How do I know if a NVMe drive can boot from my mobo before buying?

I would expect that an AM4 motherboard or anything for the z170 or z270 chipset will have no issue booting from a NVMe drive.
 
Only if your motherboard has UEFI + NVMe support will you be able to use it as an operating system bootable drive (some Z97 with firmware updates, and newer motherboards like X99 or Z170).

For an older non-UEFI bios the ssd needs to include a legacy option rom, which the 960 Pro doesn't have.
960 Pro - No, uefi only
950 Pro - Yes, bootable on older bios motherboards such as X58.
850 Evo - No, uefi only
SM951 - No, uefi only
PM961 - No, uefi only
Intel 750 - No, uefi only

There are some other tricks people have used in the past, such as running a UEFI bootloader off of a usb drive to boot an intel 750.
 
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It's a crap shoot with Z97 and earlier motherboards. At the very least a UEFI / BIOS update will be required if it hasn't been updated since the motherboard was purchased. Motherboards based on newer chipsets such as X99 and Z170 should be good to go.
 
Many Z68 motherboard BIOSes can be modded to support NVME at boot (Google it) but there is no guarantee yours will work.
 
I can add my ditto on the Z170 boards. I suspect the X99 boards are similar for support.
I've recently put a 950 Pro M.2 on my Maximus viii hero and had little problem getting it to work as my boot drive.

My advice to you:

Choose a board that has at least one native full length m.2 slot on the mboard and plop the latest bios you can get on it.

NVMe drives run way faster than normal sata ssds and they get damned hot! They will throttle back when they do. Think about getting a set of ramsinks to put on it. I used a set of 4 copper Enzotech BMR-C1 ramsinks on mine and have not regretted it in the least.


Good luck!
 
I can add my ditto on the Z170 boards. I suspect the X99 boards are similar for support.
I've recently put a 950 Pro M.2 on my Maximus viii hero and had little problem getting it to work as my boot drive.

My advice to you:

Choose a board that has at least one native full length m.2 slot on the mboard and plop the latest bios you can get on it.

NVMe drives run way faster than normal sata ssds and they get damned hot! They will throttle back when they do. Think about getting a set of ramsinks to put on it. I used a set of 4 copper Enzotech BMR-C1 ramsinks on mine and have not regretted it in the least.


Good luck!
Good idea! I'm hoping to build a new system in a few weeks and was thinking the same thing. You got any pics? Would like to see how it looks.
 
Good idea! I'm hoping to build a new system in a few weeks and was thinking the same thing. You got any pics? Would like to see how it looks.

Here's a copy views of what I did:

20170108155224-7172997c-me.jpg

20170108155227-b4b453d2-me.jpg

The sinks are a bit smaller than the controller and nand chips. the sink by itself in the middle is covering 3 small chips, but seems to hold well. The sinks are not heavy at all so the included thermal tape holds them without a problem.
Never had heat throttling with this setup (and I tried really hard to get it to).
 
I've bought a lot of those type of heatsinks for many items of electrical gear where the manufacturer skimped. Routers are a good place and media player boxes. I've also used them on motherboard power sections too.
 
I have my Asus z170 set to NVMe boot from an Intel 750 400GB. So I know that one works.
 
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