SM951 as OS boot device information

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   Thanks,
I am currently contemplating what hard drive to purchase for my X99 Extreme 3 2011 board.  Just can't seem to look past the sm951 512 GB.  I was hoping that the x99 chipset would offer a streamlined install of the new ultra M.2 drive but I guess it requires the BIOS update.  Any idea on when that will be released? 

Also, this may be a silly question so forgive me for reading way too many forum posts...Should one worry about heat with such a powerful SSD.  I heard one person warning people of their use with workstation builds that will be subjected to large computational loads...3D CAD assemblies in my case.  If it matters I will be using a Corsair Air 540 for this build and it is known to move plenty of air.

Any additional advice for this build is greatly appreciated.  Stability is important to me so I plan to use a 3.5 GHz quad core Xeon processor with 16 GB of DDR4 ECC ram.  For graphics, I like the AMD Firepro W5100 with 4GB of DDR5.  Supposedly it will push 4k at 60 Hz over display port which is important because I plan to use the new BenQ 32" 4k monitor.  Speaking of graphics, will the additional lanes needed by the Ultra M.2 SSD affect the graphics performance at all or does the X99 Extreme 3 have plenty?

Author	Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic
tobysmiles Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 25 Jun 2015 Status: Offline Points: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote tobysmiles Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 25 Jun 2015 at 12:36pm
	Thanks, I am currently contemplating what hard drive to purchase for my X99 Extreme 3 2011 board. Just can't seem to look past the sm951 512 GB. I was hoping that the x99 chipset would offer a streamlined install of the new ultra M.2 drive but I guess it requires the BIOS update. Any idea on when that will be released? Also, this may be a silly question so forgive me for reading way too many forum posts...Should one worry about heat with such a powerful SSD. I heard one person warning people of their use with workstation builds that will be subjected to large computational loads...3D CAD assemblies in my case. If it matters I will be using a Corsair Air 540 for this build and it is known to move plenty of air. Any additional advice for this build is greatly appreciated. Stability is important to me so I plan to use a 3.5 GHz quad core Xeon processor with 16 GB of DDR4 ECC ram. For graphics, I like the AMD Firepro W5100 with 4GB of DDR5. Supposedly it will push 4k at 60 Hz over display port which is important because I plan to use the new BenQ 32" 4k monitor. Speaking of graphics, will the additional lanes needed by the Ultra M.2 SSD affect the graphics performance at all or does the X99 Extreme 3 have plenty?

Xaltar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 16 May 2015 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 22748	Post Options Post Reply Quote Xaltar Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 24 Jun 2015 at 12:05pm
	I have noticed a number of people coming here to the forums inquiring about how to make Samsung SM951 M2 SSDs function as OS boot devices. Rather than repeating the information in every post I will post it here. Before you read on,?HERE is an interesting article that outlays the reasons some systems cannot use the SM951 as a boot device and provides some other interesting info on the SM951 and its performance. At this moment, all?many Asrock boards require a BIOS updated in order to support booting from the SM951, particularly older chipsets. The feature required is apparently NVMe support and is only available to the intel 9 series of Asrock products at this time. This situation is due to the new feature-set of the SM951 which needs to be implemented in BIOS. <span style="line-height: 1.4;">~~If you have had success with other boards please post up your info here.~~</span> [update]? In theory any BIOS update that adds NVMe support should allow booting from the SM951. The following boards all list NVMe support with the latest BIOS or are new revisions of boards that do and inherited support from the previous revision: <div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;">X99 WS-E <div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;">X99 OC Formula and /3.1 <div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;">X99 Professional and/3.1<div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;">Fatal1ty X99X Killer and /3.1<div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;"><span style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;">Fatal1ty X99M Killer</span> X99 WS-E/10G X99 WS X99 Extreme11 X99 Extreme6 and /3.1 X99 Extreme6/ac X99 Extreme4 X99M Extreme4 X99 Extreme3 Uncertain about: X99E-ITX/ac as it is a new board but does not list NVMe support. I will look through the Z97 list next and update once I have. [Update] Z97 Boards that support NVMe (all of them): Z97 OC Formula Z97M OC Formula Z97 Extreme9 Z97 Extreme6/ac Z97 Extreme6 and /3.1 Z97 Extreme4 and /3.1 Z97 Extreme3 Z97 Pro4 Z97M Pro4 Z97 Anniversary Z97 Pro3 Z97M-ITX/ac Z97E-ITX/ac Fatal1ty Z97 Professional Fatal1ty Z97X Killer and /3.1 Fatal1ty Z97 Killer and /3.1 Fatal1ty Z97M Killer H97 boards with NVMe support (again, all): Fatal1ty H97 Killer Fatal1ty H97 Performance H97 Pro4 H97M Pro4 H97 Anniversary H97M Anniversary H97M H97M-ITX/ac <div style="text-align: left;">_________________________________________________________________ Other boards with unofficial support via beta BIOS:? <div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 15.3999996185303px;">Z77 Extreme4 SM951:</span><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 15.3999996185303px;">?</span>P2.90M?<span style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;">(Provided by Asrock and shared with permission by?dbranger94)</span> <div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;"><span style="color: rgb51, 51, 51; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; : rgb250, 250, 250;">Z87m OC Formula: 1.83a?(Provided by Asrock, tested by Gunslinger)</span><div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;"> <div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;">Download by clicking the BIOS number above.<div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;"> <div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;">Officially supported and tested with latest bios update:<div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;"> <div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;">Z97 Extreme6 (tested and confirmed by Parsec)<div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;"> To the best of my knowledge, if you board is not on these lists you will need to contact Asrock Tech Support via email and ask for assistance. I want to thank Asrock_TSD (Tech Support Department) for taking the time to post in the thread and offering to help those who's boards are not on the list. As per their post, these will be the only boards that officially support the SM951 as a boot device via BIOS update. As you can see earlier in the post Asrock have already provided a beta BIOS for a forum user with a Z77 board. So, if you need a BIOS update, hit up Asrock tech support for assistance. [Update]? The new "H91" boards listed on Asrock's product page are H91 only in name and in fact use the H81 chipset so likely will not receive native NVMe support. <div style="text-align: center;">---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [update]? It has come to my attention (thank you Parsec) that the SM951 is not in fact an NVMe supporting drive, while it was originally claimed by Samsung that it would support the feature the final release product is in fact AHCI not NVMe.? Boot support for the Z97 Extreme6 is confirmed as being applied in beta bios 2.04 and then in release version 2.10. Interestingly the 2.10 bios revision only notes the addition of NVMe support and not improved M.2 support as stated on the 2.04 beta bios. This did not help my confusion ? So as it stands I can only *confirm* support on the Z97 Extreme6 with bios version 2.10 and Z77 Extreme4 with the bios download linked here in this thread. I do however *suspect* that all boards updated with NVMe support likely also received the same improved M.2 support the Z97 Extreme6 received and as such should support booting from the SM951. <div style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;"> Edited by ASRock_TSD - 08 Mar 2022 at 2:15pm