[SOLVED] M.2 Slot disadvantages?

[tacomaguy20]

I have a ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wi-Fi and I was going to buy 2 of the M.2 GEN 4 NVME drives for my computer and didn't see anything in the manual about any limitations for using these drives. I know my previous motherboard would disable SATA ports if an M.2 drive was installed and I know that sometimes it will force a PCIx16 slot to run in a lower mode or something along those lines. Does anyone know if this motherboard has any of these limitations. The manual doesn't seem to say.

edit by the way I have an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X if that matters

 

[geofelt]

If the manual is silent, I would presume no restrictions.
That said, why not use just a single larger m.2 drive?

 

[tacomaguy20]

If the manual is silent, I would presume no restrictions.
That said, why not use just a single larger m.2 drive?

I was going to use one for my C drive and download and extracting large rar files from that drive to a 2nd drive. I think that would speed things up as it goes pretty slow right now.

 

[USAFRet]

I was going to use one for my C drive and download and extracting large rar files from that drive to a 2nd drive. I think that would speed things up as it goes pretty slow right now.

Assuming similar drives, it would make no difference, 1 drive or 2.

 

[jojesa]

I have a ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wi-Fi and I was going to buy 2 of the M.2 GEN 4 NVME drives for my computer and didn't see anything in the manual about any limitations for using these drives. I know my previous motherboard would disable SATA ports if an M.2 drive was installed and I know that sometimes it will force a PCIx16 slot to run in a lower mode or something along those lines. Does anyone know if this motherboard has any of these limitations. The manual doesn't seem to say.

edit by the way I have an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X if that matters

That depends on the motherboard model and the M.2 protocol (SATA, PCIe). The ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus does not have that restriction.
Some motherboards might not allow SATA M.2 sockets with some SATA ports, since they might be sharing bandwidth.

 

[tacomaguy20]

Assuming similar drives, it would make no difference, 1 drive or 2.

Well I'll have to keep that in mind then. The only issue is the drive I want Samsung 980 pro only makes a 1tb drive at the moment as far as I can tell.

 

[USAFRet]

Well I'll have to keep that in mind then. The only issue is the drive I want Samsung 980 pro only makes a 1tb drive at the moment as far as I can tell.

A theoretical 2TB 980 as a single drive, or a 1TB 980 + 1-2TB 970 EVO or 1TB 980...There would be no difference in "extracting large rar files".

The performance of the CPU and RAM, and what the specific rar contains, is far more important than the read/write differences on those drives.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
edit by the way I have an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X if that matters

This is what ASUS says:
"3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors :
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M Key, Type 2242/2260/2280/22110(PCIE 4.0 x4 and SATA modes) storage devices support
2nd Gen AMD Ryzen...
(irrelevant since you have a 3900X, it does matter)
AMD X570 chipset :
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M Key, Type 2242/2260/2280/22110(PCIE 4.0 x4 and SATA modes) storage devices support
8 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s)
Support Raid 0, 1, 10 "

So, with a 3900X processor (3rd gen Ryzen) you have 2 M.2 slots available each with 4 lanes of PCIe gen 4 capability and 8 SATA ports. It has no asterisks or notes so it doesn't appear any lane or port shedding will occur with any combinations...which makes sense as X570 has enough PCIe lanes for it.

However, do note that one M.2 is fed directly by the CPU and the other M.2 is fed by the chipset. That will add a measure of latency to the data stream getting to and from the CPU to that drive. So performance might be a little bit imbalanced for it should that matter to you.

 

[tacomaguy20]

This is what ASUS says:
"3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors :
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M Key, Type 2242/2260/2280/22110(PCIE 4.0 x4 and SATA modes) storage devices support
2nd Gen AMD Ryzen...
(irrelevant since you have a 3900X, it does matter)
AMD X570 chipset :
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M Key, Type 2242/2260/2280/22110(PCIE 4.0 x4 and SATA modes) storage devices support
8 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s)
Support Raid 0, 1, 10 "

So, with a 3900X processor (3rd gen Ryzen) you have 2 M.2 slots available each with 4 lanes of PCIe gen 4 capability and 8 SATA ports. It has no asterisks or notes so it doesn't appear any lane or port shedding will occur with any combinations...which makes sense as X570 has enough PCIe lanes for it.

However, do note that one M.2 is fed directly by the CPU and the other M.2 is fed by the chipset. That will add a measure of latency to the data stream getting to and from the CPU to that drive. So performance might be a little bit imbalanced for it should that matter to you.

Thank you. That's what I was reading earlier and didn't see the usual messages about limitations so I wasn't sure. Is there anyway of telling which socket is fed by the CPU and which is fed by the Chipset?

 

[drea.drechsler]

Thank you. That's what I was reading earlier and didn't see the usual messages about limitations so I wasn't sure. Is there anyway of telling which socket is fed by the CPU and which is fed by the Chipset?

In the board's manual there is this:

​

"1 x M.2_1 socket 3 with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/ 22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 4.0/3.0 x 4 mode) "​

​

That suggest M.2_1 is the socket fed by the CPU because it's the only one that can be PCIE 4.0 OR 3.0. It would be PCIE 3.0 when a 1st or 2nd gen processor is used.

M.2_2 is noted to work only at PCIe 4.0, which would make sense only if connected to the chipset.

 

[tacomaguy20]

In the board's manual there is this:

​

"1 x M.2_1 socket 3 with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/ 22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 4.0/3.0 x 4 mode) "​

​

That suggest M.2_1 is the socket fed by the CPU because it's the only one that can be PCIE 4.0 OR 3.0. It would be PCIE 3.0 when a 1st or 2nd gen processor is used.

M.2_2 is noted to work only at PCIe 4.0, which would make sense only if connected to the chipset.

Great, thank you so much