Z170 chipset & NVMe SSD drive not working

Interoperability issues getting the NVMe drive to be bootable under windows:

  • Asus Z170-k with Intel Z170 chipset
  • SSD 950 PRO NVMe SSD

Assembled new machine, started install off Windows 10 64 bit Pro OEM

  • On first reboot (first boot directly off target system drive, i.e. above SSD) PC seems to sit in POST somewhere, response to F2/F8 eventually comes up after some minutes…

Did some googling, seems we need settings for CSM ( Compatibility Storage Module) set to UEFI:

  • BIOS (Oops, UEFI) -> Advanced->BOOT->CSM (Compatibility Support Module) changed to disabled, I assume this will force GPT to be used instead of MBR

All good now

 

 

 

 

Also re the 4x16GB Crucial-3000 Ram running at 2133 by default: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell/2