[SOLVED] Can I put a 2nd NVMe Drive/M.2 SSD on TUF-GAMING-B550?

[dhkieu]

Hi All,
New to the forum, hopefully this is not the wrong place/an annoying common question.

I have a pc with a TUF-Gaming B550 motherboard, and I have an NVMe SSD attached to the 64gb M.2 slot.

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I was wondering if the 2nd 32GB m.2 slot could be used for another NVMe drive, or if maybe if it would be better I could use my 2nd PCIe slot for an NVMe drive, which I heard was also an option? Forgive me if I've gotten anything wrong here, I don't really know much about the tech.

Thanks in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes.
It has 2 applicable M.2 ports.

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For one of them, PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 depends on the CPU installed.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Your motherboard supports up to 2x M.2 SSD's;
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/...7257_TUF_GAMING_B550-PLUS_WI-FI_UM_v2_WEB.pdf
however you might be misinterpreting the SSD's.

Mind sharing the make and model of the SSD you have to work with and the SSD you're interested in dropping into the board as an add-on?

You might want to include a picture of your innards as well, just so we're sure you're referring to the same thing as stated in your motherboard manual and the board's specsheet. Processor used on your motherboard at this moment of time?

 

[dhkieu]

Sure thing, I believe that the model number found in my msinfo32 is "WDC WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0" which seems to be an NVMe SSD.
Here is a pic of where it is located:

I want to add another similar drive, I was wondering if anyone had any insight on which slot would be more efficient or if there would be any tangible performance differences between the two slots

Thanks for the reponses!

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome!

Looking up the part number you just mentioned, it's a 1TB M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD. You can drop in the same exact SSD or a smaller capacity SN550 WD SSD into the second slot or go for a more higher pedigree faster SSD and migrate your initial SSD to the lower slot.

Just to be clear the slot that's closest to the CPU will allow you to work with PCIe 3.0 x4 and PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 SSD's. The slot that's closer to the chipset/lower down the board, will only cooperate with PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 SSD's. For the sake of simplicity I used PCIe, the slots will definitely work with SATA based M.2 SSD's as well.

Processor used on your board?

 

[dhkieu]

Thanks Lutfij,
My processor is an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X. If I choose to purchase a higher capacity/higher performance SSD for the lower slots, will that create any problems? Since that is the drive that currently has windows on it I was hoping to not have to move it around, however I wouldn't be adverse to it if it would create problems. I could always back everything up and move windows around.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks Lutfij,
My processor is an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X. If I choose to purchase a higher capacity/higher performance SSD for the lower slots, will that create any problems? Since that is the drive that currently has windows on it I was hoping to not have to move it around, however I wouldn't be adverse to it if it would create problems. I could always back everything up and move windows around.

Adding another NVMe drive in the other slot incurs NO problem at all.

Or any other drive in one of the SATA slots.

 

[dhkieu]

Thanks for the help, I will grab a new drive and enjoy some more space soon!