specific. But even the 2501 fails to load it up. Maybe I need to go to Win 8 ? Hate leaving 7.

 

[AesopsRetreat]

Or maybe I got a DOA unit ?

 

[Razor001]

Not sure if it's a Windows 8 vs 7 thing. I did find this article which I think might be applicable to your windows 7 machine: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...ess-in-windows-7-and-wi#bookmark-prerequisite

- - - Updated - - -

Or maybe I got a DOA unit ?

I just posted a link to a Microsofty article regarding Windows 7 support for NVMe.

 

[AesopsRetreat]

Dood, you are a magician!... That worked. Thank you... :- )

 

[Razor001]

Dood, you are a magician!... That worked. Thank you... :- )

Glad you had success with it.