M.2 NVMe SSD compatible with Z97 chipset – pricing details not available.
M.2 NVMe SSD compatible with Z97 chipset – pricing details not available.
Hey there, Max. Let's break this down. You're considering upgrading your setup—mainboard, CPU, RAM, and drives. Right now you're using an Asus Z97-A with a 2x 120 GB SSD RAID 0 (240 GB total) as your system drive for Windows 10. You're thinking about adding a faster NVMe M.2 SSD, like the Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB, which is compact and speeds things up for games and VMs.
Your main concern is whether that NVMe M.2 can work as a boot drive. Some forums suggest it's possible on certain motherboards, while others claim you need special tricks to make it work on every board. Since your current setup uses PCIe 2.0 x2, the NVMe M.2 will be limited in speed.
If you want to keep using your existing drive for Windows and add a faster one for gaming/workloads, you might need to explore BIOS settings or firmware updates that support NVMe M.2 booting. Otherwise, you could swap it out later if you find a compatible board. Let me know what you think—good luck!
The Asus Z97 AR ran smoothly with an NVMe SSD as a boot device. Is it certain this boost will make a noticeable impact? For a gaming setup there’s likely no clear improvement, though it could assist with large file tasks.
I’d opt for an 860 EVO model instead. Use it as your boot drive until you replace your motherboard, then purchase a smaller NVMe storage for the same purpose at that time. At that point, rely on the EVO for gaming performance. As others mentioned, there’s essentially no noticeable distinction between NVMe and SATA for regular tasks or games.
I've seen many virtual machines running snapshots that create massive files. Using NVMe seems like a solid solution. Have you tried implementing it on your mainboard? I'm interested in using a larger NVMe SSD with more space, as it would make booting easier and is one of the reasons I'm considering an upgrade.
It functioned automatically, the expected adjustment is a feature named "NVMe mode" or similar, but you shouldn't need to modify it—verify your storage settings in the BIOS.
Based on the information from the ASUS website, the Z97-A board lacks a PCIe x4 port, suggesting no NVMe support. Some users claim it might still function, but there’s no clear method for doing so. Generally, if the device isn’t compatible with NVMe, it won’t work out of the box and switching to a SATA M.2 drive would be a safer choice. It’s uncertain whether investing in an NVMe drive would be worthwhile after trying guides that turn out ineffective.
You can install a PCIe x4 card in any of the PCIe x4, x8, or x16 ports. The Asus Z97-A offers three PCIe x16 slots. I’d suggest placing it in the second slot with a PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 adapter or using a PCIe 2.0 x8 M.2 adapter and utilizing the third slot. It seems the third slot can operate in x2 or x4 mode, though this might turn off the other x1 slots. Also, the board already includes an M.2 slot on its own.
Yes, you can generally use an NVMe PCI expansion card in any compatible 8-16x slot, including GPU slots.