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djgarygillespie · ‎12-10-2016

I just purchased an Asus ROG Crossblade Ranger FM2+ AMD A88X (Bolton D4) Motherboard, and I want to use the new Samsung M.2 960 EVO.
Since my motherboard doesn't have an M.2 slot, I'm wanting to buy the Asus Hyper M.2 x4 mini PCI Express 3 adapter to get the M.2 to work.

I just found out A88X doesn't support NVME, so I sent an email to Asus asking if there is a way I can get the M.2 to work on this board.
At first they replied back saying no, then they replied back saying to change these settings in bios and it should work:

1. BIOS->Boot->CSM (Compatibility Support Module)->Disable
2. BIOS->Boot->Secure Boot->OS Type->Other OS
3. BIOS->Boot->Secure Boot->Key Management->Clear Secure Key
4. F10 (save and exit)
5. Install OS only with bootable UEFI media.
6. Re-enter BIOS after first restart during the OS installation, it will be shown within the BIOS
7. BIOS->Boot->Secure Boot->OS Type->Windows UEFI mode
8. BIOS->Boot->Secure Boot->Key Management->Install Default Secure Boot Keys
9. F10 (save and exit)
10 It should resume the installation, if not, completely power down the system and turn it back on after 10 seconds.
11. Note: do not connect any external devices to the computer during the installation and best if only the M.2 SSD is installed won the system.

So does that mean I can get M.2 to work with this board, or do you think the person that sent this doesn't know what their talking about?
Also if I do all this, would all my 3.5 HDD's still work normally?

Korth · ‎12-10-2016

Here's an interesting thread about A88X + NVMe. Anything is possible with modded firmware (including rootkits and other hazards, lol). If ASUS does not explicitly provide an NVMe driver component in their BIOS then I don't think there's any way to gain the advantages of an NVMe interface on the motherboard - you could use an NVMe adapter card (in a PCIe slot) to gain NVMe compatibility, but it wouldn't provide true NVMe performance.

"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams

[/Korth]

flk1973 · ‎12-19-2017

Is it possible to run a Corsair Force 500 nvme SSD combined with an x4 Adapter, or do i get trubble with the actual new BIOS, if ill get trubble
is there a next BIOS announced to bring NVME cards running ? Id like to have a SSD running 3200 MB read / PCI e gen 3.0 i have with my
AMD FM2+ A10-7870 ... i like to have it like ive done with my FX board Asus 970 M Pro 3 - nvme works fine - oe i think about to find an
adapter card with a nvme controller and own bios , so ive to install i driver when i install windows 10 - like ive done in former times with Adaptec
U320 SCSI controller ... that controller had an own BIOS and theU320 drive was bootable to use it as a C: drive
The ASUS X16 (4x nvme RAID just works with Intel Boards) 😞
Best regards from germany

A88X support NVME