[SOLVED] How do I know if motherboard m.2 slot supports full speed NVME of 3 Gigs transfers?

[Bruno Vincent]

Trying to buy a new board now, but as usual, having a hard time navigating through the options...

Almost all boards have m.2 ports, but can they ALL handles the 3gigs transfer speed of Samsung EVO 960 NVME?

And of course this will be used for boot disk and OS.

How do I know what board can or what board can't?

I'm in Thailand, and the sales people have absolutely no clue, even if they think they do...

All shops have different opinions!

 

[laviniuc]

the motherboard specs will specify if they can use pciex(nvme) or just sata m2

 

[Bruno Vincent]

the motherboard specs will specify if they can use pciex(nvme) or just sata m2

They all say PCIE and confusing language that is very near to that lingo...

is this one ok?

1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 2 PCIe 2.0 x1

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H310M-HDVM.2/

 

[Bruno Vincent]

Does:

3.0 x16

And

2.0 x1

Have anything to do with it?

 

[laviniuc]

no quite... that's for ssd-s running on pci ex (like these ones: https://www.amazon.com/Intel-P3700-800GB-NVMe-SSDPEDMD800G4/dp/B00UKET9JE/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1544357672&sr=1-6&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_four_browse-bin%3A6009678011)

this is what you need to look at:
Storage
- 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug*
- 1 x M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen2 x4 (20 Gb/s)**

*If M2_1 is occupied by a SATA-type M.2 device, SATA3_3 will be disabled.

**Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Supports ASRock U.2 Kit

and btw, the 860 evo is a sata m2. not a nvme m2. (only get it if you find it cheap and want to avoid having an extra sata drive)

if you want a fast m2 you need an nvme one. adata nvme's were on sale last i checked:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssds,3891.html

L.E. read this: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-buying-guide,5602.html

 

[USAFRet]

This is what you need to look at:

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H310M-HDVM.2/#Specification
"1 x M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen2 x4 (20 Gb/s)"

The PCIe x4 will run an NVMe drive at full speed.


This, however, is not correct:
"Samsung EVO 860 NVME"

The 860 EVO is a SATA drive, not NVMe.
You need the 960 or 970 EVO m.2 drive.

 

[Bruno Vincent]

This is what you need to look at:

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H310M-HDVM.2/#Specification
"1 x M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen2 x4 (20 Gb/s)"

The PCIe x4 will run an NVMe drive at full speed.


This, however, is not correct:
"Samsung EVO 860 NVME"

The 860 EVO is a SATA drive, not NVMe.
You need the 960 or 970 EVO m.2 drive.

Yes, I meant the 960 one, the fast one at 3gigs, so this board is fine if I understand correctly?

H310M-HDV/M.2 if fine?

Do I need an adapter or can run it directly in the port?

Is this board ok also?

https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-H310M-S2H-LGA1151-Motherboard/dp/B07CCGMHMC

 

[USAFRet]

This is what you need to look at:

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H310M-HDVM.2/#Specification
"1 x M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen2 x4 (20 Gb/s)"

The PCIe x4 will run an NVMe drive at full speed.


This, however, is not correct:
"Samsung EVO 860 NVME"

The 860 EVO is a SATA drive, not NVMe.
You need the 960 or 970 EVO m.2 drive.

Yes, I meant the 960 one, the fast one at 3gigs, so this board is fine if I understand correctly?

H310M-HDV/M.2 if fine?

Do I need an adapter or can run it directly in the port?

Yes that board is fine, and directly in the m.2 port.
No adapter needed or wanted.

 

[Bruno Vincent]

This is what you need to look at:

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H310M-HDVM.2/#Specification
"1 x M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen2 x4 (20 Gb/s)"

The PCIe x4 will run an NVMe drive at full speed.


This, however, is not correct:
"Samsung EVO 860 NVME"

The 860 EVO is a SATA drive, not NVMe.
You need the 960 or 970 EVO m.2 drive.

Yes, I meant the 960 one, the fast one at 3gigs, so this board is fine if I understand correctly?

H310M-HDV/M.2 if fine?

Do I need an adapter or can run it directly in the port?

Yes that board is fine, and directly in the m.2 port.
No adapter needed or wanted.

Thank you so much, don't know what I'd do without you guys advice, just keep buying wrong stuff I guess...!

I still don't know how to figure out if the boards take the NVME or not though...!

 

[USAFRet]

I still don't know how to figure out if the boards take the NVME or not though...!

You just have to read through the specs.
The bolded parts in my answer above is the specific thing you look for.