Dell OptiPlex 3060 - Enable NVMe Gen 3 speeds (Enable PCIe 3.0)

optiplex-3060-enable-pcie3.md

Enable PCIe 3.0 speeds for NVMe SSDs on Dell OptiPlex 3060

Out of the box, any M.2 NVMe SSDs connected to the Dell OptiPlex 3060 runs at PCIe Gen 2.0 speeds (Max 5 GT/s; 2 GB/s) so the speed tests look like this:

However, after this BIOS mod, the SSD can reach PCIe Gen 3.0 speeds (Max 8 GT/s; 3.9 GB/s) so the speed tests look like this:

Steps to enable PCIe 3.0

Click here to watch a video tutorial

0. Disable Secure Boot in the BIOS:

   Settings → Secure Boot → Secure Boot Enable → select Disabled

1. Download the latest version of RU.EFI from http://ruexe.blogspot.com/

2. Format a USB pen drive as FAT32 using MBR partitioning

3. Copy RU.EFI to the root of the pen drive (e.g. D:\RU.EFI)

4. Reboot the OptiPlex 3060 with the pen drive plugged in and enter BIOS by pressing F2

5. Under Settings → General → Boot Sequence click on Add Boot Option

6. Under File System List select your USB pen drive. It has a name like

   PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(0x7,0x0)/HD(1.MBR,0x52DED30C)

7. Click on the 3 dots ... and select RU.EFI from the list of files

8. For Boot Option Name enter a name and click OK. This will be displayed on the boot selection screen (e.g. RU.EFI)

9. Click Apply and select Save as Custom User Settings and click OK

10. Click Exit

11. The system will now reboot. Repeatedly press F12 until you get to the boot device selection screen

12. Under UEFI BOOT: select the boot device with the name you entered in Step 8 (e.g. RU.EFI) and press Enter

13. Press Enter to dismiss the RU.EFI splash screen

14. Press Alt+= to get to the UEFI variable editor screen

15. Press the ↓ key until you get to the Setup UEFI variable and press Enter

16. Press Ctrl+PgDown keys until you see 0C40 on the left

17. Press ↓ until your cursor is at the first number in the 0C40 row

18. Press Enter and press 0 and 3 and press Enter again to update the first number in the row from 02 to 03

19. Change all 02 to 03 in line 0C40 and 0C50

20. Press Ctrl+W to write changes and press Alt+Q to exit and reboot

Test the change

Besides the obvious speed difference that can be noticed in a CrystalDiskMark benchmark, you can also check to see if the PCIe version reported in HWiNFO has changed

Before

After

Credit

https://github.com/Lorys89/DELL_OPTIPLEX_3060_MFF

Shouldnt be I tested it with power meter Infact the power usage should go down.

My two cents:

1. Update the BIOS.
2. Disable Secure boot.
3. Use RU version 5.32.0423 because 5.33.0425 does not work.
4. You don't need to mess with boot options, all you have to do is copy RU.efi as \EFI\BOOT\BOOTx64.EFI in a FAT32 parition.
5. Spam F12 on OptiPlex boot, and choose UEFI: xxx entry.

Here are Linux instructions:

1. Format your USB drive (GPT+FAT32).

printf "label: gpt\ntype=EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7\n" | sudo sfdisk /dev/sdX
sudo mkfs -t fat -F 32 /dev/sdX1

2. Mount and copy.

sudo mount -m /dev/sdX1 /mnt/usb
sudo install -D ./RU.efi /mnt/usb/EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.EFI && sync
sudo umount /mnt/usb

I had to reinstall Windows 11 and it went back to 2.0 so I've come to the conclusion these Dell Optiplexes are junk

Thanks so much! Worked fine on my 3060 - my read speeds are up but the write speeds are down. Can anyone perhaps help?

Great Gist, thank you very much!
Please what editions I can execute on BIOS to use processor i7-8700 with 3060m?

Best,

I had to reinstall Windows 11 and it went back to 2.0 so I've come to the conclusion these Dell Optiplexes are junk

Really your comment is correct dell is a junk. I have one lenovo thinkcentre 12th that was with i5-12400T and only put there i5-12600K and replace PSU to 230W and is working perfect. I haven't any blocking on BIOS but dell optiplex all time you have blocking on various resources on BIOS.

hello. just find your amazing work. as i had successfully patched some optiplex biosses for nvme boot support i am not completely new in this topic.
but here i understand that this changes had to be done in a special area of the bios, which -i guess- is different on every machine/bios.
so my question is.
could this be done on a optiplex 5050 series too?
if yes, how i can find and identify which bytes have to be changed on other optiplex bios ( especially the 5050 SFF as i have a bunch of those).
thanks for your help michael

Thanks so much, I haven't found any other work forcusing on how to converting pcie smaller gen. to larger gen., which almost made me give up. People who comes up with this idea is literally genius!

I just wanted to mention that none of this is my work. I simply made it somewhat easier to follow along for beginners. Thanks to Lorys89 who figured this out. You can check out their work here: https://github.com/Lorys89/DELL_OPTIPLEX_3060_MFF

Thank you so much! Now it's working much better!


I also did the following and got a better result:
Bios settings:
Enable:
SATA Operation : AHCI
Fastboot : Thorough
Integrated NIC : Enable
Disable :
Secure Boot
Absolute
Intel SGX
Enable UEFI Network Stack
And got this result

Worked great on my 3060 Micro and Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB. Thanks!

Might add a note about european/other kb layouts, that RU.EXE defaults to the US keyboard layout, so "Alt" + "=" is "Alt" + "whatever is immediately left of backspace". Things like this are not obvious to people who aren't used to text-based interfaces and tools.

Also, hitting "Alt"+"Q" quit and went into the HP support assistant, then hitting ESC shuts down the PC. Not "to quit and reboot".

Thanks so much! Worked fine on my 3060 - my read speeds are up but the write speeds are down. Can anyone perhaps help?

The SSD might be heat throttling on the PCIe 3.0 speeds under the stress of the test. Try changing the number of tests from 5 to 1 to see if that helps.

Thanks Joergen - write speeds did improve

I have two Dell 3060 micros. 1 with 8100T and one with 8700. Planning to get more of the 3060 coz it is selling like pancakes here. Looking for a copper heatsinks to replace to the stock CPU heatsink. Care to share links where to buy? Thanks

Thanks, it works great with my Kingston SNV2S500G SSD !

Thanks, this looks very promising. However I myself have a Dell Optiplex 3070. Anyone know or tried it on a 3070 whether this works?
Based on https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/iifyp8/getting_pcie_gen_2_speeds_instead_of_gen_3/ I noticed that the 3070 has the same limitation.

It should work fine on a 3070 SFF as well.

Thank you for your quick reply, I have a 3070 MFF, I assume that works at well?

I don't have one so I can't say for sure. You could try it out and report back if it worked for you. I'm fairly confident that it might.

I just followed the steps, it works! Thank you!

Dell Optiplex 3070 MFF
i3-9100T
16GB RAM
WD Black SN770 1TB

Before:

After: