M.2 Question on a ASRock Z97 Extreme4 board.

Mr Bill · Aug 12, 2021

I just acquired an ASRock Z97 Extreme4 board and 32 Gig of ram. I haven't had any experience with any of the M.2 drives, can someone tell me if this board will accept the M.2 NVMe? I know there is always ongoing generations it seems of everything, I just need to know if I decide to buy one, which version or generation do I need to buy? A link to the one that will work with this board would be great.
Thanks Bill

silentbogo · Aug 12, 2021

Yep, it should work. I think NVME support was included in UEFI firmware for nearly all haswell boards.
Just in case I've double-checked the latest firmware for your mobo, and it does have NVME DXE module in it.

Mr Bill · Aug 12, 2021

I'm always really careful about any firmware update, does anyone know if this one would help any, because some firmware updates can slow down the performance of your system.

silentbogo · Aug 12, 2021

Mr Bill said:
I'm always really careful about any firmware update, does anyone know if this one would help any, because some firmware updates can slow down the performance of your system.

For this board it should be supported on all firmware versions. For this socket I've only seen a few low-end 80-series boards with removed or non-existent NVME support, but Z97 is definitely OK.

jboydgolfer · Aug 12, 2021

im still running one of those, a great MoBo.
from what i recall, i had no issues booting or with Os on M.2

tabascosauz · Aug 12, 2021

Mr Bill said:
I just acquired an ASRock Z97 Extreme4 board and 32 Gig of ram. I haven't had any experience with any of the M.2 drives, can someone tell me if this board will accept the M.2 NVMe? I know there is always ongoing generations it seems of everything, I just need to know if I decide to buy one, which version or generation do I need to buy? A link to the one that will work with this board would be great.
Thanks Bill

Should work just fine, just be advised that it is a 3.0 x2 slot (also common for secondary slots on some modern B550 boards) whereas most NVMes you'll find nowadays are either 3.0 x4 or 4.0 x4. Not a big deal, still plenty fast for daily use, but with higher end drives (anything faster than a WD SN550 I'd say) you may feel limited on sequential performance as the slot itself maxes out at a bit under 2000MB/s. So don't go buying a 970 EVO Plus and expect to get full rated speeds when moving large files, for example.

But honestly, I use a WD SN750 in the same setup on my Unify-X (reasonably high end 3.0 x4 drive in a 3.0 x2 slot), no complaints even when moving large archives.

As to BIOS, the board looks like it needs v2.40 or later for NVMe support according to ASRock. So just flash the latest 2.60. It's Intel, there aren't nasty firmware surprises hidden around every corner.

Mr Bill · Aug 13, 2021

tabascosauz said:
So don't go buying a 970 EVO Plus and expect to get full rated speeds when moving large files, for example.

Wow! that's exactly the drive I bought,

it's working great, it's faster than my Samsung 850 Pro, and if I ever upgrade from this board to a new system, I'll already have the drive.

Toothless · Aug 13, 2021

You will not hit NVME speeds with it. Both of my Z97 boards were hitting 700MB/s with my 850 EVO.

Mr Bill · Aug 13, 2021

Toothless said:
You will not hit NVME speeds with it. Both of my Z97 boards were hitting 700MB/s with my 850 EVO.

No problem, as I mentioned, it will be here for a new build one day.

Benchmark's

Hmmmmmmmm · Sep 29, 2021

Question, I also have a z97 extreme 4, but where is the m.2 slot on it? am i just blind or is it on the back somewhere?

95Viper · Sep 29, 2021

Look in the manual to see more info -->ASRock Z97 Extreme4 Manual

Hmmmmmmmm · Sep 29, 2021

Thanks!

System Name	Alienware PC
Processor	Intel 4790K
Motherboard	ASROCK Z97 EXTREME4
Cooling	Stock Intel Cooler
Memory	32GB DDR3 1600 MHz
Video Card(s)	ATI Radeon HD 7770 2GB GDDR5
Storage	SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2
Display(s)	SAMSUNG UE57 Series 28-Inch 4K UHD
Case	Alienware Area 51 Black Tower Case
Audio Device(s)	Realtek On Board
Power Supply	EVGA 850 watt
Mouse	Microsoft Wireless
Keyboard	HyperX - Alloy Elite 2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard.
Software	Windows 10 Pro & LTSB & LTSC Windows 11 Pro

System Name	WS#1337
Processor	Ryzen 7 5700X3D
Motherboard	ASUS X570-PLUS TUF Gaming
Cooling	Xigmatek Scylla 240mm AIO
Memory	64GB DDR4-3600(4x16)
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio
Storage	ADATA Legend 2TB
Display(s)	Samsung Viewfinity Ultra S6 (34" UW)
Case	ghetto CM Cosmos RC-1000
Audio Device(s)	ALC1220
Power Supply	SeaSonic SSR-550FX (80+ GOLD)
Mouse	Logitech G603
Keyboard	Modecom Volcano Blade (Kailh choc LP)
VR HMD	Google dreamview headset(aka fancy cardboard)
Software	Windows 11, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

System Name	Alienware PC
Processor	Intel 4790K
Motherboard	ASROCK Z97 EXTREME4
Cooling	Stock Intel Cooler
Memory	32GB DDR3 1600 MHz
Video Card(s)	ATI Radeon HD 7770 2GB GDDR5
Storage	SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2
Display(s)	SAMSUNG UE57 Series 28-Inch 4K UHD
Case	Alienware Area 51 Black Tower Case
Audio Device(s)	Realtek On Board
Power Supply	EVGA 850 watt
Mouse	Microsoft Wireless
Keyboard	HyperX - Alloy Elite 2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard.
Software	Windows 10 Pro & LTSB & LTSC Windows 11 Pro

System Name	WS#1337
Processor	Ryzen 7 5700X3D
Motherboard	ASUS X570-PLUS TUF Gaming
Cooling	Xigmatek Scylla 240mm AIO
Memory	64GB DDR4-3600(4x16)
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio
Storage	ADATA Legend 2TB
Display(s)	Samsung Viewfinity Ultra S6 (34" UW)
Case	ghetto CM Cosmos RC-1000
Audio Device(s)	ALC1220
Power Supply	SeaSonic SSR-550FX (80+ GOLD)
Mouse	Logitech G603
Keyboard	Modecom Volcano Blade (Kailh choc LP)
VR HMD	Google dreamview headset(aka fancy cardboard)
Software	Windows 11, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

System Name	Americas cure is the death of Social Justice & Political Correctness
Processor	i7-11700K
Motherboard	Asrock Z590 Extreme wifi 6E
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12A
Memory	32GB Corsair RGB fancy boi 5000
Video Card(s)	RTX 3090 Reference
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo 1Tb + Samsung 970 Evo 500Gb
Display(s)	Dell - 27" LED QHD G-SYNC x2
Case	Fractal Design Meshify-C
Audio Device(s)	on board
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus+ Gold 1000 Watt
Mouse	Logitech G502 spectrum
Keyboard	AZIO MGK-1 RGB (Kaith Blue)
Software	Win 10 Professional 64 bit
Benchmark Scores	the MLGeesiest

M.2 Question on a ASRock Z97 Extreme4 board.

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System Name	ab┃ob
Processor	7800X3D┃5800X3D
Motherboard	B650E PG-ITX┃X570 Impact
Cooling	NH-U12A + T30┃AXP120-x67
Memory	64GB 6400CL32┃32GB 3600CL14
Video Card(s)	RTX 4070 Ti Eagle┃RTX A2000
Storage	8TB of SSDs┃1TB SN550
Case	Caselabs S3┃Lazer3D HT5

System Name	Veral
Processor	7800x3D
Motherboard	x670e Asus Crosshair Hero
Cooling	Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO
Memory	2x24 Klevv Cras V RGB
Video Card(s)	Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage	Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s)	Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx, 2x AOC 2425W, AOC I1601FWUX
Case	Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s)	Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply	Corsair HX850
Mouse	Corsair Harpoon
Keyboard	Corsair K55
VR HMD	HP Reverb G2
Software	Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores	PEBCAK