Norcus wrote:
You need an official answer from Asus for this one. According to the manual for the Impact the M.2 slot on the combo card supports PCIE interface SSD card only, so if your extender uses the correct protocol, it might work. Seems a bit iffy though to convert PCIE -> Asus Combo -> M.2 -> back to PCIE again.

What you have quoted me is what i understood to be true I just couldn't remember where I saw it. I would love to take your advice re, looking for an officail answer, were that I could and in fact it was the first thing I thought of but for that I would need a serial number and since i haven't actually bought the VII Impact yet...
And I haven't bought it yet because I don't have an official answer - oh and there is a hole in my bucket...

I've looked at the manual for the Z97i-plus and that does that does seem to support both SSD and PCIe. So I could go with that. But the Z9Zi-plus is notable for being one of the few Z97 motherboards that is NOT listed as capable of working with the USB3.1 card via a Bios change.
So an offical answer from Asus on whether that will happen would be remarkably useful!

personally I would prefer to use the Impact as it would mean I could invest in an EK motherboard water-cooler, and i like some of the extra features,

If I can't use the Impact, then I could go with a Z97i-plus and other suppliers should be able supply a standard USB3.1 card but then I wouldn't get the extra superspeed advantages that Asus have on board, and that's probably the way I will have to go. The next option after that as I said was to buy the Asrock motherboard and buy a SataExpress to USB3.1 cable from Unitek Y-7306 which is listed here but not at the Unitek site http://www.pcper.com/news/Storage/List-Upcoming-USB-31-Devices-Expected-Mid-2015 so assuming that exists that might be the way to go

I suppose i do have an Asus motherboard from 8+ years ago but it was for AMD, and i guess I haven't checked that yet.
I supposed I could be given a dummy serial number to log in with...

Coming to these forums seemed to be the sensible next step since this an Asus site and i though Tech support might hang around here as well.

Whatever happens i need an answer before i SPEND money.

hope that helps

Norcus wrote:
OK I thought you already owned the Impact. They way I read it, the BIOS expects only to find one SSD harddrive using PCIE interface in the M.2 slot. I don't think your adapter would work.

My apologies for not communicating what I meant clearly enough.
I wish I could rely on myself to take the time to read and edit my text before I post it.

Norcus wrote:
How about the manufacturer of the adapter. Did you ask them?

This is really an issue for Asus not the cable company!
The cable company (B.Plus) cannot be expected to run their cable against every possible motherboard!
In fact Asus advertises their in depth testing with other products and says this is a key advantage of buying a ROG board. Yet they haven't fully implemented the M.2. standard on their premium board. Which this brings into question exactly how premium an ROG board is? Especially as they implemented the full M.2. protocol in their standard Z97i-plus board.

To be honest Asus's logic seems highly questionable
There premium ITX gaming board, the one most likely to have its single slot filled with graphics card: gets an upgrade that allows a USB3.1 card to be plugged in. But Asus disable any means of it being pluggged into anything other than the single x16 slot.
Meanwhile their standard ITX board may well be used for other applications than gaming; for example: video editing, i.e. have its slot filled with a 10Gb Ethernet card, or a USB3.1 adaptor card, - doesn't get the bios upgrade!!!
thanks for the replies though
X

Norcus wrote:
The USB3.1 upgrade is for the entire Z97 lineup, not just the Impact.

Ok, two possibilities either your right and Asus will upgrade its entire line - it just Chose to IGNORE and not to say anything about the Z97I-plus, Or your wrong and of the two ITX boards Asus chose only to upgrade the Impact ITX board for USB 3.1.
This then leads onto a futher question: are you speaking on behalf of Asus as an employee whose is repeating actual data, or are you speaking speculation? If the latter is true, that would suggest that your an enthusiastic 'fan boy'* whose faith in Asus brookes no dissent!

*fan boy is of a sexist dimunitive implying that you a boy as opposed to a girl, and thus as a boy you have not gained sufficent wisdom to speak about the issue at hand

Norcus wrote:
Asus has not disabled anything.

Again I ask you - how do you know this?
Either your an Asus employee speaking on behalf of the company or this is fan boy speculation?

Norcus wrote:
It is truly AMAZING what they have jammed onto the ITX standard with the Impact. You argue as if it was a standard ATX motherboard you are buying.

Actually if you go back and read what i said, I pointed out that Asus has two ITX boards!

Board a. the impact - does not support the the entirety of the M.2 protocol.
We are talking here about a protocol, to implement part or all of the M.2. protocol. There are two possibilities: it is a software issue and Asus chose for reasons of cost, oversight or time: not to implment the entire M.2. protocol and now cannot upgrade the software. The second option is that its hardware issue i.e. a choice to use an older component over a new one to save costs. An example of this would be to recycle by relableing a component from an earlier motherboard i.e. the combo II board. However, It is unlikely to be an issue of space: precisly because the Impact uses a daughter card - the combo III. The combo board offers both more space and the ability to fit a wide varierty of M.2 M keyed lengths.
So this would again suggest that the choice was made on a matter of cost - which seems odd given the significant margin Asus makes on the Impact over the Z97I-plus! About 170% of the price of board b. or in this context it means doubling the money available. Yes the maximus VII Impact is a diffrent design to board b. However it is not substantially different from the maximus VI, so much so that exactly the same motherboard watercooling unit can be used across two generations. This would suggest again the choice was made on the grounds of cost.

Board b. the Z97i- plus does implement the entire M.2. protocol despite being both: substantially cheaper than, and having significantly less board space than, the Impact. In this case it put the socket on the back of the ITX board, a solution that is used by other manufactures as well.

Norcus wrote:
If Asus does not answer any requests you make then go to a computer component store and ask if they can test it for you. It would be in their interest to know too.

Your choice of words would suggest that english is either not your first language, that your dyslexic or that you are sufficently young that you are still aquiring the nuamces - none of which denigrates your knowledge - but would imply that we are in fact having a communication difficulty as your failing to understand what i am saying to you.

But on to your substantive point. Again your suggesting that its not Asus job to supply technical support to its own product despite it having easy access to the board designers, internal schematics etc.
Instead your suggesting that I find a retailer, ask them to destroy the value of an extremely valuable motherboard and other substantial cost just so I can test an item. When I say destroy the value, it would require that the the box be opened, and built into a system using a cpu etc, that act means that the board cannot be sold as new only as second hand thus reducing the value of it considerably.
Of course a retailer may have a demonstration board running but in a world where margins are razor thin, no small retailer can afford the time and expense of such a choice.
Meanwhile a larger box shifter is unlikley to have the knowledge of how to do so, nor the willingness to allow its customers to experiment with a display item.
Again we can ask why would you suggest this solution?
The first more likely explantion is that you have not thought this idea through or understood the implications there of,
The second is that your sugesting this solution so that I should go away and waste time not getting an answer, and potentially damage Asus retail chain in the process

Since I am fairly certain that your use of English is because of lack of understanding of its nuances, I wont take offence at the toen of your text - which if you were a native speaker could be percieved as beligerent or even agressive.

What i am asking is a specialist case - something that Asus advertises itself for, of testing all sorts of hardware combinations. It is Asus who stands to gain not the retailer

Either way your sugestions are becoming less helpful. Perhaps you know the answer to this? How you suggst i go about getting an Asus technical support engineer to notice us mere mortals in the forum and answer my request?

Ok - belive or not I am not a troll - I realy am trying to find out information prior to making a purchase. For the life of me i have no idea how that can be achieved: as various companies, not just asus, make it near impossible to ask questions of them

I'm sorry that I had assumed that this was a support forum given that this is actually being hosted by asus - my mistake - and my apologies.

Can I just disagree about the English usage, this may be be because your American and I am British and thus our language cultures are different. To make that explicitly clear the English language is held in trust by its speakers, that I am from England gives me no perogative about the English language - your usage is as equally valid as mine.

As to the charge of being condescending - Its very hard to know if one is being condescending and thus I must accept what you say - its certainly true that I have been told I am arrogant or fourthrite in the past - so I should accept on the balance of probabilities you are correect.

Ok I will leave and go away now - my apologies to you both - in the light of what I now know, I am very sorry for my behaviour and that I was biting the hand that was trying to feed me

Good night

X

X-mass wrote:
I realy am trying to find out information prior to making a purchase. For the life of me i have no idea how that can be achieved: as various companies, not just asus, make it near impossible to ask questions of them

No disagreement there. Unfortunately the way customer support is conducted it makes it very difficult to get answers for the more niche technical questions.

In this case though I'm quite confident of what I told you. The documentation does say what is supported so unless it is wrong you will be good to go. I'm not sure it's actually possible to implement the M.2 PCIe spec and prevent a device like your adapter from working. The only way I could see that happening would be if it was M.2 SATA but mislabeled as M.2 PCIe. That would be a pretty serious mistake.