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Would something like this be possible to install on older motherboards that do not have an M.2 slot, or is there some limitation in the chipset that I don't kno

by Izmaki 8y ago

Would something like this be possible to install on older motherboards that do not have an M.2 slot, or is there some limitation in the chipset that I don't know of?

joenathanone 8y ago
If you want to boot from it your bios would need to support it, but it should work in any PC as a storage drive.
- morganvachon 8y ago
  I believe all that is necessary is NVMe support in both the BIOS and your OS. Standard mini-PCIe NVMe drives are seen as PCIe devices and this is the same thing, just in a full size card form factor. Modern Linux based OSes will boot from it just fine, as will Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016. I don't believe macOS allows booting from NVMe PCIe devices on the legacy Mac Pro even with High Sierra, but the OS has native support for using it as a storage drive.
  - wtallis 8y ago
    > Standard mini-PCIe NVMe drives I don't believe anyone has actually made one of those. MiniPCIe is a different form factor than M.2; the latter is newer and has almost completely replaced miniPCIe. MiniPCIe only provides a single lane of PCI Express, while most M.2 variants allow for two or four lanes, and almost all NVMe SSDs support at least two lanes.
    - morganvachon 8y ago
      Sorry, you're right, that's what I was referring to. M.2 is still PCIe just with more lanes than mini PCIe, as you said. My point was it's all PCIe to the computer and OS. Thanks for catching that! :-)
deleted 8y ago
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frankharv 8y ago
I am using a 512GB Toshiba XG3 mounted on a cheap paddle card. The board had no M.2 slot. I tested on IvyBridge and upward to Skylake and it was supported. Booting was supported on all but IvyBridge. So I would say any PCIe 3.0 slot board should be fine. Maybe next I will try SandyBridge. They only use PCIe 2.x.
rasz 8y ago
you will need PCIE slot, preferably x4 one, and in case of old chipsets a BIOS mod to sideload UEFI NVME driver in order to be able to boot form your new SSD. https://www.win-raid.com/t871f50-Guide-How-to-get-full-NVMe-support-for-all-Systems-with-an-AMI-UEFI-BIOS.html https://www.win-raid.com/t871f50-Guide-How-to-get-full-NVMe-...

by Izmaki 8y ago

Would something like this be possible to install on older motherboards that do not have an M.2 slot, or is there some limitation in the chipset that I don't know of?

joenathanone 8y ago

If you want to boot from it your bios would need to support it, but it should work in any PC as a storage drive.

morganvachon 8y ago
I believe all that is necessary is NVMe support in both the BIOS and your OS. Standard mini-PCIe NVMe drives are seen as PCIe devices and this is the same thing, just in a full size card form factor. Modern Linux based OSes will boot from it just fine, as will Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016. I don't believe macOS allows booting from NVMe PCIe devices on the legacy Mac Pro even with High Sierra, but the OS has native support for using it as a storage drive.
- wtallis 8y ago
  > Standard mini-PCIe NVMe drives I don't believe anyone has actually made one of those. MiniPCIe is a different form factor than M.2; the latter is newer and has almost completely replaced miniPCIe. MiniPCIe only provides a single lane of PCI Express, while most M.2 variants allow for two or four lanes, and almost all NVMe SSDs support at least two lanes.
  - morganvachon 8y ago
    Sorry, you're right, that's what I was referring to. M.2 is still PCIe just with more lanes than mini PCIe, as you said. My point was it's all PCIe to the computer and OS. Thanks for catching that! :-)

deleted 8y ago

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frankharv 8y ago

I am using a 512GB Toshiba XG3 mounted on a cheap paddle card. The board had no M.2 slot. I tested on IvyBridge and upward to Skylake and it was supported. Booting was supported on all but IvyBridge. So I would say any PCIe 3.0 slot board should be fine. Maybe next I will try SandyBridge. They only use PCIe 2.x.

rasz 8y ago

you will need PCIE slot, preferably x4 one, and in case of old chipsets a BIOS mod to sideload UEFI NVME driver in order to be able to boot form your new SSD. https://www.win-raid.com/t871f50-Guide-How-to-get-full-NVMe-support-for-all-Systems-with-an-AMI-UEFI-BIOS.html https://www.win-raid.com/t871f50-Guide-How-to-get-full-NVMe-...