ASUS Z10PA-D8 - Dual Socket 2011-3

[heromode]

Many thanks to @RolloZ170 for help with the EPS cable.

Next challenge will be the boot drive. I have a Samsung PM991 Nvme 2242 drive, which at first test doesn't show up in boot options, which was kinda expected. I know the issue is the UEFI bios doesn't have the code to see nvme boot drives.

There are BIOS Mods , or boot from USB (no thanks), or just get a SATA drive.

This is bios version 3202. Any recommendations for best option?

edit: oh the Bios is old, but 3107 has "1. Support ASUS NVMe devices display in post screen." in list of changes.. hmm

blah blah found out the mobo supports booting from nvme just fine. Thanks to the helpful folks on win-raid.com

UPDATE: I've not been able to see the PM991 Nvme drive at all yet, no matter the CSM, AHCI settings, and also nothing in Debian 11 Live.

This leads me to believe the 1x pcie lane from the 2242 slot is routed to the 2nd CPU. While that might seem trivial, it means that if i install the OS onto that drive, i won't later be able to remove the 2nd CPU in case i don't need the capacity and want to save on power and heat etc, not without reinstalling everything onto a SATA drive.

That little issue is really bugging me atm, i'm thinking i should just order a 2242 SATA drive and be done with it, but even the prices of those has nearly doubled recently according to a quick market scan, for a 128GB the older ones with less IOPS are 30€, newer faster ones almost 60€! Doesn't seem like much, but when you need like 3 thousand other components and cables, it all adds up.

I haven't installed the 2nd CPU yet to confirm, because it might make the system unbootable without the EPS cable, and i wanna use the system to upgrade firmware on my LSI3008 LSI SAS9300-8i controller, and also check out the stats and fw of the used DC P3700's i got from an ebay seller while i wait for the cable..

 

[gb00s]

I had the NVMe's working with 1 populated CPU socket only. But if something in your eSATA bios settings is disabled, NVMe will be disabled.

I would like to check it but I sold all of my Z10PA-D8s on eBay now. Don't be too desperate updating bios on these boards. 3202 is the last bios w/o spectre or meltdown microcode updates but is flaky sometimes. 3802 was the most stable bios in my opinion.

If you populate the board with different hardware, please reset it. Otherwise you may experience lots of 'weird' issues. I also had weird bios issues with Z10PE-D16 boards. Not sure if this is an Asus bios issue per se. The only Asus board I don't find issues with is the Z10PR-D16. Maybe it has something to do with the different PCIe design.

 

[RolloZ170]

UPDATE: I've not been able to see the PM991 Nvme drive at all yet, no matter the CSM, AHCI settings, and also nothing in Debian 11 Live

ASUS Z10PA-D8:
the M.2 shares a SATA with the 10 SATA from PCH, and PCIe2.0x1 from PCH.
Linux need special bootloader modifications to see/boot from NVMe.

 

[gb00s]

Linux need special bootloader modifications to see/boot from NVMe.

That's odd. I installed Gentoo, Funtoo, Proxmox, Rocky etc on them and they always found the NVMe as drive to be installed w/o any extra steps from my side.

 

[RolloZ170]

That's odd. I installed Gentoo, Funtoo, Proxmox, Rocky etc on them and they always found the NVMe as drive to be installed w/o any extra steps from my side.

if you boot direct(not boot from sata and take the OS from NVMe) form the drive then all things you used have these mods already done inside. but there is a difference from a BIOS supported M.2 port and a M.2 add on card.

 

[gb00s]

if you boot direct(not boot from sata and take the OS from NVMe) form the drive then all things you used have these mods already done inside. but there is a difference from a BIOS supported M.2 port and a M.2 add on card.

Negative here. I could easily dual-boot from the 'internal' m.2 and 'external' m.2 w/o any special preparation of the boot process.

 

[RolloZ170]

Negative here. I could easily dual-boot from the 'internal' m.2 and 'external' m.2 w/o any special preparation of the boot process.

native EFI mode ?

 

[k0nstantin]

Hello. I need good advice.
Is Kingston KSM26RD4/32HDI memory suitable for this motherboard?
I want to buy 4 pieces, with a total capacity of 128 GB.
Processors - 2 pcs. Xeon E5-2620 v4
On the Asus website, there is no such memory in the list of compatible ones.

But on Kingston website they are listed as compatible:




Who to believe?
The problem is that if the memory does not fit, I will not be able to issue a refund. And the cost in my area is very impressive - $ 180 apiece, a total of almost $ 700

 

[alex_stief]

You are aware that no CPU that fits into this board supports more than DDR4-2400? Maybe you can find something cheaper with lower specs.
Aside from that, pretty much any DDR4 RDIMM should work. If you need absolute certainty, stick to the memory QVL of the board.

 

[k0nstantin]

You are aware that no CPU that fits into this board supports more than DDR4-2400? Maybe you can find something cheaper with lower specs.
Aside from that, pretty much any DDR4 RDIMM should work. If you need absolute certainty, stick to the memory QVL of the board.

I would be glad, but I can't find another compatible memory in our location... (((

 

[k0nstantin]

It is surprising that on the Kingston website this memory passes as compatible ...

 

[RolloZ170]

It is surprising that on the Kingston website this memory passes as compatible ...

i am not saying that this mem. is compatible. but even 3200mhz will work, with speed degraded to max. the CPUs support.
means a 2666/2933/3200 RDIMM will work at 2400Mhz if the processor supports max. 2400Mhz.

 

[k0nstantin]

i am not saying that this mem. is compatible. but even 3200mhz will work, with speed degraded to max. the CPUs support.
means a 2666/2933/3200 RDIMM will work at 2400Mhz if the processor supports max. 2400Mhz.

Understood. It is important for me that my memory works. And at what frequency it will work - it does not matter at all ))

 

[RolloZ170]

I want to buy 4 pieces, with a total capacity of 128 GB.
Processors - 2 pcs. Xeon E5-2620 v4

both processors will run then in dual channel. waste of memory-bandwidth !!
the only advantage is, you can upgrade to 256GB.

 

[RolloZ170]

It is surprising that on the Kingston website this memory passes as compatible ...

this memory has 16GB ranks, not working with v3 CPU, but you have V4 so no problem.