Samsung SSD XP941 Review: The PCIe Era Is Here
by Kristian Vättö on May 15, 2014 12:00 PM ESTBoot Support: Mac? Yes. PC? Mostly No.
Booting from PCIe devices has always been rather quirksome because the BIOSes in motherboards are designed to boot from SATA devices, as they usually do. Most PCIe SSDs and SATA adapters include boot support by loading special drivers before the BIOS, which makes the drive visible in the boot screen. Without the drivers the drive won't show up in the BIOS but once you boot into the OS it will be accessible like any other drive. The problem is, you can't boot from the drive unless it shows up in the BIOS' boot screen.
Unfortunately, the XP941 doesn't seem to include the drivers necessary to enable booting. At least no driver loading screen shows up during boot, which suggests that the XP941 doesn't even have such drivers (ASUS is also telling us that this is the case). I'm thinking that the XP941 is designed for UEFI booting because from what I have heard, you don't need the drivers for UEFI boot but there is still some sort of a UEFI key needed to make the drive bootable. I did try the UEFI boot method on my ASUS Z87 Deluxe board but even though I was able to install the OS to the drive just fine, it wouldn't show up in the boot order.
The good news is that 9-series chipsets bring some ease to the situation. Back when the 8-series was introduced, there weren't many PCIe SSDs on the market but this year we will see PCIe entering the mainstream segment. That obviously forces the motherboard manufacturers to work on PCIe boot support and we can confirm that at least AsRock's Z97 Extreme6, which has a PCIe 2.0 x4 M.2 slot, supports booting from the XP941 out of the box. Whether other 9-series motherboards support booting from the XP941 remains to be seen. Most manufacturers, however, seem to be limiting the M.2 slot to just two PCIe 2.0 lanes, so you wouldn't want to use the XP941 in those boards anyway (unless the XP941 is used in a standard PCIe slot with an adapter). Anyway, we'll be sure to investigate the bootability of the XP941 in our motherboard reviews and work with the OEMs in order to bring better support for PCIe booting.
Update 5/20: ASUS just sent me an email that all their Z97 based motherboards will get a BIOS update that enables booting from the XP941. The BIOS is currently in beta testing and ASUS is expecting public release in about two weeks.
Macs, on the other hand, can boot from the XP941 just fine. I confirmed this using an early 2009 Mac Pro and the volume in the drive shows up in the boot option screen just like any other volume does. I have to admit that I don't know why exactly this is the case, but I'm guessing it's a fundamental difference between how the EFI in Macs and the BIOS/UEFI in PCs handle device recognition.
Under OS X, the XP941 shows up like any other SATA device. Since it utilizes the AHCI command set, OS X thinks it's a SATA device even though it's not. However, it's also listed under PCI cards but the page doesn't provide any meaningful info.
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nathanddrews - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
They weren't trying to squelch his speech or impugn his rights, rather give him advice as to where he could take those opinions so they would be better appreciated. "Free speech" isn't some magical phrase that suddenly allows you to say whatever you want whenever and wherever you want. Valuing free speech doesn't mean you have to value dumb comments on websites, even this comment that I just made! :-PBabar Javied - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
This site needs a "thumbs up" or "like" button because I'd like to "like" your comment good sir.Sabresiberian - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
Hmm yeah it's a matter of etiquette, not "free speech". Those topics tend to derail discussions, turn them into heated arguments which add nothing to a discussion unless they are pertinent. It is bad internet manners to bring them up in any form when the topic has nothing to do with them.As far as not reading the post - well. that would make sense in an ongoing discussion, where it could easily be seen that the comments were not going to be interesting to the reader before he had read them. This kind of post though - it is impossible to know the poster will go too far for you until he has. :)
yaedon - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
@critical: I would love to go on a long and well-thought-out diatribe on common misconceptions of the First Amendment in response to your comment, but the comment section of a tech blog is simply not the appropriate place for that and would continue to distract me, you, and everyone who reads the comment from our common interest in computer tech. I fail to understand how entreating someone to observe good manners so that all people can enjoy this fine tech blog is inflammatory.Travisryno - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link
..has nothing to do with free speech-private citizens/private forum.This is about respect-specifically not bringing heated/emotional topics into a professional and/or h.obbyist's forum.
Hell I could say you are imposing on their right to tell people to leave that stuff at the door.. but i'd just be abusing it too
vFunct - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
lol he totally didn't know that businesses have fixed costs and not just variable costs.vgray35@hotmail.com - Friday, May 16, 2014 - link
Well I do not concur. Both the PCIe and SATA interfaces are not new by any means. And as for the SSD technology, well that too is not new. The development costs are much lower that one would think. Pretty much a new PCB with layout testing. That's it. It's just old tech on a new PCB, since SSD on PCIe has also been around quite a while now too.Opportunistic behavior dictates price first and foremost, and I do not believe the device is peppered with Samsung blessed gold which could justify such an expensive PCB.
nafhan - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
In general:Price = cost where they will sell the number of units that maximizes profits.
If they priced it lower, they'd be doing that out of greed, too.
MrSpadge - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
"If they priced it lower, they'd be doing that out of greed, too."Brilliant!
RobElk - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
This uses multiple controllers to reach that speed, so it is means more parts, not less.