add PCI SSD compatibility P8Z77-V PRO motherboard

[danstrode]

I want to add a PCI SSD to my computer.
not sure what is compatible with my P8Z77-V PRO motherboard

considering HP EXP950 M.2 if it will work

HP SSD
HP EX950 M.2 is a HP SSD intended for eSports, which adopts NVMe 1.3 new generation data transfer protocol and supports PCIe Gen3 (8Gb/s) x4 channels of data transmission. With read and write speeds reaching up to 3500 MB/s and 2900 MB/s


the PCIe 3.0 (GEN3) is in use with video card

·Expansion Slots

2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8) *3
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black)
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 *4
2 x PCI


*3: PCIe 3.0 speed is supported by Intel® 3rd generation Core™ processors.
*4: The PCIe x1_2 shares bandwidth with SATA6G_E12. SATA6G_E12 is enabled by default for system resource optimization

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

Don't bother.

First, real-world performance differences between NVMe/PCIe and SATA SSDs are slim-to-none: https://techreport.com/review/33545/samsung-970-evo-1-tb-ssd-reviewed/5

Second, that mainboard is too old to be able to boot from a NVMe SSD. There's little sense in using a NVMe SSD for only app/game storage.

Third, the PCIe slot you'd want to use a NVMe SSD in (the black one), is limited to PCIe 2.0. This means throughput would be cut in half. (the other two x16 slots are intended for GPUs).

HP EX950 M.2 is a HP SSD intended for eSports

Yeah, that's some thick marketing BS right there used to jack up the price.

 

[danstrode]

thanks
kinda what I expected
so much has changed since I got this computer (7 years ?)

 

[DonutFiend99]

Hello all,

I hate to resurrect an ancient thread, but there is indeed new information to be added to this conversation.

Most importantly, this thread persists, as of March 2023, in continuing to come up at the top of the first page of multiple search engine results when searching about the Asus P8Z77-V PRO motherboard and NVMe drive support.

Many old posts, including in this thread, are saying it's not possible or beneficial to get NVMe support on this motherboard, and that isn't entirely accurate.

I'd like to share some current information about the original poster's question of using NVMe drives on his old motherboard.

---

Please know that, while maybe not for every motherboard out there, it has been possible using a modified BIOS to update the P8Z77-V PRO that OP asked about to use NVMe drives as far back as multiple years before this thread was originally created in May 2019

It was then and still is now, in 2023, a matter of modifying the BIOS to do this, tho many understandably don't want or feel comfortable doing that.

Sadly, there isn't likely to ever be an official Asus BIOS update beyond 2104 released way back on 2013/09/16 to update things like NVMe support, so modding after the fact is the way forward.

It has gotten easier and more certain to succeed in such mods thanks to knowledge and experience by many great individuals from around the world solving matters like this for old hardware. Many guides have been created to show how, including for AMI UEFI BIOS like that used on a P8Z77-V PRO.

One such awesome guide, meant for all AMI UEFI BIOS, is posted here: https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/h...t-for-all-systems-with-an-ami-uefi-bios/30901

I was able to use this guide to mod the BIOS of my P8Z77-V PRO to fully recognize an SK Hynix Gold P31 500GB NVMe and fresh install Windows 10 as boot up without any problems, but it took a bit of time and work to get to that, so read and do your homework. (Also, you can PM me for info on the modded .CAP file with NVMe support if you want)

As for the matter of the PCIE slots and their speeds, do not use the black one (PCIE slot 7) which is indeed capped at PCIE 2.0 speed, but rather do use PCIE slot 2 and slot 5, the blue ones; this will make both run at x8 and lose the x16 on PCIE slot 2, but from my understanding, x16 lanes aren't really used too much in gaming software, and PCIE slot 5 dropping to x8 supports the NVMe drive at x4 no problem.

Testing benchmarks and gaming were great using an old flagship 780 GTX at x8 and then later an upgrade to modern but rear of the pack RTX 3060 card backward running on PCIE3.0 at x8

After the NVMe update to BIOS and drive install, the drop to x8 for primary GPU slot (PCIE slot 2) showed no performance lost before/after the change from x16 to x8 on PCIe slot 2, but YMMV depending on what you run, your resolution, details etc., and ofc being limited to PCIE3.0 at any rate. Crypto and hungrier software beyond gaming may suffer, in which case, maybe the hardware's lane specification is too old for you anyhow.

To put someone reading this far into this long post at ease on the matter of gaming, going to x8 on primary GPU slot with an RTX 3060 OC still has Quake2 RTX at 1080p, max detail/alliasing/aniso/8 light bounces/HDR etc., all of it, running 90+ frames no problem with an i5 3570k at stock. Half Life RTX is also fantastic, though the hardware age does show in some Portal RTX settings, but I think that RTX implementation is still a bit clunky. Heaven and 3dMark have respectable numbers for the hardware age, hundreds of frames in old games, etc.

So, that's pretty good for an ol' bessie PC like this one =D

To accomplish such a mod, do take your time, learn those steps, do not skip any, especially the verification steps, read all additional information guides, watch videos, read user posts, feel comfortable, learn all you can, and then read it all again as much as you need to.

When you're ready, you can do it and update that old motherboard to use many modern NVMe drives at PCIE 3.0 speeds!

My performance jump with NVMe in boot up time, loading times, file transfers on the same disk, etc. isn't easily comparable to the same work on SATA SSD as it simply smokes the older standard. Make no mistake, it's faster and better.

While these types of mods may not be for the feint of heart, you can learn about it without making a change/install to anything by reading forum posts and guides and community activity on this sort of stuff. Once you know more it becomes less intimidating to consider such mods.

I hope this has been helpful for anyone who finds their way here through a search engine result about this old hardware the way I did.

Good luck, and if you need any help on it, message me and I'll try.

 

[GotNoRice]

I was able to use this guide to mod the BIOS of my P8Z77-V PRO to fully recognize an SK Hynix Gold P31 500GB NVMe and fresh install Windows 10 as boot up without any problems, but it took a bit of time and work to get to that, so read and do your homework.

It seems rather pointless. All a modded BIOS would get you is the ability to boot from the drive. You don't need a modded BIOS just to use a NVMe SSD (via a PCIe adapter), as long as you don't plan to boot off of it. I think that for most people, it would make more sense to simply boot from a SATA SSD, and then run your games on the NVMe SSD (or just skip the NVMe SSD and use a SATA SSD for everything). There shouldn't be a significant difference in boot times between SATA and NVMe, and regardless, it usually makes more sense to just use Sleep instead of shutting-down and Booting-up each time.

My performance jump with NVMe in boot up time, loading times, file transfers on the same disk, etc. isn't easily comparable to the same work on SATA SSD as it simply smokes the older standard. Make no mistake, it's faster and better.

I find that extremely difficult to believe. What SATA SSD were you comparing against? There have been countless benchmarks from many different sites showing that the difference between SATA and NVMe is tiny for most real-world usage, and that we are essentially stuck in a holding-pattern waiting for technologies such as DirectStorage to be successfully implemented into games in order to take advantage of the potential speeds that high-end NVMe drives can offer. The problem is that speeds are currently limited by old protocols that essentially nullify the speed advantage of NVMe. In the case of games, currently the CPU first has to move data (game textures, etc) from the SSD into System RAM, where the data is then decompressed by the CPU, and then finally sent to the GPU VRam. DirectStorage streamlines this and allows the GPU to decompress and move data directly from the SSD into GPU VRam at a much higher speed.

And it has to be pointed out that worrying about this aspect of performance on a decade-old platform seems... odd, at best. You can create an AM4 system stupid cheap right now, something like a Ryzen 5600X CPU with a B550 motherboard and 16GB DDR4 would cost you like $300 total. Not to mention all the great deals on used hardware - a lot newer than 10 years old.

Or if you want to be really cheap, then just get a Xeon E3-1245 v2 for $25 on eBay as a drop-in upgrade for your P8Z77-V PRO. Still a quad-core chip, but it has 8 threads instead of 4, and 8mb L3 cache instead of 6mb. We've long-since reached the point where 4core/8thread chips do now show a considerable advantage over 4core/4thread chips in real-world usage, unlike when the 3570k was new. Only downside of the Xeon is that it's not an unlocked chip, but you said that you are running your 3570k at stock speeds, so...

 

[rcarlos]

Another alternative instead of modding BIOS is to use CLOVER-EFI bootloader method.

https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/g...-clover-efi-bootloader-method/31665#msg107724