Intel 750 NVMe 1.2 TB PCIe SSD Review

Memory (DDR4/DDR5) and Storage (SSD/NVMe) 367 Page 6 of 19 Published by

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Installation & Recommendations

Installation & Recommendations

So how do you use this PCIe unit and is it bootable? Well yes and no, to get the maximum performance out of this unit you will need to install a driver. Next to that there are certain recommendations and requirements for optimal performance and the ability to boot.

The three must-keteers:

  • You will need a proper PCIe slot
  • You will need a proper Operating System
  • You will need a proper UEFI version
 
The PCIe Slot

The Intel 750 PCie will fit into any x4 slot, even x16 of course. However for maximum performance you will need a Gen 3.0 x4 slot, and not Gen 2.0 x4. So the reality here is that you will have limited options in terms of motherboards supporting this. This SSD is intended for enthusiast class performance, it will need the bandwidth. So preferably a X79 or X99 motherboard combined with Ivy Bridge-E or Haswell-E processors are the golden rule of thumb here, these are Gen 3.0 compatible and yes your processor needs to be PCIe Gen 3.0 compatible as well. Also keep in mind that if you have a lower specification CPU and two graphics cards, you could easily run out of available PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes. Regular non "e" model Ivy Bridge and Haswell Socket 1155/1150 processors also offer PCI-Express Gen 3.0, but these processor have only 16 lanes available. That's enough for a modern graphics card and that's it. Of you can use integrated graphics then just place the SSD in slot 1 and use the Gen 3.0 lanes, that is possible. If you use Z77/ Z87 or Z97 and a graphics card, sure that'll work. However your PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes will be split up to x8/x8 for the graphics card (not an issue really), insert the graphics card in slot one and the PCie SSD into slot 2. Be warned, with motherboards like H97 only x16 Gen 3.0 can be fired onto the graphics slot, so these will not split up and thus degrade your PCIe SSD performance.
 
On the AMD side of things, only the new Kaveri APUs have a PCI-Express 3.0 controller, such a combo should work fine, but we have not tested that yet.
 
The Operating System
 
You will need to install a driver and it is tied to the operating system you use. This SSD used the NVMe protocol and that requires a specific OS, everything from Windows 8.1 and upwards and Windows Server 2012 R2 actually has native support and you can boot into windows with it. NVMe driver are included into the latest batches of intel's chipset drivers. We recommend you to install the Intel NVMe driver for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012. We noticed a performance boost significantly once we installed the standalone driver opposed to the native Microsoft driver. For  Linux there is NVMe support from kernel 3.3. and higher.
 
UEFI
 
We have talked about motherboards, PCIe slots and the Operating system, there is one more requirement if you want to boot from this device, an UEFI BIOS with build 2.3.1 or higher. That build number is hard to track down but basically ran the latest BIOS and make sure it is installed. Once updated you need to enter the BIOS and make sure that the UEFI BIOS is set to use UEFI BIOS mode. 9 out of 10 the chance is there that this already is in effect with say Z97 and X99 motherboards. Currently tested and compatible motherboards listed by Intel are:
 
Motherboard Model Windows* 7 Windows* 8 & 8.1
ASROCK Z97 EXTREME6 X X
ASRock Z97X Killer X X
ASUS Z97 Deluxe X X
ASUS Z97A X X
Gigabyte X X
GA Z97X SOC (FORCE)    
Gigabyte X X
GA Z97X UD5H    
Gigabyte X X
GA Z97X SLI    
MSI Z97 Gaming5 X X
MSI Z97 MPOWER X X
MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX X X
ASROCK X99 OC FORMULA X X
ASUS X99 Deluxe X X
ASUS X99 Rampage V Extreme X X
ASUS X99 RE5 X X
ASUS X99E WS X  
EVGA X99 Classified X X
EVGA X99 Micro X X
Gigabyte X X
GA X99 Gaming 5    
Gigabyte X X
GA X99 Gaming G1    
Gigabyte X X
GA X99 UD4    
MSI X99 Gaming7 X X
MSI X99 SLI Plus X X
MSI X99S Gaming 9   X
MSI X99S Mpower X X
MSI X99 GAMING 9 X X
MSI X99 Xpower X X

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Overall the recommendations are simple, make sure you use Windows 8.1 or 10 and have a Z77/Z87/Z97/X79/X79 motherboards with the latest UEFI BIOS active.

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