Motherboards - QVL for Storage devices? wtf.

M

Momo

Gawd
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Mar 3, 2005
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So i'm motherboard shopping. Pretty much decided on a Gigabyte GA-170x-Gaming 7 and some QVL Ripjaws F4-3200C16Q-16GRK

... so then I made the mistake of clicking on the SSD Support List, M.2 Support List, and SATA Express Support List found on this page: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5481#dl

WTF? Motherboard manufacturers are going so far as to publish lists of supported storage devices? What's next, supported SATA cable models?

Seriously though, are these support lists, specifically the M.2, for physical dimensions, or are they chipset compatibility, or what?

It boggles my mind that Gigabyte has such a small SSD list for example. That seems silly.

I've been somewhat non-active on the [H] forums, are there actual issues of SSD / Motherboard incompatibility? Would a motherboard manuf. have the audacity to not offer support if you don't have an SSD on said supported list?
 
Seemed to recall seeing this elsewhere, had a quick look this morning.

looks like ASUS does not publish storage compatibility, at least for the few mobos i checked.

MSI does: http://us.msi.com/support/mb/Z170A-GAMING-M7.html#support-hdd

ASrock doesnt appear to. only checked a few.

Anyone with some personal experience with regards to 'supported' storage devices and support, or just plain incompatibilities?
 
It's fine as long as they don't void warranties for using a non-qualified device.
 
I don't think they would do that, not my concern.

I'm concerned, legitimately i think, that they would refuse to offer support if you're not using a supported SSD, M.2, etc. however.

They certainly have refused to support systems using non supported memory in the past, as we all know.
 
M.2/PCI-E boot support has been a pretty messy affair, a QVL actually makes some sense, more useful than a memory QVL IMO.

A lot of pre-Z97 boards didn't boot with the SM951 and even those required BIOS updates no? What's actually on the list? (sorry, don't feel like messing with PDF DLs on my phone)

A list for standard SATA SSD would make a lot less sense tho...
 
they have lists for standard SATA ssd, as well as M.2 stuff and sata express.
Didnt know there was M.2 boot issues rampantly disrupting the fun. Makes sense in that scenario.

I don't think it's going to change my board choice.

Cheers.
 
There probably shouldn't be any issues at this point with Z170 or updated X99 mobos, but on earlier boards it was fairly haphazard... It's a combination of things, new interface for drives and then some using a new protocol atop that (AHCI vs NVMe).

Even when the board can boot off one fine you still need install media properly formatted so that the Windows setup recognizes the drive (apparently a disc won't do). I'm hoping not to run into much of an issue with my ASUS Z170-A + Samsung M.2 SM951.

Can't do jack until they sell 6700Ks tho.
 
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