Question Help with an MSI PRO H610M-G WiFi DDR4 board re 4.0 MVMe M.2 SSD install

[mraroid]

Hello friends...

My parts have all arrived and I am installed the above MSI board in my friends ATX case. I have a Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD to install. It appears that it can only plug into the slot on the motherboard in one direction only. In past builds with other motherboards, I had to install thermal pad on NVMe drives and then put a heat sync on top of it.

On this motherboard, it appears that the angle the rear (the part that plugs into the motherboard) of the NVMe to the other end, where it screws down to the motherboard is quite pronounced. While this Samsung 980 Pro is not flexing, it sure seems off to me as the angle is quite steep.

If I were to follow what I have written above, I am guessing no thermal tape or paste is needed as the NVMe is suspended in the air? Am I understanding the install of this NVMe drive correctly? Or am I just not understanding something? The "manual" (if you could call it that) is all drawings but shows nothing as to the correct install of the MVMe drive.

Can anyone advise me?

Many thanks to all who have helped me in the past. I greatly appreciate all the help I receive here.
best,
mraroid

 

[Darkbreeze]

Please post a picture of what you are talking about because honestly it is unclear and makes little sense to me. The M.2 slot is standard and no different than the M.2 slot on any other motherboard, supporting 2242/ 2260/ 2280 form factor M.2 devices, of which 2280 is the most common and is what the Samsung 980 Pro is.

Assuming you either got this board used or have failed to identify and use the standoff that would have come in the fastener assortment that came with the board. There should be a moveable standoff to fasten the end of the M.2 drive to after screwing it down into one of the three standoff locations depending on what type of M.2 form factor you have. For the 2280 it will be the very last standoff hole. There should also be an M.2 screw included to attach the drive to the standoff. If there is not, then it is missing.

So there should not be anything different from the installation on any other M.2 2280 device or motherboard. And as far as thermal interface material or heatsink are concerned, sure, some drives or motherboards come with them, but a lot of them do not, so that is nothing unusual either. In fact, for many drives, including I believe the 980 Pro, the LABEL on the drive is a form of thermal interface material and heatsink, and really shouldn't require an additional one although if the board has an integrated model you could certainly use it if you wanted to.

Pictures of where you are seeing a problem along with a bit more explanation, would be helpful.

How To - How to post images on Tom's hardware

Posting images on any thread in our forum is a relatively easy process, although some people tend to have problems doing so. Please read the FULL tutorial, or else you likely will not have success linking to a hosted image and will end up simply posting a link to an image elsewhere rather than...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[mraroid]

Hello Darkbreeze & all ....

I went to MSI's web site to see if they had a more robust manual I could down load and they had. I now see that a NVMe drive can be installed so that it is totally horizontal with the motherboard. A screw/plastic device is enclosed (which you talked about) which will do this. So the MVMe drive is not flexing at all.

I have air above the MVMe and air below it. That is new to me, but glad to know it is OK.

I see that this motherboard supports PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, and I had a spare PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD drive, so I have installed it.

I am guessing the 4.0 will work just fine in this 3.0 motherboard?

Many thanks Darkbreeze for your help!

mraroid

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, it will work but will only run at a maximum of PCIe 3.0 speeds, which is fine, so long as you understand that. That's still plenty fast and consider most operations are random reads or writes that never come close to saturating the PCIe 3.0 spec anyhow, it really doesn't matter unless you were doing very large sequential transfers between two devices that were both M.2 drives. Clearly not possible on this board so that sequential performance spec doesn't even matter, at all, in any way, shape or form on this board except perhaps for theoretical sequential read performance. Even so, it will still be damn fast compared to any SATA SSD.

You are welcome. Anytime.

 

[mraroid]

Thanks again Darkbreeze. I suspected as much, but wanted to check. I ended up with this extra Samsung drive and it is 1 TB which is what my buddy wants. So I am giving it to him. He helps me repair my car, so it is a win/win for both of us. So as long as it works, I am good with it.

Thank you for your advice and help.

mraroid

 

[Darkbreeze]

Anytime at all.