M.2 SSD in PCIe 1.0

[Zilog]

I have never used the M.2 format before so was wondering is there anything I should know before trying to use one in an old motherboard? The motherboard only has legacy boot BIOS and PCIe 1.0 x8 ( 4 link ) slots. I know it will not natively support booting from the driver and know the 1.0 socket will slow it considerably but am I correct in thinking Windows 10 should still see it once booted and work correctly? Thanks

 

[Elixer]

Which motherboard you using that has a M.2 slot, yet, no options to boot from it?
That would be very strange.

 

[Zilog]

Sorry I did not make it clear, I was intending to plug it in to the PCIe slot not a dedicated M.2 slot. It's an old Asus duel Xeon motherboard and only has legacy BIOS.

 

[Elixer]

Oh, well, assuming the drivers load for that PCIe card, Win 10 it will see it.
Not sure why you just don't use SATA SSDs, instead of buying a PCIe card + M.2 SSDs, and if you are out of SATA ports, you can easily get a PCIe card that has those at a much cheaper price.

 

[Zilog]

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about a Sata card and Sata SSD but it turns out the M.2 SSD and PCIe card works out costing similar and has substantially better performance so thought it may be a good option. After i search the net the only issues I found is they will not work as boot disks on old systems and that they may not work on some PCIe slots that share PCIe lane. Neither of those should effect me. The only real worry is I can't find any reference to anyone using them on PCIe slots as old as 1.0 but then again all PCIe devices are supposed to be backward compatible.

 

[Elixer]

Which specific PCIe card is this, and what motherboard?
If you have a PCIe 1.x, that is 2.5GT/s, PCIe 2 is 5GT/s, PCIe 3 is 8GT/s.
So, depending on how many lanes the card needs (1x/4x/8x), you won't see the same speeds, and, while the slot is backwards compatible, that does NOT mean it will work.
It also depends on the BIOS, and depending on how they wired up the slot.