How do i know if my motherboard will support my m.2 drive

[dominik.rivard]

M.2, PCIe, NVMe, it's all very confusing to me. From what I can tell to get the fastest boot speeds and data transfers M.2 storage drives are better than regular SSD's because the SATA connection bottlenecks the SSD's. Basically, my question is, on pcpartpicker there is a filter for m.2 slots and one for PCIe slots and I'm not really sure what the difference is. And how do i know if the m.2 slot on my mobo is PCIe x4

 

[USAFRet]

M.2, PCIe, NVMe, it's all very confusing to me. From what I can tell to get the fastest boot speeds and data transfers M.2 storage drives are better than regular SSD's because the SATA connection bottlenecks the SSD's. Basically, my question is, on pcpartpicker there is a filter for m.2 slots and one for PCIe slots and I'm not really sure what the difference is.

"m.2" is simply the form factor.
M.2 drives can be either SATA III or NVMe.
Some boards or slots can use either, some can use one or the other. Some can use an NVMe drive, but slowly.

Confusing, right?

How to tell what works?
What motherboard do you have?

 

[dominik.rivard]

M.2, PCIe, NVMe, it's all very confusing to me. From what I can tell to get the fastest boot speeds and data transfers M.2 storage drives are better than regular SSD's because the SATA connection bottlenecks the SSD's. Basically, my question is, on pcpartpicker there is a filter for m.2 slots and one for PCIe slots and I'm not really sure what the difference is.

"m.2" is simply the form factor.
M.2 drives can be either SATA III or NVMe.
Some boards or slots can use either, some can use one or the other. Some can use an NVMe drive, but slowly.

Confusing, right?

How to tell what works?
What motherboard do you have?

So what is PCIe
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/4D7v6h/msi-x470-gaming-plus-atx-am4-motherboard-x470-gaming-plus
This is the link to my mobo

 

[USAFRet]

M.2, PCIe, NVMe, it's all very confusing to me. From what I can tell to get the fastest boot speeds and data transfers M.2 storage drives are better than regular SSD's because the SATA connection bottlenecks the SSD's. Basically, my question is, on pcpartpicker there is a filter for m.2 slots and one for PCIe slots and I'm not really sure what the difference is.

"m.2" is simply the form factor.
M.2 drives can be either SATA III or NVMe.
Some boards or slots can use either, some can use one or the other. Some can use an NVMe drive, but slowly.

Confusing, right?

How to tell what works?
What motherboard do you have?

So what is PCIe

PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

Basically, a protocol for connecting multiple types of devices, at varying speeds.

So, what specific make/model motherboard do you have?

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

The MSI X470 Gaming Plus ATX board has 2x M.2 slots.

The top slot (directly beneath the CPU socket) supports PCIe only (NVMe) and runs the slot with 4x PCIe 3.0 lanes supplied by the CPU.

The bottom slot (between PCI_E4 and PCI_E6, and beside PCI_E5) supports both PCIe and SATA M.2 SSDs and runs the slot with 4x PCIe 2.0 lanes supplied by the motherboard's PCH chipset.

When using a SATA M.2 SSD in the bottom M.2 slot, the SATA1 port on the motherboard will be disabled, as it will be routed to the M.2 slot instead.

When using a PCIe M.2 SSD in the bottom M.2 slot, expansion slot PCI_E6 (bottom most expansion slot) will be disabled, as the lanes used for the last expansion slot will be routed to the M.2 slot instead.

All of the above is found in your motherboard's manual.

You are able to use both types of M.2 SSDs on your motherboard, but only the bottom slot supports SATA M.2. You might think of SATA M.2 SSDs as SATA SSDs that just don't use a power and data cable, but still use one of your motherboard's SATA connectors, via the M.2 slot.

PCIe M.2 SSDs use the NVMe interface specification to access an SSD over PCIe. This is what you're looking for if you want fastest SSD currently. Since SATA M.2 still uses your standard SATA interface, it's limited to the lower throughput of that SATA interface. This is usually reflected in the read / write numbers for drives.

 

[Bebe1980]

I don't get it at all - from the specification MSI B460M:

• 2x M.2 slots (Key M)
  • M2_1 supports up to PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6Gb/s, 2242/ 2260/ 2280/ 22110 storage devices 1
  • M2_2 supports up to PCIe 3.0 x4, 2242/ 2260/ 2280 storage devices
  • Intel® Optane™ Memory Ready for the M2_2 slot only 2
  • Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology for Intel Core™ processors

1. SATA1 will be unavailable when installing M.2 SATA SSD in the M2_1 slot.
2. Before using Intel® Optane™ memory modules, please ensure that you have updated the drivers and BIOS to the latest version from MSI website.

Reading the knowledgeable replies above... I think it means my 2nd slot is the faster one and both my slots PCIe 3.0 x 4 support the NVMe interface ....

But because there is no mention of NVMe in the motherboard spec I'm still not totally sure!

Can someone assure me it does or doesn't?

 

[USAFRet]

M2_1 supports up to PCIe 3.0 x4
M2_2 supports up to PCIe 3.0 x4


In the context of a storage devic here, PCIe 3.0 == NVMe.
The same performance for both M.2 ports.