Can I boot x-99 Deluxe from NVME

Hello all,
First ever post so here goes nothing.

I've finally discovered NVMe SSD possibilities (yes, I'm an old fart & not very PC literate) & I'm hoping my 2014 Asus X-99 Deluxe (LGA 2011-3) is capable of supporting an NVMe M.2 SSD & booting from it. This is all in the hope of avoiding a major (read ...expensive) upgrade. The speed increase + additional storage capacity is very attractive & should see me OK for a few years.
I mainly use the PC for Wildlife photography (shooting RAW) so using PS 2020, Bridge & Fast Raw Viewer.

I have the (supplied with X-99 MB) Hyper M.2 X 4 expansion card, which appears to have an NVMe port on it (slot/cut out is on R.H.S. as you look at the port on the card - is this what they call M key'ed? So I'm hoping I can buy an NVMe card & boot from it into Win 10. I've got some old gear on the PC so the BIOS is hybrid UEFI e.g. I don't think it can support Fastboot etc.

I'd better stop rambling here & hope some of you talented youngsters can guide me home )

Best,
netalyst

Thanks Rich,

I kept telling myself it should work. Now I think you have convinced me ). I've got the older (non-mini) version of the card - the one bundled with MB - it's got less circuitry on it than the mini version in your link. But it's got to work the same.....surely.

Thanks again,
Mike

I looked at the manual for the Asus X-99 Deluxe.

It has a built-in M.2 slot of the correct type. It's a little different, as the M.2 card is mounted vertically, rather than parallel to the plane of the motherboard. The board includes a bracket to support the card. See the attached. (Amusing typo.)

You don't need to use the adapter card, although it's not obvious that you'd suffer any negatives from doing that.

Do you have the brackets which apparently come with the motherboard? Is your model similar :
How to install the Samsung SM951/XP941 in the ASUS X99-A motherboard (hardware only - X99 system) - YouTube

Hi Bob,

Yes, I have that exact bracket & it is indeed a slightly weird arrangement. I was mainly thinking of using the bracket as it appeared the most simple solution for me - I have spare PCIe lanes. The other confusing thing (at least for me) was that the on-board M.2 port is showing only one cutout & as you look at the port on the MB, the cutout is on the left e.g. suggestive of an M.2 SSD port (maxing out at approx 500Gb/s)

Attachment 299516

Of course with only one cutout it does rather depend on which way round you insert the card!! I can definitely see where you are coming from Bob. I'd simply convinced myself that the absence of the word 'Hyper' (as used on the PCIe card) meant it could be the slower port - even though I could remember reading somewhere that it (the port) 'shared bandwidth with PCIe lane'.

I think I may be going stir crazy - I've been shielding since Feb/March 2020 due to health issues. I need some fresh air.

Bottom line - if that is an NVMe port, I'd be happy to use it. If I can get the NVMe cards at the right price, I'd use both!
Storage (for photography) is always an issue - so thank you for dipping your toe in this particular puddle. Very much appreciated.

Best,
Mike

- - - Updated - - -

Hi Steve,

I was looking at that exact card last night - apart from being half height, it is more or less identical to the one included with the MB e.g. no heat sink or fan cooler.

As mentioned in my response to Bob, I'm now considering using both expansion card & on-board port. Boot & programs on one & pure storage for the other. Sorted....and thank you. As someone once wrote, "I can see clearly now....."

Best,
Mike

I'd have to do a bit more checking than I can at the moment, but I think that you'd have enough PCI-E lanes to use the onboard M.2 slot and an adapter card. Each M.2 card uses 4 lanes. You may have to be careful to use the proper PCI-E slot for the adapter, though.

If you had an I7-5930K CPU, that'd provide an additional 12 lanes. Not that I expect you to hunt one of those down.

Hello Bob,

Unfortunately I plumped for the low end CPU, the i7-5820k through lack of knowledge more than financial necessity - so yes, I'm stuck at 28 lanes.
My GPU is in slot 1 but also covers slot 2 where I need to install the included PCIe Hyper M.2 x 4 card. Any thoughts as to an alternative PCIe slot where I can put the GPU?
Best,
Mike

I'm afraid that there's a good chance that you need a PCI-E-NVME adapter card, just like the 1366 platform and other non-UEFI motherboards.