Question ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Gen 4 Card

[johnno23]

Reaching out for information from people that have a better understanding of PCI lanes than myself.
as the title stated ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Gen 4 Card is an option I have to obtain at a very reasonable price. I understand that generally one needs to use the 16 x 4 slot to use all 4 M.2 slots.
However my motherboard is the X670e Aourus master and the first slot is occupied by my GPU.
the second PCI slot though has 8 PCI gen 4 lanes from the chipset. So my understanding is that I should be able to use the card to drop in 2 x M.2 without impacting my GPU.
I AM NOT AN EXPERT so my understanding is quite possibly an assumption and not a fact.
Another question I had was if I were to add 4 drives would 2 become simply invisible to the system and unable to operate or would it be possible but all 4 drives were to run at half the speed {gen3] ? the speed loss would not be a hindrance as I wish to use it as storage primarily and the costs of using something as an Asustor M.2 NAS is much more expensive. The Asus hyper card is old stock and being sold at a clearance pricing from a local shop hence my interest in this option.

 

[CountMike]

Reaching out for information from people that have a better understanding of PCI lanes than myself.
as the title stated ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Gen 4 Card is an option I have to obtain at a very reasonable price. I understand that generally one needs to use the 16 x 4 slot to use all 4 M.2 slots.
However my motherboard is the X670e Aourus master and the first slot is occupied by my GPU.
the second PCI slot though has 8 PCI gen 4 lanes from the chipset. So my understanding is that I should be able to use the card to drop in 2 x M.2 without impacting my GPU.
I AM NOT AN EXPERT so my understanding is quite possibly an assumption and not a fact.
Another question I had was if I were to add 4 drives would 2 become simply invisible to the system and unable to operate or would it be possible but all 4 drives were to run at half the speed {gen3] ? the speed loss would not be a hindrance as I wish to use it as storage primarily and the costs of using something as an Asustor M.2 NAS is much more expensive. The Asus hyper card is old stock and being sold at a clearance pricing from a local shop hence my interest in this option.

Your problem is not PCIe version but number of PCIe lines. 24 are shared by first PCIe x16 and first M.2 slot.
Other PCIe x16 slots are tied to chipset and share lines with M.2 slots so that's your limit. NVMe SSDs can run in x4, x2 and x1 modes each halving the speed of previous one. As long as you have enough PCIe lanes for all of them, they should all be visible in at least x1 mode.X670 chipset provides up to 44 PCIe lines, it's just the matter of how particular MB distrubutes them, That you can see in MB's specifications.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/X670E-AORUS-MASTER-rev-1x/sp#sp

 

[SkyNetRising]

However my motherboard is the X670e Aourus master and the first slot is occupied by my GPU.
the second PCI slot though has 8 PCI gen 4 lanes from the chipset. So my understanding is that I should be able to use the card to drop in 2 x M.2 without impacting my GPU.

Second PCIE x16 slot operates in x4 mode. It will support single M.2 drive in the adapter.
Third PCIE x16 slot operates in x2 mode. It will support single M.2 drive in the adapter (at half bandwidth).

Only way, to use four M.2 drives with the adapter, you have to install it in first PCIE x16 slot.
Move graphics card to a lower slot.

if I were to add 4 drives would 2 become simply invisible to the system and unable to operate or would it be possible but all 4 drives were to run at half the speed {gen3] ?

Extra drives would not work/ would not be detected.

 

[thestryker]

However my motherboard is the X670e Aourus master and the first slot is occupied by my GPU.
the second PCI slot though has 8 PCI gen 4 lanes from the chipset.

The first slot is from the CPU and should support bifurcation in terms of x8/x8, x8/x4/x4, x4/x4/x4/x4 unless Gigabyte didn't do something right with the BIOS.

The second slot is 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes from the chipset and the third slot is 2 PCIe 3.0 lanes from the chipset.

With the Asus Hyper (and Gigabyte's as well) you can only use those on slots that support bifurcation because they do not have a PCIe switch on them. If you plugged it into any slot other than the first one the system would only see a single drive no matter how many were installed.

The only way to do what you want to accomplish would be by buying a card with a PCIe switch on it. For your situation where you only have 4 lanes available this is the only solution I'm aware of that will work correctly: https://sabrent.com/products/ec-p3x4

 

[johnno23]

Thankyou for the info. I am running a 3080 in the 1st slot at the moment so I shall have a look at the sabrent link. I suppose my only other option is to simply bite the bullet and pull the on board ssds and upgrade to a higher capacity. I have 2 x 2TB and 2 x 1TB in the M.2 slots right now. I do have an external Thunderbolt drive but I try to limit its use as I noticed that the case even though it is a huge block of aluminium the things gets crazy hot. Been using it once a week for basic back up of the C drive.
Thank you once again for the help.

 

[SkyNetRising]

What do you require so much NVME storage for?
Are Sata SSDs not an option?

 

[johnno23]

Digital photos from as far back as 1998. Also a steam library that spans almost 20 years. I also have a few videos that were made over the years on the older mini cassettes that were exported to the PC and I have a huge music library I started when I converted my cds in sound jam to MP3. Sound Jam was the app that Apple purchased and created itunes. I am 66 and have close to 30 years of odds and ends that have no value to anyone else but myself but all require storage space.
Sata SSD's could be an option but I have 2 x 1TB in the drawer as they work but were replaced by the 2TB drives now on my motherboard. I also have a thunderbolt drive but that gets so hot and the enclosure was more expensive than the Asus card I can get for cheap in a clearance sale.
I was hoping to use those two spare SSDs but don't trust the external bays with their heat build up. My case has excellent airflow and the SSD's that I can touch are warm but not blistering hot as the external type. I did try a cheaper USD 3.2 bay but that also gets too hot to touch. I suppose I could just upgrade the two internal 1TB and then have 4 x 1TB in the drawer until the M.2 NAS items drop in price as I am sure they will do over time.
I don't mind paying for things but have a serious issue with good working items that simply become redundant or sit in a drawer.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Digital photos
a steam library
a few videos
a huge music library

Game library may benefit from being on a fast drive.
But all that other media - like old photos, videos, music - none of that requires fast storage.
It would live perfectly happy on a high capacity mechanical storage drive -
like 20TB WD helioseal drive.

Using ultra fast NVME for that type of files is a complete waste.

 

[johnno23]

True but such drives are 400 USD plus and the Asus hyper card I could pick up for only 75 USD.
I was hoping to drop in the 2 1TB SSD's I have in the drawer. Hoping and reality are of course entirely different.
With my thunderbolt drive that I hook up once a week for backup of the C drive I have a total of 3 SSD's available in house but sadly the Asus card is a no go. Also the Sabrent PCI adapter that was linked is out of stock and not made anymore as far as I could see as they now have a newer card Gen 4 but no onboard PCI switch with the new one.
No worries. I shall simply start deleting games as I can always redownload via steam and I cannot play everything all at the same time. Force of Habit more than anything else as I used to be on a Capped DL but the last couple of years I now have unlimited DL so deletion and reinstalling should not be a huge issue.
The SSD's I have living in a drawer are not going anywhere so maybe in the future I find something that lets me use them. In the meantime I can also just trim my games as some of them are absurd. Elder Scrolls Online I don't play so much anymore but that single game hogs over 120 GB and a couple more games are also huge.
Anyways thank you for your time the advice and assistance.
regards
johnno

 

[SkyNetRising]

True but such drives are 400 USD plus and the Asus hyper card I could pick up for only 75 USD.

Currently you don't need 20TB drive. That was just an example.
8TB to 10TB would probably be enough to fit all your files and still have some reserve.

 

[thestryker]

Also the Sabrent PCI adapter that was linked is out of stock and not made anymore as far as I could see as they now have a newer card Gen 4 but no onboard PCI switch with the new one.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1779996-REG/sabrent_ec_p3x4_4_drive_nvme_m_2_ssd.html