Question NVMe SSD Support

[kennytodd]

Hello everyone,

I am looking to upgrade my SSD drive to an M.2 drive and I am overly confused. I am looking to buy the Samsung M.2 drive linked below, but I am not sure if my motherboard will support it because the SSD is NVMe 1.3. Can anyone tell me if the SSD will work with my motherboard? Thanks!

PRIME X470-PRO | Motherboards | ASUS USA

AMD AM4 motherboard with 5-Way Optimization for one-click system-wide tuning, and M.2 heatsink to provide unthrottled transfer speed

www.asus.com

Samsung SSD 970 EVO | Samsung V-NAND Consumer SSD

970 EVO delivers breakthrough speeds, best-in-class reliability, and a broad range of capacity with the latest V-NAND, new Phoenix controller, and Intelligent TurboWrite technology.

www.samsung.com

 

[jojesa]

Yes, the Samsung 970 EVO is supported and it will work on your motherboard, which supports several M.2 NVMe revisions including 1.3.

 

[kennytodd]

Yes, the Samsung 970 EVO is supported and it will work on your motherboard, which supports several M.2 NVMe revisions including 1.3.

Just for future reference so I can learn, how do I know that my motherboard supports said NVMe?

 

[jojesa]

Just for future reference so I can learn, how do I know that my motherboard supports said NVMe?

It's in the manual. You motherboard supports PCIe 3.0, which is backward compatible.
Also, I have installed the 970 EVO on that motherboard model.

There are other things you could find out by reading the manual.
Like if you occupy the PCIe x1 slot, then the M.2 NVMe won't work, but a M.2 SATA will work just fine on the M.2_2 socket.
or
If you Install a A-series CPU then the M.2_1 can only work in SATA mode (no PCIe).

 

[TJ Hooker]

Just for future reference so I can learn, how do I know that my motherboard supports said NVMe?

Specs page: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-X470-PRO/specifications/
In the Storage section, for the M.2 slots, it lists support for PCIe modes for two of the slots. PCIe means NVMe for SSDs.

 

[kennytodd]

Specs page: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-X470-PRO/specifications/
In the Storage section, for the M.2 slots, it lists support for PCIe modes for two of the slots. PCIe means NVMe for SSDs.

So PCIe 3.0 x4 is NVMe 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3?

 

[TJ Hooker]

So PCIe 3.0 x4 is NVMe 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3?

No, NVMe is a storage protocol that runs on top of the PCIe interface. The PCIe interface does not know or care what NVMe version is running (it's up to your device and driver to support a given NVMe version), so any PCIe M.2 slot will support NVMe of any version. PCIe 3.0 x4 basically just tells you the maximum bandwidth the interface can provide.