NVMe on Intel S2600CP

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wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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Thank you for the help

On the thread, there are some references to 'frying' cpu with the wrong gpu in. If I put the gtx1660ti in any of the pcie slots for cpu1 (ie slots 1,2,3,4 or 6) and attach power from the psu to it - is it possible to 'fry' the pcie slot or the cpu?
Not quite sure what they mean by that. you might not get enough power to the gpu if you don't put the gpu in the blue slots and it might not run properly.
 

kromberg

Active Member
Jan 18, 2021
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I got a S2600IP4 board E5-2680V2 cpus installed. I would like to add a quad NVME card to it. It is currently running BIOS 02.06.0005. I am not seeing anywhere in the BIOS that you can set the PCIe configuration for splitting up a 16x into (4) 4x config. I see that the latest BIOS is 02.06.0007, do I need to upgrade to that version to be able to do this? I am not looking to boot off a NVME drive as I will be using them for VMs in proxmox.
 
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kromberg

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Jan 18, 2021
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OK, I loaded the latest BIOS for it 02.06.007. After loading the defaults and going through every option to reset previous values, I am not seeing anywhere to break apart PCIe root ports into logical units like x4/x4/x4/x4 for a x16 slot. I know SM calls this IIO, but with this intel board and AMI bios I am only seeing PCI link speeds where Gen3/2/1 can be selected. Right now only 1 of the NVME drives is showing up in the host OS.

Can anyone point in the right direction for setting things up here?
 

gregsachs

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Aug 14, 2018
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OK, I loaded the latest BIOS for it 02.06.007. After loading the defaults and going through every option to reset previous values, I am not seeing anywhere to break apart PCIe root ports into logical units like x4/x4/x4/x4 for a x16 slot. I know SM calls this IIO, but with this intel board and AMI bios I am only seeing PCI link speeds where Gen3/2/1 can be selected. Right now only 1 of the NVME drives is showing up in the host OS.

Can anyone point in the right direction for setting things up here?
Pretty sure with this generation you need a nvme carrier with a PCI switch to do the bifurcation.
 

kromberg

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Jan 18, 2021
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It is definitely looking like the S2600IP4 does not support PCIe bifurcation. I guess I might need to upgrade to a SM X9 board that does. Maybe this is another example of why Intel should not be in the MB business :D
 
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Shawneau

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Jan 17, 2018
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Thread revival!

I got a PCIe to NVMe drive adapter and want to plug it into this board. I'm on SE5C600.86B.02.06.0006.032420170950

Can anyone who's fought this battle already tell me if this will work? If I need to upgrade BIOS I won't even do it. This machine has become too critical to our household and if I brick it it's all over lol.

Thanks!!
 

kromberg

Active Member
Jan 18, 2021
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Do you need the NVME drive to be a boot drive or just general storage. I could not get my S2600 MB to boot off a NVME.

A lot of the super cheap NVME cards do need some support from the MB to operate. Best path to get a NVME drive to work with the board is either get one of the non-bifurcation card or get a new MB that does support NVME directly.
 

Shawneau

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Jan 17, 2018
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Do you need the NVME drive to be a boot drive or just general storage. I could not get my S2600 MB to boot off a NVME.

A lot of the super cheap NVME cards do need some support from the MB to operate. Best path to get a NVME drive to work with the board is either get one of the non-bifurcation card or get a new MB that does support NVME directly.
It's UNRAID box so it boots off USB stick
 

evolucian911

Member
Jun 24, 2017
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Put the nvme in a laptop or other machine. install windows and complete the first boot. place drive in adapter and plug into motherboard. make sure bios is on efi boot. Should work. otherwise you can create a usb bootloader and keep it plugged in. I dont recall the name of the one I used. sorry. been a long time. But my last build with this board is still alive with dual 2660 hosting pharmacy software.
 

evolucian911

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Jun 24, 2017
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It's more whether the board supports this NVMe drives at all with this ol' BIOS
but if i recall they work at nvme speeds as storage. I Think the EFI just doesnt support booting to NVMe, not the the NVMe stack isnt in EFI. It shouldnt matter with a USB bootloader
 

Shawneau

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Jan 17, 2018
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Ok I got it working but unsure of what speed it's running at, if I'm in Unraid is there any utility I can use to check?
 

evolucian911

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Jun 24, 2017
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Long story short, due to pcie issues, these run at pcie 2.0 speeds with latest bios. You have to downgrade bios to get pcoe 3.0 speeds. But if you got it working in unpaid, just use crystaldisk benchmark inside the guest OS
 

Shawneau

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Jan 17, 2018
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Long story short, due to pcie issues, these run at pcie 2.0 speeds with latest bios. You have to downgrade bios to get pcoe 3.0 speeds. But if you got it working in unpaid, just use crystaldisk benchmark inside the guest OS
From the output:

LnkCap:

• Speed 8GT/s, Width x4: The device is capable of operating at PCIe 3.0 speeds (8 GT/s per lane) and supports 4 lanes (x4).

• ASPM L1: Indicates that Active State Power Management (ASPM) Level 1 is supported.

• Exit Latency L1 <8us: The time it takes to exit from ASPM L1 state is under 8 microseconds.

LnkSta:

• Speed 8GT/s, Width x4: The NVMe drive is currently operating at its maximum PCIe 3.0 speed of 8 GT/s on 4 lanes (x4), meaning it is running at full potential.

LnkCap2 & LnkSta2:

• Supported Link Speeds: 2.5-8GT/s: Confirms support for PCIe 1.0 (2.5 GT/s), PCIe 2.0 (5 GT/s), and PCIe 3.0 (8 GT/s).

• Current De-emphasis Level: -6dB: This relates to PCIe signal integrity, showing the level of signal de-emphasis being applied for data transfer.



Summary



Your NVMe drive is running at PCIe 3.0 x4, which is optimal for the WD Black SN750 and similar drives, as this configuration provides a maximum theoretical bandwidth of ~4 GB/s. Everything seems to be performing as expected!
 

evolucian911

Member
Jun 24, 2017
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From the output:

LnkCap:

• Speed 8GT/s, Width x4: The device is capable of operating at PCIe 3.0 speeds (8 GT/s per lane) and supports 4 lanes (x4).

• ASPM L1: Indicates that Active State Power Management (ASPM) Level 1 is supported.

• Exit Latency L1 <8us: The time it takes to exit from ASPM L1 state is under 8 microseconds.

LnkSta:

• Speed 8GT/s, Width x4: The NVMe drive is currently operating at its maximum PCIe 3.0 speed of 8 GT/s on 4 lanes (x4), meaning it is running at full potential.

LnkCap2 & LnkSta2:

• Supported Link Speeds: 2.5-8GT/s: Confirms support for PCIe 1.0 (2.5 GT/s), PCIe 2.0 (5 GT/s), and PCIe 3.0 (8 GT/s).

• Current De-emphasis Level: -6dB: This relates to PCIe signal integrity, showing the level of signal de-emphasis being applied for data transfer.



Summary



Your NVMe drive is running at PCIe 3.0 x4, which is optimal for the WD Black SN750 and similar drives, as this configuration provides a maximum theoretical bandwidth of ~4 GB/s. Everything seems to be performing as expected!
Great. So that means you are running the bios that retains 3.0 support . So you have nothing to worry about. I also forgot the pcie 2.0 thing only applied to latest bios with a V1 CPU. V2 CPUs are not affected. Happy camping!