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Asrock 990 FX killer with Samsung SM951

Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: AMD Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock AMD motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=738
Printed Date: 13 Dec 2024 at 11:28am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: Asrock 990 FX killer with Samsung SM951
Posted By: net2paul
Subject: Asrock 990 FX killer with Samsung SM951
Date Posted: 31 Aug 2015 at 1:00am
I wan't to buy a new Samsung SM951 AHCI .
Is my Asrock 990 FX Fatal1ty killer compatible with this SM951 AHCI ? 
How about SM951 NVMe ?



Replies:
Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 31 Aug 2015 at 8:27pm
Want simular info net2paul.
Waiting for the postman to deliver a 951nvme the week to come.
Wonder if it BOOTS W10 and how fast it work.


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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 31 Aug 2015 at 10:38pm
Any changes one has to do in the BIOS ?

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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 01 Sep 2015 at 2:19am
It will be interesting to see if the SM951 (AHCI or NVME) is compatible with an AMD board. It should be since ASRock has been great for keeping the UEFI/BIOS for their boards updated to work with these SSDs.

We know it works on Intel boards, but I have yet to see an AMD board working with one of these SSDs. NOT that I've seen them not work, but I want to confirm that AMD has provided the appropriate SATA Option ROM that allows them to work.

There are two aspects of compatibility, simply being recognized by the board, and then if it can be used as a boot/OS drive.

There is a SATA Option ROM that is part of the BIOS file that provides full compatibility. The Samsung XP941 SSD is listed in this board's Storage Support List, when using the L1.12A Beta BIOS. That version should allow the SM951 AHCI version to work as well. The standard BIOS version 1.30 and newer should have the support for these SSDs that is included in the L1.12A Beta BIOS.

Regarding BIOS changes, in order to make these SSDs bootable you must enable a sub option of the CSM option, found in the ACPI Configuration screen.

With CSM Disabled, set the Launch Storage Oprom to UEFI Only.

If you have a UEFI booting Windows installation (CSM Disabled), you don't need to change the CSM option.

The SATA mode in Storage Configuration for the AMD SATA ports should be set to AHCI or RAID.

Please let us know how the SM951 works for everyone on this board.


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http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 04 Sep 2015 at 9:32pm
Thanks for Your post parsec.
I have not done any changes in my 1.5 BIOS.
My SM951NVMe does not show anywhere i BIOS (anywhere I look....)
I'm not realy into this BIOS....
It is shown in My Computer and in Device Manager.

When SM951 are the only SSD the will BIOS restart when ordering exit.
To get going the, another SSD has to be Attached.

When installing W10 b.10166 from DVD, installer program do not find any Place to load.

I take trying this as an Experiment, but I always take Experiments seriously :)
Hope for help an education
Finn



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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 04 Sep 2015 at 11:23pm

CSM disable : Cant get out of BIOS.

With Storage to UEFI :
ISO installer program build 10166 do not find any place to launch.
But see the disk :
Drive 0 Partition 1 119,2GB Primary

Comp. HW may not support booting......
Ensure that disk is enabled in BIOS.

And I can't find it anywhere in BIOS - Where should it be ??
In Windows it works - it's writable and works.
Hope there is still something to be done ?



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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 2:57am
Same happens in intaller program With new made ISO build 10240. Do not find the M.2.
And it is - to my ability - not shown in BIOS.
And that is to be the case ??

But the M.2. Works an are shown in my Pc and device manager.

I have some questions for AsRock
An explanation i needed.


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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 4:51am
No way this will boot !
But it Works.
Here is an AS test :

Read MB/s:      Write MB/s:

Seq           720 -  624

4k               34 -  57

4k-64Thrd 1493 -  324

Acc.Time   59µs -  63µs

Score      1599  -  354

                   2765

So - it just about beats a SATA SSD.....


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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 2:12pm
Finnipinni, let's start over.

First, what board do you have, it seems to the the Fatal1ty 990 FX Killer, is that right?

The goal is to be able to use your NVMe SM951 as a boot/OS drive, and for it to be seen in the BIOS.

I made a mistake in my earlier post, very sorry about that! I meant to write this:

Regarding BIOS changes, in order to make these SSDs bootable you must enable a sub option of the CSM option, found in the ACPI Configuration screen.

With CSM Enabled, set the Launch Storage Oprom to UEFI Only.

I wrote, "With CSM Disabled...", Disabled is wrong. CSM must be Enabled for the other options to be seen.

So to be clear, with CSM Enabled, set the Launch Storage Oprom to UEFI Only.

That is only the beginning, other things in the BIOS must be set correctly. They are:

In Advanced/Storage Configuration screen, SATA Mode must be AHCI or RAID.

In Advanced/Storage Configuration screen, set AMD AHCI BIOS ROM to Enabled. I'm not 100% sure this needs to be Enabled, you can try it both Enabled and Disabled.

In Advanced/Storage Configuration screen, SATA IDE Combined Mode must be Disabled. That is the default in newer BIOS versions.

Question: You have said many times that you cannot find the SM951 shown in the BIOS, right?

Since your board has a M.2 port, there should be an entry for the M.2 port in the Storage Configuration screen, even if nothing is in the M.2 port. That is how it works with my (different) ASRock board. I must scroll down in the Storage Configuration screen to see the M.2 port entry.

The SATA III ports are listed even if no drives are connected to them. The same should be true for the M.2 port.

Are you sure there is no entry for the M.2 port on the Storage Configuration screen?

Next, installing Windows. You may now know you cannot install Windows to a SM951 from a Windows 10 disk, it MUST be done from an ISO on a USB flash drive. If you don't know how to create the USB flash drive ISO installer, let me know.

NOTE: For anyone using a Samsung NVMe SM951: You MUST use Windows 10! Only Windows 10 has a built in NVMe driver, no other versions of Windows do. Intel supplies a driver with their NVMe 750 SSD, but Samsung does not. No, the Intel driver does not work with a SM951.

When you use a USB flash drive with a Windows 10 ISO, do you select it in the Boot Order screen in the BIOS?

Do you see TWO entries for the USB flash drive, one that is "UEFI: Flash Drive", and the other, "AHCI: Flash Drive" in the Boot Order list?

You should see these two entries in the Boot Order list, and you MUST choose UEFI: Flash Drive.

Now we will assume you have booted from a Windows 10 ISO on a USB Flash Drive. The Windows installer is running, and you are on the Standard or Custom install option screen. You MUST choose the Custom Install option.

In the Custom installation screen, you should see the SM951 listed. If not something is wrong, quit the installation.

If the SM951 is listed, great! Next, delete ALL the partitions on it! All the space should be Unallocated.

Then click on New to format the SM951. You'll see a message about extra partitions being created, just click Ok. When that is done, you should see four partitions listed from the format. Select the Primary partition for Windows 10, and continue with the installation. It should go quickly.

It is more difficult to manually format the SM951 with all the REQUIRED partitions that the Windows installer will create automatically. Let Windows do the formatting in this situation.

Let us know if any of this helps you get Windows 10 installed and running on a NVMe SM951. If it does, it will be the first time I've known that to work on an AMD board. Otherwise I'll see what else I can do to help you.

One more thing I noticed about your board. The M.2 port is a PCIe 2.0 x2 10 Gb/s interface. Both of the SM951 SSDs are PCIe 3.0 x4 32Gb/s interface drives. You won't get the full performance from your SM951 unless your board has a PCIe 3.0 x4 32Gb/s M.2 port, sorry to say.


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http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 6:19pm
First I want to thank you for your effort and nitidius work !
The main issue seems for me to be that M.2. is not listed.

First, what board do you have, it seems to the the Fatal1ty 990 FX Killer, is that right? - YES

Regarding BIOS changes, in order to make these SSDs bootable you must enable a sub option of the CSM option, found in the ACPI Configuration screen.

With CSM Enabled, set the Launch Storage Oprom to UEFI Only. - DONE

That is only the beginning, other things in the BIOS must be set correctly. They are:

In Advanced/Storage Configuration screen, SATA Mode must be AHCI or RAID. - AHCI

In Advanced/Storage Configuration screen, set AMD AHCI BIOS ROM to Enabled. I'm not 100% sure this needs to be Enabled, you can try it both Enabled and Disabled. - Tryed both.....

In Advanced/Storage Configuration screen, SATA IDE Combined Mode must be Disabled. That is the default in newer BIOS versions. DONE

Question: You have said many times that you cannot find the SM951 shown in the BIOS, right? - YES

Since your board has a M.2 port, there should be an entry for the M.2 port in the Storage Configuration screen, even if nothing is in the M.2 port. That is how it works with my (different) ASRock board. I must scroll down in the Storage Configuration screen to see the M.2 port entry. - There are no M.2. Only SATA3_1-2-3-4-5 and ESATA1

The SATA III ports are listed even if no drives are connected to them. The same should be true for the M.2 port. - I should expect so also......

Are you sure there is no entry for the M.2 port on the Storage Configuration screen? - YES

Next, installing Windows. You may now know you cannot install Windows to a SM951 from a Windows 10 disk, it MUST be done from an ISO on a USB flash drive. If you don't know how to create the USB flash drive ISO installer, let me know. - I have DVD ISO with build 10240.

When you use a USB flash drive with a Windows 10 ISO, do you select it in the Boot Order screen in the BIOS? - press F11 in POST. I Install with no other SSD Attached than SM951.

Do you see TWO entries for the USB flash drive, one that is "UEFI: Flash Drive", and the other, "AHCI: Flash Drive" in the Boot Order list? - Do not remember - I will tell you next time.

You should see these two entries in the Boot Order list, and you MUST choose UEFI: Flash Drive. - I will.

Now we will assume you have booted from a Windows 10 ISO on a USB Flash Drive. The Windows installer is running, and you are on the Standard or Custom install option screen. You MUST choose the Custom Install option. - Always done that.

In the Custom installation screen, you should see the SM951 listed. If not something is wrong, quit the installation. - It is listed, but windows will not install due to expecting that it is not bootable.

If the SM951 is listed, great! Next, delete ALL the partitions on it! All the space should be Unallocated. - Allways do that.

Then click on New to format the SM951. You'll see a message about extra partitions being created, just click Ok. When that is done, you should see four partitions listed from the format. Select the Primary partition for Windows 10, and continue with the installation. It should go quickly.

It is more difficult to manually format the SM951 with all the REQUIRED partitions that the Windows installer will create automatically. Let Windows do the formatting in this situation. - Always formatt disks.

Let us know if any of this helps you get Windows 10 installed and running on a NVMe SM951. If it does, it will be the first time I've known that to work on an AMD board. Otherwise I'll see what else I can do to help you.

One more thing I noticed about your board. The M.2 port is a PCIe 2.0 x2 10 Gb/s interface. Both of the SM951 SSDs are PCIe 3.0 x4 32Gb/s interface drives. You won't get the full performance from your SM951 unless your board has a PCIe 3.0 x4 32Gb/s M.2 port, sorry to say. - I expected so due to the 10GB/s - but IOPS test show up to SM951 specs. Thar will help :)

?€



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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 7:22pm
I reasently updated the BIOS from 1.4 to 1.5.
In the prosess, it show a "checkerboard" where colors where changing as the prosess went on.
I noticed that some of the squears diden't - an handfull stayed white.

So if this fenomen is not what it should be - could it be the cause of M.2. not showing ?
And would it be recomendable to repeet the prosess ?
And how is this done the best way ?

Many questions from me........


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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 7:27pm
Sorry for the misspelling.
I'm Norwegian......
Hope You understand most of it.
It should be "from 1.3 to 1.5"


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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 10:49pm

Experimenal tryouts.

Installing :
When coosing USB "name on DVD-drive" :

"Hardware may not support booting to this disk. Disk kontroller must be enabled in bios".

Earlier efforts has been done with this.

When coosing UEFI "name on DVD-drive" :
"Disk has an MBR partiton table. On EFI systems windows can only be insalled to GPT disks."
Formatting did not help.

When coosing UEFI Built-in EFI Shell :
Before installer starts the screen become black with some writing I do not understand.
I aborted the prosess.

----------------------

BIOS in : Adv./Storage Conf.

SATA Contr.                                  Enabl.

SATA Mode AHCI AMD BIOS Rom - Dis.
SATA/IDE Comb.                           Dis.
Aggressive Link Power                   Enabl.
SAMART                                       Enabl.

SATA3_5 - Samsung 850

No one else listed.

---------------------------------

Adv./Storage Conf.

SATA Mode                       RAID

UEFI Mode For GP...          Dis.

Onboard 3TB+ Unlocker - UEFI Mode For GPT Partition.

Coosing this when installing results in ASROCK on screene instead of windows flag, and it do not proceede. DVD stops after a hvile.

?€



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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 06 Sep 2015 at 7:34pm
WOW - I JUST DIDIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wil be back With the recepie !


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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 06 Sep 2015 at 8:43pm
Wow this is great !


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 06 Sep 2015 at 10:14pm
I edited this post. The new beneth is better.












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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 06 Sep 2015 at 11:23pm

So I'll be the first ? (never in my life before)

This morning I stumled over some cryptical letters : GPT.

Investigating this learned me that any NVMe must be GPT - NOT MBR. (formatting means establishing MBR - no other chois that I could find)

So do this at first :
Open Command Promt Admin
Type diskpart/list disk/select disk 1 (the disk number) clean/convert GPT

In BIOS :
Boot/CSM
CSM                 - Enab.
PXE OpRom      - Not Launch

Storage OpRom - UEFI only

Video OpRom    - Legacy only
In Boot preferens i see : Windows Boot Manager (First time I see this)

----------

Advaced/Storage Conf.

SATA C.             - Enabl.

SATA Mode         - RAID mode

Onb.raid 3TB+    - UEFI mode for GPT

SATA IDE Comb. - Dis.

Note that SM951 are not shown anywhere.
Of 4 attached SSD only these are shown :
SATA3_4 INTEL 520 (MBR)

SATA3_5 Samsung 850 (GPT)

--------------------------
Instaling.
I trust no one - let the SM951 be left alone SSD.

The instaler program is now running. The SM951 are shown in 2 paritions. Be shure not to choose the EFI part. No need for formatting !
1. restart after 9min, then ALOT of questions and re-starts......

And this Pc stopped in the reset program an screen went black - it had to be stopped by holding the button Down for as long as it takes to force it to stop.
Then after update : All Works fine :)

--------------------------

In Windows/ThisPc - only SM951 and Intel 520 are shown

In Disk manager SM951 = disk 1 - Intel 520 = 0
I need at least one more SSD - Why so ? Some more adjustment i BIOS ?
I converted Samsung 850 to GPT - this is shown in BIOS but NOT in This Comp. or in Disk manager.
I gladly take advice on this matter too :)



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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 06 Sep 2015 at 11:53pm
Great. I wonder now if the AHCI version need the same configuration ?


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 07 Sep 2015 at 12:13am
That I haven't investigated, but I will think so.
I'm an retired Electronic tecnician. These matters are all new to me.
The GPT protocoll is - as I understand - to take over for the older MBR.
All types of disks can use this. Disks over 3TB MUST.
So we wil learn to make use of it no matter.
UEFI BIOS is also a must for using GPT.
In all this - I belive an AHCI wil work following the precidure.
So get going - and good Luck With it :)


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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 14 Sep 2015 at 7:45pm

After alot of coffe, little update to my earlier posts.
First of all : There are no such word as "UEFI BIOS" It's either UEFI or BIOS.

UEFI has taken over for the old BIOS in 2007, now running version 2,5.

Got my first mobo with UEFI about 2011, so it's about time to make full use of it !
UEFI has the capability to run in both BIOS and UEFI in order to handle equipment that are not UEFI combatible as well. This feature is called CSM (CompabilitySupportModule), and are by default Enabled.


Today all equipment are UEFI combatible.

Only the disks needs any "tampering".
BIOS format disks in BMR(MasterBootRecord)

UEFI format disks in GPT(GuidePartitionTable)

To make use of both MBR- and GPT -disks, CSM has to be "fiddled" with.

Running GPT on all internal disks means you should disable CSM.
Advatages : Better security, a littel faster operation and use of big disks.

Installing NVMe disks like the SM951 have some demands.
They are not wery well taken care of in UEFA 2.5.
Full advantages is only possible in UEFI and has to be formatted in GPT.

In UEFI Mode, Windows 10 installer program will not find an MBR disk (in UEFI called Legacy disk). And will not find any place to load.
Formatting in the program means to establish the MBR !!

So, in UEFI the OS-disk has to be formatted in GPT in advance, regardless of disk type.

Rest of the disks may be formatted in GPT when W10 is installed.
In UEFI : also set USB3 handling to AUTO, then USB will handle both MBR and GPT.


How to make GPT disks :
In Disk Mangement :
The chois MBR to GPT are in R.click menu when pointing the disk in the left collumn.

1. Format 2. Choose Delete Volume. 3. MBR to GPT. 4. R.click unallocated volume/new simple volume, and follow the precidure (Next all the way). You can label the disk later.

In Command promt (admin) :

Type diskpart/list disk/select disk 1 (the disk number) clean/convert GPT

Both ways will cleene the disk completly, so backup all you want to keep !
There are programs who can do this without loss. I investigated one of them - it was complicated.....

So many words....
Simplest way to get success, is first to format OS-disk to GPT.
In UEFI :
Disable GSM.
Set USB3 handling as suggested.
Then no problem should occure.



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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 26 Sep 2015 at 12:54am
Thank you .
I installed an 128Gb SM951 AHCI version (boot drive) without issues.  


Posted By: webbson
Date Posted: 28 Sep 2015 at 7:43pm
I wonder if it will support the Samsung 950 PRO M.2, that would be really awesome.


Posted By: felix
Date Posted: 06 Oct 2015 at 2:18pm
Originally posted by Finnipinni Finnipinni wrote:

After alot of coffe, little update to my earlier posts.
First of all : There are no such word as "UEFI BIOS" It's either UEFI or BIOS.

.....//////..........

So many words....
Simplest way to get success, is first to format OS-disk to GPT.
In UEFI :
Disable GSM.
Set USB3 handling as suggested.
Then no problem should occure.




Hello ! Congrats for your success, i'm glad i found a positive result for AMD & SM951 !

Can you post a screenshot of AS-SSD benchmark of your SM951 ?

Thank you in advance!


Posted By: Finnipinni
Date Posted: 20 Oct 2015 at 12:49am
Been away for a "while".

Don't know howto load a file here. I took AS speed and IOPS, snibbed it, made an .rtf, but how to load it here I don't fix.....

Please educate me :)



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A88M G-3.1 2x4GB XMS SM951NVMe NanoPSU MediaPC


Posted By: felix
Date Posted: 20 Oct 2015 at 12:44pm
Use imgur.com to upload the screenshot of AS-SSD you took and post the link here


Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 21 Oct 2015 at 9:51pm
This is 128Gb SM951 Ahci version.
As we know the board is PCIe 2.0 x16 so the results is not so good.
Unfortunately NO PCIe 3.0 AMD board on the market.
Windows 10 - FX 8320 - 16Gb


http://i.imgur.com/7WDFXSG.jpg?1" rel="nofollow - http://i.imgur.com/7WDFXSG.jpg?1




Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2015 at 1:54pm
Originally posted by Finnipinni Finnipinni wrote:

After alot of coffe, little update to my earlier posts.
First of all : There are no such word as "UEFI BIOS" It's either UEFI or BIOS.

UEFI has taken over for the old BIOS in 2007, now running version 2,5.

Got my first mobo with UEFI about 2011, so it's about time to make full use of it !
UEFI has the capability to run in both BIOS and UEFI in order to handle equipment that are not UEFI combatible as well. This feature is called CSM (CompabilitySupportModule), and are by default Enabled.


Today all equipment are UEFI combatible.

Only the disks needs any "tampering".
BIOS format disks in BMR(MasterBootRecord)

UEFI format disks in GPT(GuidePartitionTable)

To make use of both MBR- and GPT -disks, CSM has to be "fiddled" with.

Running GPT on all internal disks means you should disable CSM.
Advatages : Better security, a littel faster operation and use of big disks.

Installing NVMe disks like the SM951 have some demands.
They are not wery well taken care of in UEFA 2.5.
Full advantages is only possible in UEFI and has to be formatted in GPT.

In UEFI Mode, Windows 10 installer program will not find an MBR disk (in UEFI called Legacy disk). And will not find any place to load.
Formatting in the program means to establish the MBR !!

So, in UEFI the OS-disk has to be formatted in GPT in advance, regardless of disk type.

Rest of the disks may be formatted in GPT when W10 is installed.
In UEFI : also set USB3 handling to AUTO, then USB will handle both MBR and GPT.


How to make GPT disks :
In Disk Mangement :
The chois MBR to GPT are in R.click menu when pointing the disk in the left collumn.

1. Format 2. Choose Delete Volume. 3. MBR to GPT. 4. R.click unallocated volume/new simple volume, and follow the precidure (Next all the way). You can label the disk later.

In Command promt (admin) :

Type diskpart/list disk/select disk 1 (the disk number) clean/convert GPT

Both ways will cleene the disk completly, so backup all you want to keep !
There are programs who can do this without loss. I investigated one of them - it was complicated.....

So many words....
Simplest way to get success, is first to format OS-disk to GPT.
In UEFI :
Disable GSM.
Set USB3 handling as suggested.
Then no problem should occure.



I am thrilled you got your SM951 booting! It is booting Windows, right?

You are Norwegian (so am I, a little bit, and Danish too), and your English skills are good. But it is hard for you to describe these things, right? I'm not sure if I understand everything you wrote, so I want to review it to be sure. I hope you will do that for me, please.

One other thing first. When I write UEFI/BIOS, I do that so people will start using UEFI as the name of the firmware on our mother boards. We do not use BIOS firmware anymore, but most people still call it "BIOS". I do that so people know when I write UEFI, I mean what they are calling BIOS. You are right that we either have UEFI or BIOS firmware. We now only have UEFI firmware.

The CSM, when Enabled, runs the UEFI firmware in emulated BIOS mode. That means none of the advantages of UEFI firmware is used, which is terrible. Setting CSM to Disabled allows all the features that UEFI firmware has, to be used. But when really using the UEFI firmware, with CSM disabled, Windows must be installed with a GPT partitioning type, and will then use the Windows EFI boot loader.

But to use the EFI boot loader, that normally requires an EFI compatible storage Option ROM to be used, which is part of the UEFI file.

I have been installing Windows on regular SATA SSDs to boot from the Windows EFI bootloader. That is what happens when you have GPT partitioning of the SSD, and have CSM disabled as you said you did in your post above, right?

When I am using Intel mother boards, I set CSM to Disabled. I then set the SATA mode to RAID. Those two things cause the EFI compatible storage Option ROM to be used during the Windows installation. I also must load the Intel "F6" Intel RAID driver, or the SSD will not be seen by the Windows installation program. I do not format the SSD at all.

After I load the F6 RAID driver, the SSD is then seen by the Windows installation program. I then click on "New", and Windows formats the SSD as GPT, and creates three other partitions, that are needed for a complete EFI booting Windows installation.

I'm not saying formatting the SSD before the installation as GPT is wrong, I don't know if your Windows installation has all the partitions that mine do. Your method seems to work fine.

I have an ASRock 970 Performance/3.1 board, that uses the same AMD Southbridge (SATA) chipset as your ASRock 990FX Killer, so control of SSDs should be the same.

When I tried to install Windows 10 in the same way on the AMD board as I do when I use Intel boards, the installation fails. I have the SATA mode set to RAID, and CSM set to Disabled.

I cannot find an AMD F6 RAID driver that will work like the Intel F6 driver does. So the SSD is never seen by Windows.

Your method, which seems to work, starts with the SATA mode set to AHCI, is that right? You did not say which SATA mode you used in your post.

You also did not say what AHCI driver you are using. It seems to be the standard Windows AHCI driver, storahci. Or do you install an AMD AHCI driver after the Windows 10 installation.

Next, you format the SSD as GPT in Diskpart. That can also be done in Windows Disk Management.

You have CSM Disabled when the other two things are done, and then can install Windows fine, right?

Do you the Windows disk, or a USB flash drive?

I am curious about how your OS disk appears in Disk Management after the Windows Installation. This is how my EFI booting Windows 10 installation appears in Disk Management, the top entry:



That disk is really two Samsung AHCI SM951s in a RAID 0 array. That can be done now on the newest Intel chipset boards, like a Z170. That is my Window 10 drive on my ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ board. The 450MB Recovery Partition is actually two partitions, one is a hidden MBR partition that the Windows installation program put on the drive. That allows the installation to boot if CSM is Enabled.

I'll try your method, but I don't think the result is quite the same as the way I do it. I also do not think an AMD RAID driver for the SB950 chipset exists that can use the EFI bootloader.

I hope this makes sense to you, if you have questions about it, please ask.




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Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2015 at 1:38am
U need to create a Windows 10 USB installation media with UEFI support (GPT)
Booting directly from USB . Ahci mode in UEFI and only SM951 connected, no other drive. 
Installing a bootable Win10 on it. 

How to create a Windows 10 USB installation media with UEFI support:
http://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-installation" rel="nofollow - http://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-installation


Posted By: aberdeen
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2015 at 1:34am


Posted By: aberdeen
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2015 at 1:39am


Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2015 at 7:05pm

So why my Seq reading is half on yours ?
is some kind of UEFI settings  that I don't know ?


Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2015 at 9:18pm
Originally posted by aberdeen aberdeen wrote:


I noticed that you have 970 Performance that use PCIe Gen2 x4.
The killer series use PCIe Gen2 x2. 
So here is the difference.


Posted By: aberdeen
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2015 at 11:48pm
avantage 97o performance vs 990 ...?????


Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2015 at 11:51pm
Originally posted by aberdeen aberdeen wrote:

avantage 97o performance vs 990 ...?????

YES


Posted By: aberdeen
Date Posted: 25 Oct 2015 at 12:03am
NONSENS.....


Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 25 Oct 2015 at 12:11am


Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 25 Oct 2015 at 12:18am
Originally posted by net2paul net2paul wrote:

U need to create a Windows 10 USB installation media with UEFI support (GPT)
Booting directly from USB . Ahci mode in UEFI and only SM951 connected, no other drive. 
Installing a bootable Win10 on it. 

How to create a Windows 10 USB installation media with UEFI support:
http://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-installation" rel="nofollow - http://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-installation


I've been using Windows installations on Intel systems for years by installing it from a USB flash drive with UEFI support. I've done that with Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10. The first board I did that on was an ASRock Z77 Extreme4.

I do this with standard SATA SSDs, and AHCI SM951s. My ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ board has two AHCI SM951s in RAID 0, that is the drive volume shown in my Disk Management picture. Since some users are posting benchmark results, here's some of mine of the RAID 0 OS volume:







The USB Windows 10 installation media I used with my Fatal1ty 970 Performance/3.1 is the same one I've used to install it on three different Intel systems. I've never had a problem installing Windows this way until I tried it on my AMD board.

You did not mention one thing that is essential for the system to really be UEFI/EFI booting. That is an option in our board's UEFI that must be set a certain way. That option is... Question

With that option set in my Fatal1ty 970 Performance/3.1 board's UEFI, the target SSD for the Windows installation is never seen by the Windows installer. That is the issue I have.


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Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 25 Oct 2015 at 12:29am
Ask "aberdeen" , he use 970 Performance.


Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 25 Oct 2015 at 1:04am
Originally posted by aberdeen aberdeen wrote:

avantage 97o performance vs 990 ...?????


Originally posted by net2paul net2paul wrote:

Originally posted by aberdeen aberdeen wrote:

avantage 97o performance vs 990 ...?????

YES


net2paul is correct. That is simply because the M.2 port on the Fatal1ty 970 Performance is PCIe 2.0 x4, while the Fatal1ty 990FX Killer's M.2 port is PCIe 2.0 x2.

The difference between these two boards is not because of the chipset (990 vs 970) but simply due to the PCIe 2.0 lane allocation to the M.2 port.

As we know, the SM951 has a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface. So not providing that to this SSD will result in reduced performance. Using PCIe 2.0 x4 will not allow the SM951 to perform at its best, and using PCIe 2.0 x2 will result in a further reduction in performance, sorry to say.

A single SM951 in a PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 port looks like this:




The Fatal1ty 990FX Killer board was released in April, 2014. That was before the SM951 and XP941 were available.

The only M.2 SSDs available at that time, if they even were available, were SATA M.2 SSDs. The PCIe 2.0 x2 M.2 interface was mainly designed for SATA M.2 SSDs, and is more than enough to allow them to perform at their best.

The Fatal1ty 970 Performance was released in November, 2014, and by then the Samsung XP941 was known to be coming. The XP941 uses a PCIe 2.0 x4 interface, so the M.2 port on the 970 Performance was changed to PCIe 2.0 x4.

Don't you hate how fast some PC components change sometimes... Sick


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Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 25 Oct 2015 at 3:13am
I think the best solution for this fast M.2 cards is to acquire a PCIe x4 M.2 card adapter.

http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/M2P4A.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/M2P4A.html


Posted By: aberdeen
Date Posted: 25 Oct 2015 at 2:15pm
Originally posted by net2paul net2paul wrote:

I think the best solution for this fast M.2 cards is to acquire a PCIe x4 M.2 card adapter.

http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/M2P4A.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/M2P4A.html


Posted By: peterpiper
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2015 at 2:09am
I'm interested if anyone's managed to do a M2 Win10 install on a Fatal1ty 970 Performance. Particularly as that's the board I'm now considering.

This thread also very helpful in making me realise the M2 socket bandwidth on the Fatal1ty 970 Performance is 20GB/sec bandwidth compared to 10 GB/sec on ASRock 990FX Killer. Is seems very strange for ASRockto half the M2 channels on the 990FX, which I guess is a later board.
I'd been considering he 990FX, but as M2 support is higher on my list than NVIDIA® SLI support the 970 Performance looks a better bet.


 
Originally posted by parsec parsec wrote:

Originally posted by net2paul net2paul wrote:

U need to create a Windows 10 USB installation media with UEFI support (GPT)
Booting directly from USB . Ahci mode in UEFI and only SM951 connected, no other drive. 
Installing a bootable Win10 on it. 

How to create a Windows 10 USB installation media with UEFI support:
http://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-installation" rel="nofollow - http://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-installation


I've been using Windows installations on Intel systems for years by installing it from a USB flash drive with UEFI support. I've done that with Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10. The first board I did that on was an ASRock Z77 Extreme4. .................................

....... The USB Windows 10 installation media I used with my Fatal1ty 970 Performance/3.1 is the same one I've used to install it on three different Intel systems. I've never had a problem installing Windows this way until I tried it on my AMD board.

You did not mention one thing that is essential for the system to really be UEFI/EFI booting. That is an option in our board's UEFI that must be set a certain way. That option is... Question

With that option set in my Fatal1ty 970 Performance/3.1 board's UEFI, the target SSD for the Windows installation is never seen by the Windows installer. That is the issue I have.

and earlier:
Originally posted by parsec parsec wrote:

.........................
......................I am curious about how your OS disk appears in Disk Management after the Windows Installation. This is how my EFI booting Windows 10 installation appears in Disk Management, the top entry:




Your Windows 10 installation appearance in Disk Management shows the WIN10INSTAL as FAT32 (I think that's on your Intel board), then that could be your problem as you say your trying the same USB installation on the AMD.
Have you instead tried, as net2paul suggested, making a new USB installation, then installing with the single M2 being the only drive present? His install is showing just the SM951 SSD (C:) yet no install ??





Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 18 Nov 2015 at 12:31am



As you can see, I  use PCie Card Adapter that working great with Samsung SM951 and  Asrock 990FX killer mainboard. I put on  PCiE 2 the card with SM951 and the video card on PCie3 slot. No change on Bios. Windows10 booting without issues !!!!

Here is the PCie card wendor link :
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Adapter-Card-to-PCI-E-x4-for-M-2-NGFF-SSD-XP941-SM951-M6E-SSD-half/32389529832.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Adapter-Card-to-PCI-E-x4-for-M-2-NGFF-SSD-XP941-SM951-M6E-SSD-half/32389529832.html

So we can double the SM951 speed on 990FX killer and don't need to downgrade to 970 Performance !
Also you can put a second slower M.2 card on mainboard.


Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 18 Nov 2015 at 2:01am
net2paul,

Censored Nice, Nice, Nice!!


I'm thrilled with your results for your SM951 on an AMD board! I was worried, for certain reasons, that an SM951 would not work well on an AMD board.

Is the SM951 and adapter card in a PCIe 3.0 slot? It seems to be.

Your benchmark results are very good, with one exception, the 4K results are a bit low. That is just me as an SSD enthusiast judging every last thing, so forgive me for that.

Questions: How did you format the SM951 when you installed Windows? Did you let the Windows installer program format it, or did you do it?

What BIOS settings did you change for the SM951? AHCI or RAID mode? Any changes to CSM?

If you can tell us how you did your Windows 10 installation, that would be useful information for other people!


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Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 18 Nov 2015 at 2:58am
First of all you don't format or partitioning SM951 !!!!!
Asrock 990FX with the latest bios!

U need to create a Windows 10 USB  (GPT) installations media with UEFI support  (GPT)
Use RUFUS . Tutorial for RUFUS and Download 
http://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-installation

In UEFI set AHCI and GPT.

Mount SM951, No other drive.

Boot directly from USB  (GPT) with Win10 installer. Let Windows to configure your drive.
In UEFI showing a new drive in BOOT menu something like "Windows Media".  
I'm not enter to UEFI right now but you will recognise it.

Good luck !


Great thanks to Finnipinni !!!!


Originally posted by parsec parsec wrote:



Your benchmark results are very good, with one exception, the 4K results are a bit low. That is just me as an SSD enthusiast judging every last thing, so forgive me for that.


You post a benchmark results with 2 x SM951 in raid0. If you divide the results you will receive  approximately the same results. But with intel board you use PCie 3 , not PCie 2 like AMD boards.

Asrock 990FX M.2 PCie 2 x 2
With PCie slot nr 2 the Adapter can use PCie 2 x 4


Posted By: aberdeen
Date Posted: 08 Dec 2015 at 1:44am
Clap


Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 08 Dec 2015 at 2:14pm
Originally posted by net2paul<u><b> net2paul wrote:

First of all you don't format or partitioning SM951 !!!!!
Asrock 990FX with the latest bios!

U need to create a Windows 10 USB  (GPT) installations media with UEFI support  (GPT)
Use RUFUS . Tutorial for RUFUS and Download 
http://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-installation

In UEFI set AHCI and GPT.

Mount SM951, No other drive.

Boot directly from USB  (GPT) with Win10 installer. Let Windows to configure your drive.
In UEFI showing a new drive in BOOT menu something like "Windows Media".  
I'm not enter to UEFI right now but you will recognise it.

Good luck !


Great thanks to Finnipinni !!!!


Originally posted by parsec parsec wrote:



Your benchmark results are very good, with one exception, the 4K results are a bit low. That is just me as an SSD enthusiast judging every last thing, so forgive me for that.


You post a benchmark results with 2 x SM951 in raid0. If you divide the results you will receive  approximately the same results. But with intel board you use PCie 3 , not PCie 2 like AMD boards.

Asrock 990FX M.2 PCie 2 x 2
With PCie slot nr 2 the Adapter can use PCie 2 x 4


I already posted this result in another post under my RAID 0 results. This is one SM951 on my Z97 board. Here it is again:



The other RAID 0 results show the RAID scaling is poor, either the RAID driver is holding these SSDs back or we've already used up the bandwidth. So dividing by two does not work for the new RAID for PCIe SSDs. It does work for SATA SSDs in general.

net2paul, You are not understanding me, or I'm not understanding you, about formatting the SSD and using a USB flash drive to install Windows.

When I install Windows on my SM951s or 950 Pro (or any SSD that I want to use the EFI bootloader for the Windows installation) using Intel chipset boards, I never format the SSD first. I always let the Windows installer program do that.

When I tried the same technique on my 970 Performance board, it would not work. I've installed Windows like this for years on Intel boards, but the 970 Performance refused to work that way.

Someone in an earlier post said they formatted the SSD as GPT before the Windows installation on an AMD chipset board. That worked for them. That's why I asked you what you did.

You wrote this: "In UEFI set AHCI and GPT." AHCI is obvious, but how are you "setting GPT"?

You also wrote:
 
"Boot directly from USB  (GPT) with Win10 installer. Let Windows to configure your drive.
In UEFI showing a new drive in BOOT menu something like "Windows Media". "

When you write GPT, I think you mean UEFI. The entry in the boot order will be "Windows Boot Manager".

Never tried it again on my 970 Performance, but I will soon.






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Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 09 Dec 2015 at 7:19am
Next week I will build a new PC with 970 Performance and SM951.
So I will inform you step by step if I succeed !


Posted By: net2paul
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2015 at 3:49am
So installing Win10 on SM951 AHCI vers. on 970 Performance board is the same as on Killer.
And Booting !

1 No other drive just the SM951
2 Plug USB with GPT (not MasterBootRecord) USB with Win10 install created with Rufus 
3 Go to UEFI Bios
4 Set in UEFI Bios on Storage configuration SATA MODE to AHCI MODE - everything disable, no AMD AHCI Bios . 
4 Set Boot from USB UEFI
5 Boot and install Win10
6 On first restart unplug the USB
7 if Win10 installing go on next level , your are OK.

That's all !!!


Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 19 Dec 2015 at 5:35am
Thanks for the info Net2Paul Thumbs Up



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