Question Can I use a Gen 4 NVMe SSd in a Gen 2 M.2 slot?

[Luigi180]

Hey guys. Im new to NVMe drives with a question. I have an old Asus Z97-A mobo which has an M.2 slot. The slot in the mobo specs is : 1 x 2280 Key M(PCIe Gen2 x2/SATA). Can I use a WD Black SN 770 [Pcie gen4 X4]? I understand that I will only get X2 speeds out of my M.2 slot but will this slot even run a modern NVMe drive at all?
NOTE: Im using this as a secondary drive exclusively for gaming. I have my boot drive on a samsung SATA SSD.

 

[Viking2121]

It'll work just fine, though at a lower speed of course, still many times faster than a sata based SSD, Could be worse, I got a gen 4 1TB m.2 SSD I use atm and I have it on a m.2 card that I modified to fit a pcie 1x lane on my motherboard, I only get about 700mb/s reads and writes, way slower than gen 4 speeds, works perfect still, just slow.

It'll work just fine.

Good Luck!

 

[Luigi180]

It'll work just fine, though at a lower speed of course, still many times faster than a sata based SSD, Could be worse, I got a gen 4 1TB m.2 SSD I use atm and I have it on a m.2 card that I modified to fit a pcie 1x lane on my motherboard, I only get about 700mb/s reads and writes, way slower than gen 4 speeds, works perfect still, just slow.

It'll work just fine.

Good Luck!

Hey your still getting better speeds than a SATA SSD so its worth it. Thanks for the info mate.

 

[thestryker]

Transferring to a new system would be the predominant benefit, but check the Tom's review (https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wd-black-sn770-ssd-review) as it has both and perhaps something you do could benefit. Anything sequential will be limited by your existing interface (which will max out around 1GB/s).

 

[velocityg4]

You might want to consider a PCIe slot to M.2 adapter. So, you can get PCIe 2.0 x4.

You could also do the second 3.0 slot for PCIe 3.0 x4. Although this choice would steal half the 3.0 lanes from the GPU.

 

[Luigi180]

You might want to consider a PCIe slot to M.2 adapter. So, you can get PCIe 2.0 x4.

You could also do the second 3.0 slot for PCIe 3.0 x4. Although this choice would steal half the 3.0 lanes from the GPU.

I'll take a look for an adapter but due to my circumstances, I cant buy stuff online right now. I'll just have to take whatever my local store offers.

 

[USAFRet]

For a Z97 board, I would not bother, unless you plan on transplanting this into a much newer system in the very near future.

Performance will be no different than a SATA III drive.
And use of that M.2 port is likely to disable one or more SATA ports on the motherboard.

 

[Puppy38]

Another newb here. I found this post and forum by way of desperately searching the depths of the internet, and it seemed quite close to what I am dealing with.

I have a Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4 and no idea about all this new stuff like NVMe SSDs, PCI/PCIEX8/etc. I will try and explain as fully as I know/understand.

My System specs:
MOBO: GA-P55-UD4 (1.0)
BIOS Ver: F9
Graphics: SAPPHIRE Radeon R9 280X 3GB
CPU: INTEL Core i7 860 4x 2,8GHz
OS: Win 10 Pro 64-bit
RAM: Kingston 8GB KVR13R9D4/16 (x2)

I only have cage space currently for two drives, one 500GB eSATA SSD occupies one of the slots. I am trying to find a bigger cage that is expandable to four drives, one of which will not be the 500GB SSD. Space and configuration is my primary concern because I am running a primary audio/design studio system (don't laugh at my older "new" gear described below. My old handbuilt system running Win Vista-7 Pro lasted almost 20 years). I want the main HDD to pretty much have only Windows 10 Pro on it and as little else as possible. The next drive will have programs (still not sure about plugins here yet). In theory the third drive would have plugins and their content. The fourth drive would be my scratch disk. If my idea pans out, I would have room for a fifth drive...

PCI/PCIe layout (pardon the crude diagram):
-- 1 x PCI Express x1 slot (Graphics Cardcovering this)
-------- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) (Graphics Card)
-- 1 x PCI Express x1 slot (Graphics Cardcovering this)
-- 1 x PCI Express x1 slot (Graphics Cardcovering this)
-------- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) (Note 3) (no actual "Note 3") (FREE)
---- 1 x PCI slot (FREE)
---- 1 x PCI slot (FREE)

(The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)

I want to install some of this spiffy NVMe SSD tech as my main HDD (4TB). I even considered a 4-slot adapter to run RAID (4x4TB NVMe SSD), but while I might get away with installing one that conforms to 3.0/4.0 on a 2.0 board, I don't think my coard supports bifurification (whatever the heck that is) and there is no information about it anywhere I can find.

So then I think, well, maybe a single 4TB NVMe on a 3.0/4.0 adapter going into the remaining PCIEX8 slot...and run that as my main drive. I am still not even sure if the BIOS allows boot from PCI/PCIe SSD drive cos the manual says:
First/Second/Third Boot Device
Specifies the boot order from the available devices. Use the up or down arrow key to select a device and press <Enter> to accept. Options are: Floppy, LS120, Hard Disk, CDROM, ZIP, USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, USB-CDROM, USB-HDD, Legacy LAN, Disabled.

I also have no idea (a current trend apparently) what speed or maximum size of NVMe might even accepted onto the board, cos it is rather old after all, and I don't think this board was designed with NVMe SSDs in mind.

That's about all I can think of...if anyone could give me a hand, that would be great. Thx!

 

[Puppy38]

Another newb here. I found this post and forum by way of desperately searching the depths of the internet, and it seemed quite close to what I am dealing with.

I have a Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4 and no idea about all this new stuff like NVMe SSDs, PCI/PCIEX8/etc. I will try and explain as fully as I know/understand.

My System specs:
MOBO: GA-P55-UD4 (1.0)
BIOS Ver: F9
Graphics: SAPPHIRE Radeon R9 280X 3GB
CPU: INTEL Core i7 860 4x 2,8GHz
OS: Win 10 Pro 64-bit
RAM: Kingston 8GB KVR13R9D4/16 (x2)

I only have cage space currently for two drives, one 500GB eSATA SSD occupies one of the slots. I am trying to find a bigger cage that is expandable to four drives, one of which will not be the 500GB SSD. Space and configuration is my primary concern because I am running a primary audio/design studio system (don't laugh at my older "new" gear described below. My old handbuilt system running Win Vista-7 Pro lasted almost 20 years). I want the main HDD to pretty much have only Windows 10 Pro on it and as little else as possible. The next drive will have programs (still not sure about plugins here yet). In theory the third drive would have plugins and their content. The fourth drive would be my scratch disk. If my idea pans out, I would have room for a fifth drive...

PCI/PCIe layout (pardon the crude diagram):
-- 1 x PCI Express x1 slot (Graphics Cardcovering this)
-------- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) (Graphics Card)
-- 1 x PCI Express x1 slot (Graphics Cardcovering this)
-- 1 x PCI Express x1 slot (Graphics Cardcovering this)
-------- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) (Note 3) (no actual "Note 3") (FREE)
---- 1 x PCI slot (FREE)
---- 1 x PCI slot (FREE)

(The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)

I want to install some of this spiffy NVMe SSD tech as my main HDD (4TB). I even considered a 4-slot adapter to run RAID (4x4TB NVMe SSD), but while I might get away with installing one that conforms to 3.0/4.0 on a 2.0 board, I don't think my coard supports bifurification (whatever the heck that is) and there is no information about it anywhere I can find.

So then I think, well, maybe a single 4TB NVMe on a 3.0/4.0 adapter going into the remaining PCIEX8 slot...and run that as my main drive. I am still not even sure if the BIOS allows boot from PCI/PCIe SSD drive cos the manual says:
First/Second/Third Boot Device
Specifies the boot order from the available devices. Use the up or down arrow key to select a device and press <Enter> to accept. Options are: Floppy, LS120, Hard Disk, CDROM, ZIP, USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, USB-CDROM, USB-HDD, Legacy LAN, Disabled.

I also have no idea (a current trend apparently) what speed or maximum size of NVMe might even accepted onto the board, cos it is rather old after all, and I don't think this board was designed with NVMe SSDs in mind.

That's about all I can think of...if anyone could give me a hand, that would be great. Thx!

 

[USAFRet]

Another newb here. I found this post and forum by way of desperately searching the depths of the internet, and it seemed quite close to what I am dealing with.

Please start a NEW thread for your particular situation.
This one is old, and you'll get much better replies and comments.