[SOLVED] M2 slots of the Asus TUF B550

[Jeff_120]

Hello
I want to buy and add an nvme kingston skc2500 which is 3.0x4
Will there be any advantages to plug it to the m2 slot 4.0x4 instead of the 3.0x4?
I am asking because it looks like I will have to remove both geforce 3070 and the cpu cooler fan (msi frozr L) to access the 4.0x4 port which is sort of a hassle

 

[popatim]

the PCIE4 slot would have slightly faster response times since it goes directly to the CPU. The PCIE3 slot goes to the chipset and then thru the uplink to the CPU. The uplink is a pciex4 bus.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hello
I want to buy and add an nvme kingston skc2500 which is 3.0x4
Will there be any advantages to plug it to the m2 slot 4.0x4 instead of the 3.0x4?
I am asking because it looks like I will have to remove both geforce 3070 and the cpu cooler fan (msi frozr L) to access the 4.0x4 port which is sort of a hassle

Connected directly to the CPU so lower latency and lag for the primary M.2 socket... and it's gen 4. The secondary slot is (only) gen 3 bandwidth, but gen 4 bandwidth hasn't been shown to matter much except in storage benchmarks and certain types of transfers of large sequential files...something rarely done in Windows.

But IMO the best reason to use the primary M.2 is those 4 lanes to the CPU go completely unused otherwise so why waste them. Using the secondary M.2 will mean losing one or two SATA ports (Sata 5 6) that you could use for super-fast SSD giving similar effective results to an NVME in Windows. That's because the main advantage of SSD is it's phenomenal access times, whether SATA or NVME.

But since you seem to be doing this after-the-fact the best utilization of the primary M.2 NVME would be for the system drive, to take advantage of it's low-latency access to the CPU. So that means transferring the OS to it. If you've no intention of doing so then just use the secondary as it won't matter so long as you'll never need those SATA ports.

 

[Jeff_120]

Connected directly to the CPU so lower latency and lag for the primary M.2 socket... and it's gen 4. The secondary slot is (only) gen 3 bandwidth, but gen 4 bandwidth hasn't been shown to matter much except in storage benchmarks and certain types of transfers of large sequential files...something rarely done in Windows.

But IMO the best reason to use the primary M.2 is those 4 lanes to the CPU go completely unused otherwise so why waste them. Using the secondary M.2 will mean losing one or two SATA ports (Sata 5 6) that you could use for super-fast SSD giving similar effective results to an NVME in Windows. That's because the main advantage of SSD is it's phenomenal access times, whether SATA or NVME.

But since you seem to be doing this after-the-fact the best utilization of the primary M.2 NVME would be for the system drive, to take advantage of it's low-latency access to the CPU. So that means transferring the OS to it. If you've no intention of doing so then just use the secondary as it won't matter so long as you'll never need those SATA ports.

Windows 11 is installed in a SSD Sata, should I clone it to the nvme in case I get one?

 

[drea.drechsler]

Windows 11 is installed in a SSD Sata, should I clone it to the nvme in case I get one?

I would...and I would install the NVME in the primary M.2 slot to get benefit from it's low latency data path direct to the CPU.

OS cloning wasn't all that difficult with Win10, although you had to turn off Secure Boot first. I'm not sure how it works with Windows 11 but I'm sure there are sufficient succesful experiences logged by now on https://www.windows11forums.com/ .