09-24-2019, 08:25 AM | #1 |
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M.2 NVMe SSDs as boot device
So as I get closer to pulling the trigger on a new Ryzen 3700X and X570 based mobo, I'm thinking I might just want to jump in head first with an M.2 NVMe SSD.
Since the PCIe 4.0 spec has been around for a couple of years, but is only now implemented by AMD X570, am I going to have issues with the hardware being recognized properly in Linux? Is anyone using even using the older generation M.2 NVMe SSDs (the little gum stick drives) as a boot device with Linux, and were there any issues with Linux seeing it and booting from it? |
09-24-2019, 08:49 AM | #2 |
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I can't answer that directly since I'm not using one of those drives. I'm using a SATA SSD, Samsung Evo 860. Also I'm using a motherboard with X470 chipset. I chose it because I was unsure about compatibility of the X570 since it is so new. I was able to find several websites demonstrating that mainboards with X470 were supported and working properly.
Even so my current mainboard's temperature sensors aren't detected. I searched about this and apparently I can make an edit to some file, it's apparently not a big deal. But also there will be a change in the kernel soon to accommodate this. So even with that one little thing, it kind of reinforces my doubts about the X570 at this point. Unless you can find significant data about that chipset being supported, I wouldn't use it just yet. |
09-24-2019, 10:58 AM | #3 |
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When I do finally build a new DAW I plan to keep using the SATA drives I'm using now, which are two Samsung 860 EVOs and a 1TB Seagate.
Once Samsung releases a PCIe 4.0 consumer M.2 NVMe SSD, I do want to have some PCIe 4.0 ports to plug one (or two) of them into. Currently the Samsung 970 PRO PCIe 3.0 SSDs like this blow away SATA drives because they don't go through a SATA layer. They are pricey though at $340. https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-PCI-E...tronics&sr=1-5 For about $140 less the Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe 4.0 Gen4 PCIe M.2 delivers very similar performance. https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Inter.../dp/B07TLYWMYW But I'm expecting to keep using my current Samsung SATA based SSDs until Samsung has a consumer based 1TB NVMe 4.0 Gen4 PCIe M.2 SSD. Then I'll think about getting one to boot and store all app stuff, and another for audio and video data storage. |
09-24-2019, 12:20 PM | #4 |
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I considered NVME M.2 drives, and if I hadn't gotten the new SSD about a year ago I'd have done it. Their prices make it appealing. However I don't think even the fastest NVME is going to make a noticeable difference for how I use my system. Going to SSD from HDD was a noticeable difference, and beyond that it's definitely diminishing returns unless you transfer a lot of data very often. Basically do you run a server. I guess if you load lots of Kontakt banks often (64 GB etc.) then you would probably notice they load a few seconds faster. Beyond that though, for the "average" user, I don't think there'd be much difference from what I've read about anyway.
BTW my next step with this system is to install a Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler that a friend is giving me, and switching my Nvidia card to a comparable AMD one which lets the fans turn off when not required. Going for as silent as system as possible. Also Nvidia is a bit wonky sometimes so maybe the AMD will be better overall. |
09-24-2019, 01:01 PM | #5 | |||
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My nVidia performance has actually been pretty good lately with no screen tearing no matter what I throw at it, but since Linux favors Radeon, I'll likely get something like an older gen Asus fanless Radeon. I have GPU fans. They make noise and they wear out. |
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09-24-2019, 01:39 PM | #6 |
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I notice video playback is a little bit jerky sometimes with the 2 Nvidia cards I've used, a GT 1030 (with DDR5) and GTX 680 super duper edition something-or-other. I've become really sensitive to video which doesn't look like it's moving very smoothly, so it might not be something you'd notice; it's not outright screen tear (which I had to resolve, because Nouveau wasn't working well and then I had to enable full composition pipeline with the Nvidia Xserver settings). I've tried lots of different settings with the Nvidia Xserver stuff, DE settings, and so on. Video is a bit "not smooth" sometimes still. Games seem perfectly fine though. Anyway I'll know right away if the AMD card works better, and I plan to try the default AMD driver first.
The AMD card is the XFX Radeon RX 570 RS. Supposedly its fans will actually turn off when nothing demanding for video is happening. I'll find out I guess. |
09-24-2019, 01:52 PM | #7 |
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Observe your mobo manual, because mine says something about that the first two normal SATA slots could be dedicated to/for M.2 should you start using M.2.
I am thinking about this also and those things can make you go - ah-hahahehe! (that was fast) so i've read. Ps, absolutely no issues what so ever with my Nvidia as long as I get the drivers installed.
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09-24-2019, 02:36 PM | #8 | |
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I later killed all three or so lines I had added to xorg.conf and one at a time enabled them finding that only one single line was needed to fix my issues, and since then streaming Netflix is now butter smooth too. All that said, I still plan to go Radeon at some point after I get an initial Ryzen box up and running. |
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09-24-2019, 02:38 PM | #9 | |
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09-24-2019, 04:47 PM | #10 |
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It's honestly pretty minor and I don't notice it all the time. It might have to do with 23fps video and my monitor's rate being 75Hz (whether or not I let it sync to vblank)...well, we'll see soon enough if the AMD solves it. It should arrive in a day or so. I'll prefer it for the "zero rpm" fan thingy anyway.
Also with the Nvidia cards: I can't leave the "force full composition pipeline" setting so that it persists, or it boots to a black screen. (I can alt+ctrl+del to logout, then sign in again, and it's fine.) So I have a script on my desktop to set that option after everything has loaded/booted. A minor annoyance, but still. It was this way in MX Linux, it's like this in Mint XFCE, and it's like this for both my systems (different MBs, different CPUs, etc.) |
09-24-2019, 05:13 PM | #11 | |
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On three different machines in the house, I edited the file, /etc/X11/xorg.conf and all three boot with smooth video using only this added line. Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 {ForceCompositionPipeline=On, ForceFullCompositionPipeline=On}" Previously I was also disabling "AllowIndirectGLXProtocol" and forcing triple buffering to on, but if anything it seems those made things worse. With only the one added line now, I'm getting clean video like I was used to seeing in Windows. I am running a 60Hz refresh rate so that could make a difference. Also, I did have to run nVidia's xserver applet initially to create the xorg.conf file so I could then edit it. Last edited by Glennbo; 09-24-2019 at 05:19 PM. |
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09-24-2019, 05:48 PM | #12 |
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I expect the fans to be off except for gaming. If not I'll be disappointed.
Yes I did the xorg.conf thing (once I did it myself, then I also tried letting the xserver app do it for me). That's what I'd meant. If I do that, it's a no-go when I reboot. Black screen, cursor blinking at the top. With an older kernel I could see the desktop background. I tried various other settings such as specifying the resolution or setting it to "auto" and nothing seemed to help. I then tried adding a script to my startup process instead of the edited xorg.conf file, and that worked fine most of the time, but sometimes it'd still screw up. I guess it depended on when that script loaded, if it were "out of order" with something else or not. I don't know. And it's worked this way for two completely different computer systems (CPU, mainboard, ram, monitor, and so on). My obvious solution was to change the setting "manually" after booting, which clicking on a script file takes care of. There might be another solution but I'm out of ideas. If the AMD card shows me perfectly smooth video plus also doesn't need any kludgy stuff to get it to work without screen tearing, great. The fan noise is my largest concern though. And again, what I mean for "smooth video", you probably wouldn't even know what I'm referring to. It's a very particular thing that's subtle, but I notice it. |
09-24-2019, 07:01 PM | #13 | |
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Initially I had issues with the settings not being present after rebooting, and later found out that the xorg.conf I was editing was not the one being executed at boot time, then found I needed to be root to edit the one that is being executed. After that, it started working every boot, but you shouldn't have to do shit like that to get the same video performance you are used to seeing in Windows with 100% the very same hardware. When I boot Windows which has hotrod nVidia gaming drivers, I don't see any better performance under any conditions, be it scrolling in a web browser, dragging windows around, playing HiDef video, or rendering graphics in the very cool cross platform planetarium software Stellarium. I can't say how games compare coz I only have a handful of EA Racing titles in Windows and don't even want to bring them into Linux. |
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09-25-2019, 10:17 AM | #14 |
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Im a live performer so my needs might be less than what a Recording Studio might need.
But I layered lots of instrument using a multi zone Master MIDI Controller. I use rigs I build in a 1U PC and have several brands of storage SSDs and NVMe M.2s. I love Samsung the most so 850 Pros and a 1TB 960 Pro. M.2 helps out on sample “ loading” like Omnisphere. Might be useful for the OS as there seems to be quicker boots and shut downs, but not as important as loading Omnisphere samples which I change 2-4 times in a song. I too want an AMD this time around even though my Intel rigs work great. But Im a server board kind of user that wants stock speeds, no blinking lights on my RAM or ring tones on a boot up, just the meat and potatos. So the ASRock AMD Workstation boards using the 470 will be plenty for me. I could go with a 570 Pro 4 from ASRock but the DIMMs are perpendicular to the faceplate so Id need a new 1U Chassis with side to side cooling. Still plenty of time to decide. But in all honesty we cant even use the bandwidth of an M.2 NVMe that throttles down to 2x from 4x if they become a little hot. Which is why I don't care about top end speed of any storage device. Transaction times are so low on an SSD or M.2 these 150,000 Random I/O benchmarks dont correlate to our gear very much, with the exception of sample “loading” apps like Omnisphere. Just thought Id share since I wasted a lot of money chasing benchmarks before. My i7 4790k rigs are barely hitting 50% so a new AMD 3790X @ 65 watts should be sweet and the kind of upgrade to faster/cooler designs. Just wrapping up my outdoor gigs and my open frame design never gagged once in the west coast/las vegas heat. image hosting site
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09-25-2019, 10:31 AM | #15 |
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Cool rig! Yeah, I have read about the thermal throttling that M.2 NVMe experience, and the newest PCIe 4.0 ones have big heat sinks or solid chunks of copper for dissipation.
I've toyed with going to a rack mount case for my next build, but I've only looked at 3U cases because of the fan size and that I have an unused 3U Behringer RX1202FX mixer in the top rack of my mix desk. Something like this with large fans and front panel fan control. |
09-25-2019, 10:44 AM | #16 |
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Your 3U looks like a PlinkUSA Design.
Ive got a 4U side to side for an 8086k rig they make. Its their side to side cooled 1U I would use if I go with a 570 design. A 470 design would be easier as Id swap out one of my 1U Supermicros. Ive got a rehearsal rig, a spare rig and the 4790k rig I just built using NOS parts I bought 6 years ago. Ive got finicky drivers so when something works I stock up. PlinkUSA has excellent chassis though, you're fine with anything they make. The 4U below is a great outdoor rig. Just throw a Noctua Cooler and a pair of 120mm for the sides and you can suck a marble through a hose.
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09-25-2019, 10:48 AM | #17 |
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Thanks for the M.2. input!
I need more (SSD) space anyway and that would be my third Samsung Gen, they sure seems to work. I'll put my bucks in more GBs then, thanks. Ps, the summer in Sweden can get into rediculous'ness, just saying.
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09-25-2019, 11:19 AM | #18 |
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I did the SRF in Solvesborg for a few years every June. I can relate.
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09-25-2019, 11:22 AM | #19 |
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I see melting plektrums before me..
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09-25-2019, 11:24 AM | #20 | |
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Yep, that is a PlinkUSA case and it's one of the top ones I'm considering. Do you have any of your rackmount cases on rails? I'm thinking I would want to put one on rails so I could pull it out like a drawer when I need to get into it. The mixer above the midi keyboard in the right bay of my mix desk is where I would be putting it. |
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09-25-2019, 01:06 PM | #21 |
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The new AMD card is in. Its fans currently aren't going all the way down to 0 rpm; they're still spinning. But at that low speed (not doing anything like playing games) it's negligible for noise even with the case open. I actually have to have my head right near the video card to even notice if the fans are spinning, that's how quiet it is. I could look into that further but I might not bother, since it works fine by default (using the "stock" amdgpu driver in the kernel). It's a noticeable improvement over the noise caused by lowest rpm of the Nvidia GTX 860. I suspect once I get the new CPU cooler installed I'll barely be able to hear the computer at all.
Playing games--the ones I play anyway--when the fans do spin up it's still pretty quiet. SuperTuxKart is the only game I care about for nice graphics (while keeping FPS at 75 or higher), and this card does it without breaking a sweat. I'm not into first-person shooters etc.; I had my fill of those shortly after the original Unreal game was released (forever ago). Anyway if you haven't played SuperTuxKart, I recommend it. Unlike the Mario Kart games, it does reward actual skill (the powerups get "weighted" a bit based on how far from the lead position you are, but it's not as bad as Mario Kart, plus you can protect against the "blue shell equivalent" to some degree, etc.); also you get a good feeling of speed in SuperTuxKart, which I don't notice at all in any Mario Kart games (which just make me feel like I'm floating around sightseeing). If you end up playing the game, let me know if you want a challenge sometime. It can be played online. Also I'm able to use different compositors without periodic minor graphics issues. The previous Nvidia card was pickier about that for some reason. I switched to Xfwm4+compton now. The video issue I was having seems to be that Chromium doesn't play video as well as Firefox, with my monitor set at 75 Hz (set at 60 Hz though, it seems fine in both browsers). Plus also a couple of questionably-encoded videos that I have on my SSD. So that was unrelated to the GPU. Oh something else a friend reminded me of: those X570 boards have a small fan on the chipset! That was the first thing that made me think "no thanks". Second was potential compatibility issues with Linux since they're so new. You know how smaller fans generally aren't good at being low noise. It's basically a laptop fan on the chipset. Unless you get to hear one in person, or unless you don't care about extra fan noise, I'd be wary. Last edited by JamesPeters; 09-25-2019 at 07:16 PM. |
09-25-2019, 06:54 PM | #22 | |
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My open frame chassis fits into a Shockrack ATA for when I travel. And for your rig the Plink Chassis has handles on the front, just pull it out by the handles. Besides I doubt your desktop workstation shelves would be big enough for rails and I had them back in Gigastudio days, a pain in the ass crooked shit. Just read up on the B550 Chipset for Ryzen 3000s. Perfect chipset for audio guys. Its meant for budget builds they say, but ASRock loves making niche stuff. Id love that chipset on a thick server quality PCB. So I wait again. Thats fine, I never regret being behind the times. Plus no need fixing something that works. But its fun to pretend design. Nice tight studio you got there too.
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09-26-2019, 07:33 AM | #23 | |||
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09-26-2019, 07:47 AM | #24 | ||
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09-26-2019, 01:32 PM | #25 |
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But the B550 is suppose to support your current PCI 3 and future 4X devices, unless I misunderstood the guy at Digitimes Taiwan.
AMD has always allowed a platform upgrade path as you mentioned above. AM4 has used countless CPUs and chipsets. So the B550 makes perfect sense for guys with recently purchased storage and DRAM who want to use it longer until the dust (and prices) settle on the new PCI 4. I better double check, hope its true though because Ive got tons of NOS and even new devices I grab, even though they weren't needed. 512GB M.2s from Intel for 47 bucks. 2TB M.2 for 99 bucks. Im a sucker for those Newegg alerts. My dream is a quad/8 thread AMD with a base clock of 4GHz. Doesn't mean I wont buy an 8, but when AMD needs extra dough in 2020 theres a good chance theyll break up 8 Core wafers and make even more cash. The more I read about the CEO from AMD I can see her jumping into a major S & P 500 company and shaking shit up. Her foresight on what Intels response would be and her product line release times are as if she hacked their database and knows their every move. They keep saying this new CPU is coming but they cant even get the 9900 variants to the market. I cant believe Goldman Sachs hasn't scooped her up yet. Id love her to write a book. She came out of nowhere and took down the worlds most profitable Corporation.
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09-26-2019, 02:08 PM | #26 |
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I've read at least a couple of articles that claim there will be PCIe 4.0 support for one M.2 NVMe slot with the B550 chipset, so I'm going to have to dig deeper into this.
I'm seeing stuff like this, which I'm treating as speculation until I see the specs on a motherboard I can buy. "In a nutshell, the B550 chipset is close, very close towards X470. Meaning PCIe Gen 3.0 is the biggest change compared to X570. That also means the interlink between the chipset and CPU is running over four Gen 3 lanes. The good news is that with four extra Gen 4 lanes from the CPU, you can still opt to go with an M2 PCIe 4.0 slot." If the B550 chipset supports at least one 4.0 device and requires no fan, that would be enough to convince me to to go that direction. |
09-26-2019, 03:55 PM | #27 |
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Im down with that too.
Plus I use that as an excuse to NOT buy until 2020. I know a few guys with AMD Builds, all 3700X too, EU buddies got theirs last summer. They love them more than their Intel rigs. And they're snobby Xeon guys.
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09-26-2019, 07:49 PM | #28 |
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Here's another article making the very same claim about the lanes between chipset and CPU vs lanes between CPU and peripheral support.
"Since the B550 does not support PCIe Gen 4 it will be linked to the Ryzen 3000 CPU via four PCIe 3.0 lanes instead of four PCIe 4.0 lanes like X570, meaning bandwidth will be significantly lower. However, PCIe Gen 4 support should still be available to B550 users via the CPU, so B550 boards could feature a PCIe 4.0 X16 Slot and a PCIe 4.0 M.2 interface to connect high-speed PCIe 4.0 SSD drives." https://www.kitguru.net/components/c...Speed=noscript I'd have thought the chipset would be involved in communication to devices like SSDs, but maybe sans-SATA it can be done with the CPU alone. Edit: This article sounds more believable to me, and for me would work great because I want the PCIe 4.0 throughput for M.2 NVMe and don't care about it for a gaming video card. "Although the B550 chipset is built for Ryzen 3000-series CPUs, it won't be fully PCIe 4.0 enabled. The chipset will support four lanes of PCIe 4.0 off the CPU for the primary M.2 NVMe slot, but both the 16-lane GPU connection and four-lane chipset GMI link will support only PCIe 3.0 (as was the case with X470/B450)." https://www.vortez.net/news_story/am...rt_pcie_4.html Last edited by Glennbo; 09-26-2019 at 08:10 PM. |
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