M.2 Question on a ASRock Z97 Extreme4 board.

[Mr Bill]

I just acquired an ASRock Z97 Extreme4 board and 32 Gig of ram. I haven't had any experience with any of the M.2 drives, can someone tell me if this board will accept the M.2 NVMe? I know there is always ongoing generations it seems of everything, I just need to know if I decide to buy one, which version or generation do I need to buy? A link to the one that will work with this board would be great.
Thanks Bill

 

[silentbogo]

Yep, it should work. I think NVME support was included in UEFI firmware for nearly all haswell boards.
Just in case I've double-checked the latest firmware for your mobo, and it does have NVME DXE module in it.

 

[Mr Bill]

I'm always really careful about any firmware update, does anyone know if this one would help any, because some firmware updates can slow down the performance of your system.

 

[silentbogo]

I'm always really careful about any firmware update, does anyone know if this one would help any, because some firmware updates can slow down the performance of your system.

For this board it should be supported on all firmware versions. For this socket I've only seen a few low-end 80-series boards with removed or non-existent NVME support, but Z97 is definitely OK.

 

[jboydgolfer]

im still running one of those, a great MoBo.
from what i recall, i had no issues booting or with Os on M.2

 

[tabascosauz]

I just acquired an ASRock Z97 Extreme4 board and 32 Gig of ram. I haven't had any experience with any of the M.2 drives, can someone tell me if this board will accept the M.2 NVMe? I know there is always ongoing generations it seems of everything, I just need to know if I decide to buy one, which version or generation do I need to buy? A link to the one that will work with this board would be great.
Thanks Bill

Should work just fine, just be advised that it is a 3.0 x2 slot (also common for secondary slots on some modern B550 boards) whereas most NVMes you'll find nowadays are either 3.0 x4 or 4.0 x4. Not a big deal, still plenty fast for daily use, but with higher end drives (anything faster than a WD SN550 I'd say) you may feel limited on sequential performance as the slot itself maxes out at a bit under 2000MB/s. So don't go buying a 970 EVO Plus and expect to get full rated speeds when moving large files, for example.

But honestly, I use a WD SN750 in the same setup on my Unify-X (reasonably high end 3.0 x4 drive in a 3.0 x2 slot), no complaints even when moving large archives.

As to BIOS, the board looks like it needs v2.40 or later for NVMe support according to ASRock. So just flash the latest 2.60. It's Intel, there aren't nasty firmware surprises hidden around every corner.

 

[Mr Bill]

So don't go buying a 970 EVO Plus and expect to get full rated speeds when moving large files, for example.

Wow! that's exactly the drive I bought, it's working great, it's faster than my Samsung 850 Pro, and if I ever upgrade from this board to a new system, I'll already have the drive.

 

[Toothless]

You will not hit NVME speeds with it. Both of my Z97 boards were hitting 700MB/s with my 850 EVO.

 

[Mr Bill]

You will not hit NVME speeds with it. Both of my Z97 boards were hitting 700MB/s with my 850 EVO.

No problem, as I mentioned, it will be here for a new build one day.

Benchmark's

 

[Hmmmmmmmm]

Question, I also have a z97 extreme 4, but where is the m.2 slot on it? am i just blind or is it on the back somewhere?

 

[95Viper]

Look in the manual to see more info -->ASRock Z97 Extreme4 Manual

 

[Hmmmmmmmm]

Thanks!