Solved PC upgrade advice please..

@BunnyJ

People have different interest/requirements. Your upgrade seems sensible for your needs.

My 4 core machines work very well. I also dont really need any more cpu power than that , and I dont use graphics cards.

Some people seem to like lighting effects similar to a 1970's disco. Not my thing, but each to their own

I hadnt heard of v-gen before

SIW2 said:

@BunnyJ

People have different interest/requirements. Your upgrade seems sensible for your needs.

My 4 core machines work very well. I also dont really need any more cpu power than that , and I dont use graphics cards.

Some people seem to like lighting effects similar to a 1970's disco. Not my thing, but each to their own

Click to expand...

I just want to get my rig win11 compliant. That's it.. and this processor will get that done.

Im glad you ultimately got what you wanted out of it, I mean the thread hurt my brain with some of the suggestions and choices but hey, its yours not ours/mine so if it does what you need to then job done

Kevin Ismail said:

Will check it soon.

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If the M.2 socket was set to SATA, I doubt that an NVME drive would be seen at all.

I just went into my BIOS settings (System 1). There is indeed a setting for NVME drives, and a self-test option. (Mine was set to the default: short test, controller only.)

The manual for your motherboard doesn't provide enough detail to allow me to see what the settings should be.

I have a n MSI mobo, though it is X570 (AMD) based. I checked the manual for my mobo, and it has absolutely nothing about NVMe SSD Self Test - it the option is definitely there in the BIOS.

I'll reboot now and see if mine is disabled or not.

bobkn said:

If the M.2 socket was set to SATA, I doubt that an NVME drive would be seen at all.

I just went into my BIOS settings (System 1). There is indeed a setting for NVME drives, and a self-test option. (Mine was set to the default: short test, controller only.)

The manual for your motherboard doesn't provide enough detail to allow me to see what the settings should be.

Click to expand...

Went into BIOS several times just thinking maybe I missed something within its setting but I found nothing.
Later I tried updating the BIOS. Downloaded the latest firmware dated June 23, 2021. The flashing was succesful. I wasn't able to notice what has changed. It was weird upon entering BIOS setting, it kept my monitor stay blank, instead it showed on the other (I have 50 inches Samsung TV connected for entertainment contants). It won't show up even when I unplug the TV.

And here comes another thing like PITA (sorry). It won't boot to BIOS anymore. Tried so many times it still ignoring me and directly boot into Windows, even I hit DEL key like crazy.
I'm going clear the CMOS. Who knows it works.

bobkn said:

If the M.2 socket was set to SATA, I doubt that an NVME drive would be seen at all.

I just went into my BIOS settings (System 1). There is indeed a setting for NVME drives, and a self-test option. (Mine was set to the default: short test, controller only.)

The manual for your motherboard doesn't provide enough detail to allow me to see what the settings should be.

Click to expand...

Normally there are two M.2 slots on newer boards. one nvme and one sata. Nvme is usually the one closer to the CPU. I could be wrong.
I have a Gen 3 nvme 1.3 drive as a boot drive but I have it installed on the sata m.2 slot. That's because my nmve drive has a built in heatsink and rgb and it is kind of tight to put it on nvme slot. But I don't mind because the read speed is still 3200+. :) Nvme speeds go up to 4500+ (PCIe Gen4x4).

Ok, my 10 yr old daughter's PC has exactly the same nvme drive as mine but hers is installed into the nvme slot. I ran crystaldiskmark and it is faster than mine.

badrobot said:

Normally there are two M.2 slots on newer boards. one nvme and one sata. Nvme is usually the one closer to the CPU. I could be wrong.
I have a Gen 3 nvme 1.3 drive as a boot drive but I have it installed on the sata m.2 slot. That's because my nmve drive has a built in heatsink and rgb and it is kind of tight to put it on nvme slot. But I don't mind because the read speed is still 3200+. :) Nvme speeds go up to 4500+ (PCIe Gen4x4).

(snip)

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"Kevin Ismail's" microATX board has two M.2 slots. One is a Slot E version intended for things like WiFi adapters; can't take an SSD.

I wish he/she/it would take my suggestion to see how CrystalDiskInfo detects the drive.

bobkn said:

"Kevin Ismail's" microATX board has two M.2 slots. One is a Slot E version intended for things like WiFi adapters; can't take an SSD.

I wish he/she/it would take my suggestion to see how CrystalDiskInfo detects the drive.

Click to expand...

Oh, those are probably mini pcie slots. They are only for peripherals.
There's also mSATA slots for SSDs. It is another SATA form factor like M.2.

@bobkn

I've been busy babysitting my 8-month-5th grandson but able to spare some time

Don't know where to go, but here you go

On default setting with NVMe


On Peak setting


Note:
I use only 150GB space from 256GB total capacity and leave around 80GB blank preparing for Gaming application.

I don't know if it is a real NVMe SSD but I spent more if compared to Apacer with similar spec.

Here is the M.2 NVMe SSD slot


My rig

I meant CrystalDiskInfo, rather than CrystalDiskMark. That'd tell you whether the SSD is seen as NVME.

However. your data rate is more than double the 6Gbps (750 MBps) supported by SATA, so you don't have a SATA drive. As you know.

I have a Plextor PCI-E M.2 SSD that isn't NVME. (Not in current use.) I bought it in 2014, though. I trust you weren't sold an SSD that old. I have never had to change a BIOS setting to get an NVME SSD recognized as such, but I may have only used M.2 drives on AMD systems. (My latest Intel system used an X99 chipset.)

Here you go, Bob.
It's recognized as NVMe

Anyway it doesn't matter anymore, whether it supported by M/B or not. Last time I visit the MSI website particularly H510M Pro specification, they removed the detail about supporting NVMe SSD on H510M Pro and even on B460M Pro VDH. It was there few days back.

I have several quite useful Win10 computers and will wait until the RTM release to assure the new computers will meet the requirements, shouldn't be much longer than mid-22. I'll probably settle on 2 Notebooks and 1 Desktop, possibly 2. Wife will also need a new Notebook.

Kevin Ismail said:

Here you go, Bob.
It's recognized as NVMe
(snip)
Anyway it doesn't matter anymore, whether it supported by M/B or not. Last time I visit the MSI website particularly H510M Pro specification, they removed the detail about supporting NVMe SSD on H510M Pro and even on B460M Pro VDH. It was there few days back.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that if you can boot from it, then the motherboard supports NVME.

You're OK.

bobkn said:

I'm pretty sure that if you can boot from it, then the motherboard supports NVME.

You're OK.

Click to expand...

Sure it does.
I feel like everything so far is up to the expectation. Hoping the next BIOS update will have some fixes about the matter.
For the other M.2 E key CNVIo2 slot I'm buying Intel AX201 dual band wi-fi adapter with bluetooth for $15. Purchased it from China with Aliexpress. It might take 3 weeks or more to arrive. Well. I'm not in rush.
About SATA. The SSD is working along with two WD spinners 2TB and 3 TB
Thanks for the discussions, Bob.

Kevin.

This has been released this week. 6-core, 12-threads plus a few dollars only. It could have been the best upgrade for BunnyJ's budget. Ships frpm US with free game.

Nice.. but I would also need a new motherboard.