[Request] NVMe BIOS mod for MSI X79A-GD45 (8D)

Hello all,

My motherboard is MSI X79A-GD45 (8D)
BIOS Version: E7760IMS V10.7
I’m planning to use Samsung 970 EVO Plus Series 1TB
as a boot drive by using a Vantec M.2 NVMe adapter
Is it possible by updating with modified bios for my motherboard? If so, I would really appreciate if someone kindly
points me to the correct modified bios for this.

@fftc
I modified the bios you mentioned for NVME boot.
Follow This guide from 4. “Installation of the OS onto the NVMe SSD”.

Thank you so much @JackSted !
I have never updated my bios let alone modding it so I’m reading this to fully understand the process to make
sure I don’t mess up and brick my motherboard.
Since there is a newer version of bios update 12.8 here, was wondering if its better to apply the bios mod for that version if possible
but I don’t see any file that can be modded there in the package. Its just an exe file.
I’m also thinking of replacing the processor with i7 4960x, replacing RAM to make it 2133MHz 64gb (8x8) and also replace existing graphics card with GTX 1080 ti.
Will only apply the mod once I’m absolutely sure about it… I work in 3d graphics and rendering, so please let me know if the upgrades I’m thinking about are worth it and will work in stable manner.

@Lost_N_BIOS
If I might be so bold to bother you to ask if you might know if a MSI bios single exe file can be flashed dumped modded then flashed. I modded his older non exe bios.

@fftc
You can test the bios I provided (should relatively safe considering you should have dual BIOS), or hold off to see if we can update to the latest version.

The hardware you go for depends highly on your critical workload. Some software leverages the GPU and some doesnt.
My general advice for what you are describing would be to get a Xeon 1680 v2 CPU (supports ECC momory) on ebay (provided we can include the microcode in your bios or it works on the latest version) coupled with a DDR3 64GB 16x4 (2Rx4) ECC unbuffered or a 32 GB 4x8 (1Rx8) ECC unbuffered memory kit and the 1080 ti.

If your not inclined to mess around with hardware incompatibilities and BIOSes or don’t have the time I recommend you get a Ryzen 2700x with a DDR4 64GB 16x4 (2Rx4) ECC unbuffered 2666 ECC kit coupled with the 1080 ti.

@JackSted thanks for your wise advice!
I have been studying about this since last week… and I want to go with Xeon 1680 v2.
It seems to be the best processor that an old X79 LGA2011 board such as mine can have.
Now the question is how do I make absolutley sure that my motherboard supports Xeon 1680 v2 before buying one ?
Tried look up info on what CPU supports are added after updating the BIOS and chipset drivers but to no avail.

For example I found a list of supported CPUs for my motherboard here but 1680 v2 is not in the list.

The latest official BIOS update version 12.8 from MSI was released on 2014-12-11 and the latest chipset driver update version 10.1.2.19
is from 2016-05-06. So since Xeon 1680 v2 was released in the third quarter of 2013, I guess applying those updates should
do the trick. But then I read somewhere that if you update your BIOS to ME8 you cannot overclock the processor which then
defeats the whole purpose of upgrading to Xeon 1680 v2.
Was concerned about this after seeing on BIOS update notes: "There is no way to reflash back to ME7.1 if you already updated to ME8.1"
So now its getting really confusing for me…

I’m dreaming about upgrading my motherboard CPU to 1680 v2 - getting it from ebay, add a 1tb Samsung Evo Plus ssd and a liquid cooler so that I can overclock
CPU past 4GHz, a 1080 Ti graphics card and maximum RAM which my mobo supports - get 128GB from ebay.
Will 750w PSU be good enough for this?
Since I will be doing a lot of simulation (Houdini, Maya, 3DS MAX ) and rendering, I guess it will
be a decent setup if its possible at all.

@Lost_N_BIOS
is such thing possible as JackSted mentioned above?

If the 1680 v2 microcode is added to the old bios it should function and OC.
750w should be enough adding up all components tho I would recommend an 850w to not cut it close like the corsair RM850 a high quality PSU does significantly impact OC stability.

Offtopic: Yesterday the Ryzen 7 3700X was unveiled for 329 USD and were I to upgrade soon that would be my choice.

@JackSted - yes, on the new exe BIOS. You can flash, dump, mod, flash or you can extract the BIOS from the exe, mod, then flash it.
Or, flash latest via EXE, FPT dump, mod, FPT flash. Many ways to skin this cat

@fftc Yes, see above!

If you guys need me to do something here, please let me know exactly what you want done and to what files.
I just modified v28 BIOS here a week or two ago, so there’s a base BIOS for you if you wanted v28 - [Request] nvme bios mod for msi X79A-GD45
never mind, I see that’s not same model. Anyway, if you need me to mod, or extract BIOS from exe and give you guys to mod, let me know.

@fftc
Can you link the website where you found that overclocking is disabled so that we can determine which bios we want to mod?

.

Hello guys,

I need to re-bump this old thread, because the upload is no longer available and I would like to ask for the same functionality on the 12.8 BIOS
hxxps://download.msi.com/bos_exe/mb/7760vC8.zip

I bought the Kingston A2000 (SA2000M8/1000G) SSD NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 1TB.
I’m looking for a decent PCI-E adapter with heatsink right now.

@Link2000

Here is 2 mod files, NVMe only inserted and another also with updated modules. System should already be in same bios version, perform the necessary dumps/backups before flashing mod files.

X79A-GD45 8D bios version 12.8(C80)

Flash it at ur own risk, using Q-Flash only, not OS environment.

@MeatWar thank you very much, I will try it out as soon as possible!

Edit: For everyone having problems with zippyshare: They block users from europe right now. Try a VPN server outside europe

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Hello, could anyone please repost this file ? Many thanks in advance :slight_smile:

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Here you go
drive.google.com/file/d/1NgkKxgPz0ypeCktVxOy5c8U8f51j2dmL/view?usp=sharing

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Even I didn’t understand the difference between the File only for “NVME” and “NVMEall”, I assumed the latter included uptodate NVMe drivers. (modules) I flashed the latter!

Thank you very much. Worked like a Charm on this Board:

X79A-GD34 (8D) Revision 12.8 (latest) with WD SN730 512GB!

It is important to flash to ME 8.1 I guess. In older Bioses (10.8, ME 7) even Stock Bios as RAW File where not accepted by M.Flash. Only updating to 12.8 before gave it a way.

NVMe: Only inserted NVMe DXE module to support it.
NVMeALL: Besides NVMe also updated mcode, SATA/RAID, LAN modules.

ME is apart from bios region, its recommend to update it before any mods but it can be updated later.

EDIT: Well seems that no else complained about it, its simple do yourself the mod.

Latest mcodes for all mcodes processors present in bios and latest dxe/orom drivers for all the hw modules present in the bios, simple as that.

I’am running in compatibility issues atm. For clearing things up, it would be good to know which microcode and drivers were actually inserted.

Greetings

Jens