About 10 y/o hardware, rebuilt process

[KrazyT]

Hi everyone,
Sister gave me old PC parts.
Now I want to rebuild it for my father.

I've got everything, except HD.

The mainboard is an GA-Z97X-Gaming 3 (rev1.0).
It has an M.2 port.

Question : can I put any SSD in there ? Or there are any compatiblity issues ?
I had a look on the manual, but it wasn't really clear :/
(Don't really care if it's not going full speed)

 

[Solaris17]

It’s a pcie m.2 so NVMe. Any normal NVMe drive should work

 

[Macro Device]

Yeah, NVMe works just fine, tested that myself on the latest firmware. Speed seemed pretty much optimal. Never tested other kinds of m.2 SSDs on this board though.

 

[KrazyT]

Cool, thanks a lot, I wasn't sure !

 

[Toothless]

It'll work but not at NVME speeds. You'll cap out around 800MB/s. You probably can use a PCI to m.2 card for full bandwidth. Tested this on two Z97 boards.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Sis having old Z97, I am interested.

 

[KrazyT]

It'll work but not at NVME speeds. You'll cap out around 800MB/s. You probably can use a PCI to m.2 card for full bandwidth. Tested this on two Z97 boards.

Thanks, no problemo with the speed.
It will be allright, just the OS on it and an internet browser !

 

[Bill_Bright]

Do your homework. I probably would not put a M.2 SSD in there simply because everything else is 10 years old. A regular SATA SSD will still run circles around the fastest hard drives.

 

[Toothless]

Do your homework. I probably would not put a M.2 SSD in there simply because everything else is 10 years old. A regular SATA SSD will still run circles around the fastest hard drives.

Haswell can absolutely keep up with NVME drives with zero issues. Just because it has a long tooth doesn't mean it's not capable. The pricing between SATA and NVME is so small that it's not a concern.

 

[Macro Device]

You'll cap out around 800MB/s.

Only an issue if you do something specific on your machine. For basic tasks, Excel spreadsheeting and gaming, it's overqualified. OP'll be fine.

 

[Toothless]

Only an issue if you do something specific on your machine. For basic tasks, Excel spreadsheeting and gaming, it's overqualified. OP'll be fine.

Yes, however not everyone knows of the Z97 limits and sometimes people want the performance they pay for. At the minimum it's just making sure someone understands.

 

[eidairaman1]

Upgrade the motherboard bios to last stable release before doing any drives

 

[damric]

Question is whether that board supports BOOTING from NVMe. I seem to recall Z97 was a bit iffy because that was new tech at the time.

 

[Toothless]

Question is whether that board supports BOOTING from NVMe. I seem to recall Z97 was a bit iffy because that was new tech at the time.

It does. From board slot and PCI card.

 

[Noci]

Maybe I'm wrong, but looking at the QVL the M2 slot this mainboard only supports the SATA III protocol with PCIe 2.0, not NVMe as most of the M2 SSD's are nowadays (that stuff is soooo confusing ).
https://eu.crucial.com/articles/abo...four lanes for,and a more responsive computer.

They are not very clear also in the manual, but I believe you guys if it works it works .

However PCIe SATA III should be enough for a build like this (with the intended usage), only finding a SATA III M2 SSD might be a challenge nowadays I guess.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Question is whether that board supports BOOTING from NVMe. I seem to recall Z97 was a bit iffy because that was new tech at the time.

They do. You just have to be very aware of what SATA lanes you cannot use for other drives.

Maybe I'm wrong, but looking at the QVL the M2 slot this mainboard only supports the SATA III protocol with PCIe 2.0, not NVMe as most of the M2 SSD's are nowadays (that stuff is soooo confusing ).
https://eu.crucial.com/articles/about-ssd/m2-with-pcie-or-sata#:~:text=PCIe vs SATA&text=PCIe uses four lanes for,and a more responsive computer.

They are not very clear also in the manual, but I believe you guys if it works it works .

However PCIe SATA III should be enough for a build like this (with the intended usage), only finding a SATA III M2 SSD might be a challenge nowadays I guess.

Most are backwards compatible. Just to be extra sure, I would (and have done myself) get no newer than a gen3 M.2 drive for a Z97.

 

[damric]

Maybe I'm wrong, but looking at the QVL the M2 slot this mainboard only supports the SATA III protocol with PCIe 2.0, not NVMe as most of the M2 SSD's are nowadays (that stuff is soooo confusing ).
https://eu.crucial.com/articles/about-ssd/m2-with-pcie-or-sata#:~:text=PCIe vs SATA&text=PCIe uses four lanes for,and a more responsive computer.

They are not very clear also in the manual, but I believe you guys if it works it works .

However PCIe SATA III should be enough for a build like this (with the intended usage), only finding a SATA III M2 SSD might be a challenge nowadays I guess.

yeah I had an ASUS Z97 mini-ITX board with an M.2 slot on the back, and well that shit could be read from windows but for some reason wouldn't boot from that drive. It was so long ago though I might not be remembering right. That was back when I could afford like a 128GB drive

 

[KrazyT]

Do your homework. I probably would not put a M.2 SSD in there simply because everything else is 10 years old. A regular SATA SSD will still run circles around the fastest hard drives.

Yes I'm aware of this.
I'll put an SSD, only to get rid of cables and keep it clean, the lazy and simplest method !
If it doesn't work, i'll put a SATA SSD, it's not the end of the world

Only an issue if you do something specific on your machine. For basic tasks, Excel spreadsheeting and gaming, it's overqualified. OP'll be fine.

Hu,hu, no gaming and no excel, it's uberqualified !

Upgrade the motherboard bios to last stable release before doing any drives

I'll check this

 

[lexluthermiester]

It'll work but not at NVME speeds. You'll cap out around 800MB/s. You probably can use a PCI to m.2 card for full bandwidth. Tested this on two Z97 boards.

Are you sure? That slot is a 2 lane PCIe 3.0 slot. Should do 1960MBps easy.

I'll put an SSD, only to get rid of cables and keep it clean, the lazy and simplest method !

512GB NVMe drives are $45 for a good quality model. It'll be fine. Get one, plug it in, install your OS, enjoy.

 

[Toothless]

Are you sure? That slot is a 2 lane PCIe 3.0 slot. Should do 1960MBps easy.

512GB NVMe drives are $45 for a good quality model. It'll be fine. Get one, plug it in, install your OS, enjoy.

Every NVME I've thrown into a z97 capped around 800-900MB/s. Only with a PCI card did I get full speeds.

 

[Hyderz]

regarding the storage for this machine i think it dont matter for sata or nvme... just buy whatever is cheapest..

 

[SL2]

Maybe I'm wrong, but looking at the QVL the M2 slot this mainboard only supports the SATA III protocol with PCIe 2.0, not NVMe as most of the M2 SSD's are nowadays (that stuff is soooo confusing ).

Look again.

I followed your link.

I've had a Broadwell laptop, it booted from that slot, something like 800 MB/s.

 

[Hugis]

Screen shots from my MSI Z97 4770k system with a Samsung nvme @ PCIE2.0x2, from a few years ago.
This should be the speeds you will get, better than sata and felt very responsive.

 

[PLAfiller]

I'd throw and M.2 SSD in there. @KrazyT in your link is everything you need: length of the SSD: 2242/2260/2280 , standard: M-key. I just wouldn't go buying a Gen 4 SSD for a Gen 3/2 slot on the motherboard, but there are so many cheap M2 SSD within Gen3, I wouldn't even hesitate getting one.

 

[Harlow]

Every NVME I've thrown into a z97 capped around 800-900MB/s.

Same here on an old system I use to download files.

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H
CPU: i7-4770K
SSD: Crucial 1TB CT1000P3SSD8

Crystal Disk Mark 8.0.4
SEQ1M Q8T1:
791.71MB/s Read
511.81MB/s Write

i.e. only slightly faster than a 2.5" SATA drive.

With an M.2 drive installed on the GA-Z97-D3H, two of the SATA ports/SATA Express are disabled.
(M.2, SATA Express, and SATA3 4/5 connectors can only be used one at a time.
The SATA3 4/5 connectors will become unavailable when an M.2 SSD is installed.)