[SOLVED] Need Help in using my first M.2 SSD

[Marton_2]

Hi people!
I just bought and installed a Kingston KC3000 1TB M 2 NVMe PCIe (SKC3000S/1024G)
Into this system:

• Mobo: -MSI B360 Gaming plus
• CPU: -i5 9400f 2.9Ghz 6core
• GPU: -RTX 2060 Super
• RAM: -32GB
• Other drives (SATA):
  • Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120 GB (OS drive)
  • TOSHIBA HDWD130 3TB

But it is just not working properly or as expected.

TL;DR: I installed it, couldnt enable in BIOS but BIOS, Device manager sees it, Disk management cant - so cant partition.
Updated Drivers, downloaded a program (AOMEI) that could partition it. It works fast and nice regarding Copy/Paste-ing files and the partition alignment is equal to 4096
Games on the drive started to act laggy, drop frames heavily , became unplayable and unstable.
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/56833956
benchmark test

At first when i installed it into my pc and pressed start for the 1st time and I knew I had to enable it somehow in BIOS.
As I entered the bios I've seen that its recognized by name in the bios, and I was searching for almost an hour in bios trying to find
where i can enable the M.2 drive. I did not find anything although my Motherboard supports PCIe v3 x4 and it has a M.2 slot.

So when i entered the OS for the first time after installing my new SSD, I wanted to partition it and start migrating my games so they have a faster load time...
The windows Disk Management tool did not see my SSD and it didn't find it. It wasn't just the DM tool but even in cmd Diskpart it didn't see the drive.
When I looked it up in my device manager or re-entered BIOS, it did see and identified the drive.
After that i installed my mobo's additional drivers and updates and installed the Kingston SSD manager.
Both recognized the drive and said it needs no firmware update or anything.
So being stuck in this situation I used a downloadable software to partition the drive because that was the only thing letting me do this.
After migrating some of my content to the drive (witch was extremely fast considering the read/write speeds) the games that never dropped frames started to become stuttery, laggy, and not rly stable.

After this story time I came to the conclusion that either my GPU suffering performance loss due to lack of PCIe bandwidth (or lanes) in my mobo
I highly doubt this since its only my GPU and CPU we are talking about
or its the fact that the M.2 drive is PCIe v4 and my mobo is supporting PCIe v3

I would be happy if you guys could tell me whats wrong with my SSD or with my build ^^
Im slowly going insane over why inserting a SSD comes with such a big price (literally)

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/56833956
here's my benchmark test

 

[rgd1101]

running out of disk space on the system ssd

 

[Aeacus]

I would be happy if you guys could tell me whats wrong with my build

There is plenty what's wrong.

or its the fact that the M.2 drive is PCIe v4 and my mobo is supporting PCIe v3

This is not much of an issue, since M.2 4.0 NVMe SSD is backwards compatible to M.2 3.0. Albeit at half the speeds. E.g read speed for M.2 4.0 is up to 7000 MB/s while for M.2 3.0 it's up to 3500 MB/s. So, 50% slower.

In that sense, it was waste of money to buy M.2 4.0 NVMe SSD, since you can only run it at half of what it is capable of. You would've been better off with M.2 3.0 NVMe SSD, e.g Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB (which also is my OS drive).

Still, since you came from SATA SSD to M.2 NVMe SSD, the read/write speeds have noticeable increase.

whats wrong with my SSD

Good catch by @rgd1101 , missed that when i was checking Userbenchmark results.

With OS drive, you want to keep at least 20% free of it's max capacity, at all times. For temp files and such. This would translate into 24 GB free with your 120 GB OS drive. Fill up the OS drive to the brim, and you'll see all sorts of issues. Including all those that you're seeing.

After this story time I came to the conclusion that either my GPU suffering performance loss due to lack of PCIe bandwidth (or lanes) in my mobo
I highly doubt this since its only my GPU and CPU we are talking about

Your CPU, at max, supports up to 16 PCI-E lanes. Your GPU takes up all the 16 PCI-E lanes. Add M.2 NVMe SSD as well, which also needs 4 PCI-E lanes, and you have shortfall, where your GPU would work with 12 PCI-E lanes, and not with full 16.
This should not matter, much, but at certain circumstances, it can be an issue.

RAM: -32GB

Why do you have RAM zoo in your PC?

2x TEAMGROUP-UD4-3200
1x Kingston 9905702-119.A00G
1x Kingston KM0VW4-MIH

And based on Userbenchmark results, your RAM runs at 800 Mhz. Which is both, very strange and very low for DDR4.

Here, take out the two Kingston RAM sticks and look if things get better. Also, check what frequency your RAM runs at.

 

[SkyNetRising]

But it is just not working properly or as expected.

Can you show screenshots from?

Disk Management,​

Device Manager - disk drives and storage controllers section expanded,​

Windows Storage Spaces (Control Panel\Storage Spaces),​

Kingston SSD Manager.​

(upload to imgur.com and post link)

Your SSD seems to be running at PCIE 3.0 x2 mode.

 

[Marton_2]

Thank you so much for the fast reply guys!

You would've been better off with M.2 3.0 NVMe SSD

Its like 20% more expensive than the one i currently bought and if Im not mistaken runs on the same speed (3500mb/s) than my current one (7000mb/s bottlenecked to ~3500)
As for the SSD its good to hear that it will just work at a reduced rate, I will upgrade my Mobo soon, so moneywise im still in the good IMO.

Why do you have RAM zoo in your PC?

The ram "zoo" (lmao) is what I'm checking out next because for sure the system was more stable before I added the other 16 gigs
i might just take the 2 other sticks back to the store and ask for a 32 GB in a quad channel kit so they are all the same.
So thank you for that comment is what will help me out here, will give an update on the frame drops as soon as i took'em out.

This should not matter, much, but at certain circumstances, it can be an issue.

Well Im running games released in this novemeber (such as Warzone 2.0) so i think here every lane and opt. performance matters.

Can you show screenshots from?

here is the link to igmur :

https://imgur.com/a/4LYB92z

View: https://imgur.com/a/4LYB92z

Your SSD seems to be running at PCIE 3.0 x2 mode.

I think too that this is the limit of my good ol' MSI 360 Gaming plus :c

 

[Marton_2]

So i swapped out the RAMs and it is a whole new world now

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/56839474

I tested the games and it was only a RAM issue after all. M.2 had nothing to do with this. (M.2 is running at 2200mb/s so you were right about buying a samsung 970)

All in all i learned something again today thank you all for helping.

 

[Bob.B]

So i swapped out the RAMs and it is a whole new world now

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/56839474

I tested the games and it was only a RAM issue after all. M.2 had nothing to do with this. (M.2 is running at 2200mb/s so you were right about buying a samsung 970)

All in all i learned something again today thank you all for helping.

Update the bios your version is old.

Update the chipset driver if that's old.

Do some serious house cleaning on the OS disk.

 

[Aeacus]

and ask for a 32 GB in a quad channel kit so they are all the same.

This is the best option.

Though, do note that while 4x RAM sticks are in a set, it isn't quad-channel, since your MoBo can only support dual-channel at max. Still, buying RAM sticks in a set is best option, since you have a guarantee that all sticks work together without issues.

I tested the games and it was only a RAM issue after all.

This is what RAM zoo can and most likely, will do.