Just wanted to say thank you for the clear instructions. Just added the Clover driver, new microcode and network rooms to my ga-x79-ud5 bios and it works perfectly. Using Win 10 and native uefi/csm disabled.
@Krobar :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum and thanks for your feedback.
Enjoy your Gigabyte X79 mainboard with full NVMe support!
Dieter (alias Fernando)
Hi Fernando 
I have a ASUS Rampage V Extreme motherboard and got stuck in the second stage: "Search for the listed module named "CSMCORE""
I cannot find CSMCORE following the guide. I tried both versions of the software, but no luck. I did not find it in the 4 previous versions of the MOBO BIOS.
Do you have an idear? Am i doing something wrong?
Best Regards
FalafelFighter
@FalafelFighter :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
X99 Chipset mainboards like yours usually have a BIOS with an AMI Aptio V platform, which does not contain the CSMCORE module. That is why you couldnāt find it.
According to >this< announcement the latest BIOSes of all ASUS X99 chipset mainboards natively do fully support booting off an NVMe SSD. So there is no need to modify the BIOS of your ASUS Rampage V Extreme.
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
@Fernando
Hi Fernando
Thanks for the information.
My issue is that, the motherboard BIOS does not support RAID array for NVMe drives. IRST is not supported on BIOS level for x99 chipset and therefore not activating.
Iāve spoken with ASUS a couple of times and figured out that, even if my board have it listed in BIOS, itās not going to work.
Then i wonderedā¦ the x99 Deluxe board does have a BIOS supporting RAID for NVMe drives. (I got 2x 950 PROās)
- Do you think it would be possible to make an āFrankensteinā mod for the remaining x99 series?
Best Regards
FalafelFighter
Are you sure about that? AFAIK X99 mainboards usually have 2 individually working on-board Intel SATA Controllers - one of them with full RAID options, the other one without RAID support.
AFAIK it is the IRST Software, which is able to manage NVMe RAID0 arrays.
I dont know the answer. You should better ask our BIOS Guru CodeRush.
@Fernando
Yes, IRST can manage RAID arrays, but the software does not support NVMe in the BIOS (on most x99). Thatās why iām looking for a workaround at the time being.
It does pick up both of the drives, but itās not recognized by IRST.
I will hear out if CodeRush know if itās possible to implement that feature
Who is picking up both drives? What do you mean with IRST? The IRST Software or the IRST Utility, which is part of the UEFI BIOS?
I am not sure, that he will read your post (without having personally addressed it to him).
When you install the software the driver is embedded and indstalled afterwards, but the software talks with the BIOS where IRST is implemented. That unlucks the posibility to change RAIDās āOn the flyā.
My issue/problem is that the BIOS in the motherboard doesnāt have support for the intel IRST for NVMe drives (or RAID overall). Donāt confuse it with the SATA drives/SSDās, thatās standard these days. For the NVMe drives itās another story
The part where IRST in BIOS have to work, is for the board to dedicate the PCI-e lanes correctly to the drives in a RAID configuration. Atm. i have both installed and only OS on one of the drives.
Here is a bit of info:
http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-news/lā¦ot-performance/
"The main concern with M.2 NVMe, and specifically the Samsung 950 Pro as it is the only of its kind available at present, is that many are buying this SSD in hopes that it is a quick and easy upgrade for their present M.2 SSD in their ultrabook. On the other end of the spectrum, enthusiasts are running out and buying motherboards with dual M.2 sockets in hopes of creating an amazing bootable RAID0 config with the Samsung 950 Pro, not realizing that the only way to accomplish this is with Intel RST built right into the UEFI/BIOS. Letās tackle some of these concerns in this report, explain a bit of NVMe compatibility, build a M.2 NVMe RAID configuration and, just for fun, letās make it bootable!"
Intel Statement:
https://communities.intel.com/thread/87865?start=0&tstart=0
"There is no RAID support for NVMe drives with Z97 and X99 chipsets, only OS (Software) RAID. These chipsets do not have the PCIe/SATA remapping technology required for iRST to support NVMe devices.
Some systems using the IntelĀ® Z170 Chipset and IntelĀ® Rapid Storage Technology are capable of using RAID with PCIe* NVMe* SSDs. We would recommend you to check with the Computer Manufacturer Support before purchasing to confirm if a specific system supports this. Some Z170 systems may not have the device mapping and BIOS features required to create a bootable RAID volume."
The ASUS supporter asked an software engineer for more info and i was told that, the only way to get my (other) motherboards to support NVMe RAID, were to re-design the BIOS completely. (I know the x99 Deluxe works, i got the test case aswell from ASUS)
Let me know if it peaks your interest.
A lot of people have the same issue as me. Itās either a new board or a new socket Z170 exchange i have in mind atm.
Best Regards
FalafelFighter
A little more feedback for the Asus X79 users. I have the Sabertooth X79 with the 4801 BIOS. I installed the 950 Pro in an M2 adapter and placed the card in my last PCIE 16 slot. Booted uip, and the 950 was immediately recognized in BIOS as bootable. I did set the card to MBR, not GUID. After using the Samsung software to duplicate my windows install on the new drive, it booted from the 950 without issue. The whole process took less than an hour.
I had modified my 4801 BIOS, as indicated on page 1 of this post. I do not know if that was necessary for MBR booting. I am seeing sequential reads of 2300+ and writes of 1500+.
Many thanks to this thread.
I was able to this to work on a P67a-GD65. Have a 512 950 Pro running with Windows 10. Read rate is limited by the 8x PCIe 2.0 slot but performance is still much higher than my previous job. I also slipped in all of the updated OROMs I could find.
Than you for putting this out!
@sjepps :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum and thanks for your interesting report.
Questions:
1. Which M.2>PCIe Adapter did you use?
2. Are you able to boot off the SSD?
Most important question:
Which modules did you insert into the BIOS?
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
Ableconn PEXM2-SSD M.2
I had to create the partition by booting into my old OS first. I could have done it via command prompt, but this was easier and I wanted to verify speed before installing Windows on the drive. But yes, I am able to boot without issue.
I based the build off of this BIOS file:
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=164135.0
I then inserted 12.9.0.2006. I used Windows 10 drivers instead of what was suggested, as they were newer.
The one thing to note with this particular board is that the user must update from ME7 -> ME8 before doing this BIOS update. This board has issues when people try to jump from ME7 -> ME8 without doing incremental BIOS updates. If someone was going from stock I would suggest flashing the last ME7, first ME8 and then whatever build they wanted to end up at.
I used the MSI HQ Forum Bios Update tool and a bootable USB stick. This is considered the safest method for this board in particular.
EDIT by Fernando: Removed not needed parts of the quoted text (to save space) and reset the real quotes (to make it easier to differ the questions and the answers)
That is a good question. I havenāt looked as Iām still transferring data from the Windows 7 hard drive. I will have to get back to you on that.
It is easy to verify that: Unplug all drives except the Samsung 950 PRO and turn your computer on thereafter.
If you are able to boot into the OS, the boot sector is on the Samsung NVMe SSD.
MBR is on the NVMe drive.
So you are able to boot off the Samsung 950 PRO even after having unplugged all other disk drives?
Hello everyone, new member here.
I modded the SuperMicro X9SRA(C602/X79) BIOS by the 1st page guide and install a Intel 750 400GB at PCIe3.0 x4.
It work perfectly with my fresh-install win10 now, thanks for everyone who make NVMe work on old MB !
If someone get same problem as mine, try my solution below.
1. win10 setup say that due to a BIOS limitation it canāt install onto the drive -> use a USB flash disk to install and make sure the USB disk boot in UEFI mode.
2. NVMe canāt boot automatically -> set the NVMe(windows boot manager) self as the 1st boot device.
@szoo0268 :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum and thanks for your report and your tips!
We are glad, that you succeeded.
Enjoy your new Intel 750 NVMe SSD with your "old" Microcode X79 system.
Dieter (alias Fernando)