Does it matter what PCIe to NVMe adapter you get?

[jfriend00]

I would like to add a Samsung 960 Pro PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD to my ASRock Z77 Extreme 4. That motherboard does not have the specific type of M.2 NVMe PCIe x4 slot for that SSD so I would get an adapter that plugs into an open PICe 3.0 x16 slot on the motherboard and mount the Samsung NVMe SSD on that adapter.

Here's an example of a couple of those adapters:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017JGVTAM (Ableconn M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD to PCI Express 3.0 x4 Host Adapter Card)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FU9JS94 (StarTech.com M.2 Adapter)

Are these mostly just pass-throughs such that all will perform the same? Or can there be serious differences from one to another? If so, how to tell which is good or not good?

 

[coozie7]

Yes, you need to be very careful about how the drive and adaptor are keyed, the two you link are 'M' keyed and should work with any PCI-E drive available.

Performance won't be effected AFAIK.

Bear in mind, this type of drive is unlikely to be recognised by Windows as a boot device, you can use it as storage easily enough but not as a boot device, if you're looking to upgrade to an SSD to speed up load/save/boot times I suggest you go for a decent quality 2.5" SATA drive instead.

 

[jfriend00]

Yes, you need to be very careful about how the drive and adaptor are keyed, the two you link are 'M' keyed and should work with any PCI-E drive available.

Performance won't be effected AFAIK.

Bear in mind, this type of drive is unlikely to be recognised by Windows as a boot device, you can use it as storage easily enough but not as a boot device, if you're looking to upgrade to an SSD to speed up load/save/boot times I suggest you go for a decent quality 2.5" SATA drive instead.

Yes, I am aware of the key. I will pick an adapter specifically for the type of SSD I'm getting. I won't be booting from the drive (I already have a 2.5" SATA SSD that I currently boot from and have no need to change that). My motherboard has a BIOS update available that can boot from the NVMe SSD, but I don't currently need that. I'm looking for fastest SSD to speed up media editing operations (video and photos).

OK, so you're saying that any adapter that supports the specific type of SSD I'm getting should work just fine and there is no particular need for comparison or benchmark shopping.

 

[coozie7]

As I said, there's no difference between the adaptors so it looks like either will do the job just fine.