PCI-E based SSD

[maverickpk]

Hi,

I was planning on purchasing a PCI Express based SSD drive. This item to be precise:
http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Technology-RevoDrive-PCI-Express-OCZSSDPX-1RVD0120/dp/B003OBZ9GC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1289847159&sr=1-1
and wasn't sure if my motherboard would support booting from the PCI device.
The one I have is GA-X58A-UD5(rev. 1.0) with BIOS version F5. I could not find enough information regarding this.  For a day or two, I thought, not finding enough information is an indication that this MOBO does not support booting from PCI-E. But wanted to post the question here on the official forums before confirming the above theory:)

Any info would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Mav

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

The problem with being a pioneer of technology is that you end up taking risks, and that is where you are at the moment. This is fairly bleeding edge technology and not many people have had experience with it so far. It is possible to use as a boot device but seems to behave differently with different boards. I can only suggest that you search the forum for others who have tried( I know there have been some) and also try the OCZ forum to see what they have to say.

You can always ask a question with GGTS and see if they can throw any light on it.

[maverickpk]

Appreciate the reply Mantis.
I did raise this it to GGTS. It has been close to a week now and still haven't heard anything from them yet. I will try the OCZ forums as well. When I find a concrete answer, I will post back here for the benefit of a future passerby.

Thanks
Mav

[icgaln]

I would suggest u have a look at ur bios and see if the option is there to boot from a bootable add-in device. You want to select at the main bios screen:

Advanced BIOS Features > Hard Disk Boot Priority
Then see if it says Bootable add-in device.

If it does then i would assume at least ur mobo can boot from a bootable add-in device even if you don’t know if the device u want to work will actually work. You might also be interested in this link:

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/solid-state-drives/pci-express/revodrive/ocz-revodrive-pci-express-ssd-.html

At the bottom it says this:

Note: Before installing the RevoDrive it is important to check the settings/capabilities on your motherboard. If you plan on using the RevoDrive as a boot drive please check that your motherboard supports boot over PCI-E. Please check with your motherboard manufacturer for the latest platform information and BIOS updates. If you have any installation or compatibility questions about the RevoDrive, please visit our forums or call OCZ Customer Service for recommendations.

While the RevoDrive will simply plug and play for the vast majority of platforms, the following issues may arise when installing on these particular motherboards:
I would list them but I don’t know if gigabyte allow other brands mentioned on there forums, however your mobo model is not mentioned as having an issue.

I would read this as ur mobo is not listed and it is designed to just plug and play. So as long as it supports boot over PCI-E it should work fine. Which leaves the question does ur mobo support Boot over PCI-E?

If u look in the bios where I said above and it shows: Bootable add-in device then that to me would indicate it does but ofc it could be for the single PCI slot ur mobo has and not the PCI-E, I cant see why it would be but then I don’t know for sure, maybe someone else does.

Hope this has been of some help if not a definitive answer.