Question Recommendation for a PCIe to M.2 Expansion Card for Asus B85M-G R2.0 Mobo

[eh936]

Could someone recommend a PCIe to M.2 expansion card that will work with this motherboard and the following SSD ?

SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2

[EDIT] And yes I would like to be able to boot from this SSD.

 

[USAFRet]

Could someone recommend a PCIe to M.2 expansion card that will work with this motherboard and the following SSD ?

SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2

I wouldn't bother.

You're not going to get any magical performance benefit over a SATA III SSD, and you almost certainly can't use it as a boot drive.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Could someone recommend a PCIe to M.2 expansion card that will work with this motherboard and the following SSD ?

Do you have discrete graphics card installed?
If yes, then you have no free PCIE x4 slots available on your motherboard.
Forget about NVME drives on your system.

 

[eh936]

@SkyNetRising No my Intel CPU is the i7-4790 (integrated graphics processor unit)

 

[USAFRet]

@SkyNetRising No my Intel CPU is the i7-4790 (integrated graphics processor unit)

And still, it is probably still a waste of effort.

What was your projected use for this drive and adapter?

 

[eh936]

@USAFRet I wanted to speed things up with this old system by buying a M.2 NVMe SSD.

 

[SkyNetRising]

@USAFRet I wanted to speed things up with this old system by buying a M.2 NVMe SSD.

Do you already have SATA SSD?

 

[USAFRet]

@USAFRet I wanted to speed things up with this old system by buying a M.2 NVMe SSD.

Nope.
You'd see zero difference over a standard 2.5" SATA III SSD. Which absolutely WILL work.

 

[NedSmelly]

There are PCIE x1 slot to m.2 adapters such as this one. Can’t guarantee that your BIOS will support booting from it though - nor support it at all.

1x PCIE 3.0 channel supports a theoretical max of 985MB/s. SATA3 is 600MB/s. Not much of an upgrade. So I agree with the others, just stick with SATA for a motherboard of this age and feature set. It’s guaranteed to work.

Edit: just checked your mobo manual, the PCIE x1 slots are Gen 2. So actually slower than SATA3 ports at 500MB/s 🤔

 

[eh936]

Do you already have SATA SSD?

No I would have to buy one.

 

[eh936]

There are PCIE x1 slot to m.2 adapters such as this one. Can’t guarantee that your BIOS will support booting from it though - nor support it at all.

1x PCIE 3.0 channel supports a theoretical max of 985MB/s. SATA3 is 600MB/s. Not much of an upgrade. So I agree with the others, just stick with SATA for a motherboard of this age and feature set. It’s guaranteed to work.

Edit: just checked your mobo manual, the PCIE x1 slots are Gen 2. So actually slower than SATA3 ports at 500MB/s 🤔

Thanks for the information.

 

[SkyNetRising]

No I would have to buy one.

Ok.

Here M.2 PCIE x1 adapter - for installing in x1 slot.
M.2 PCIE x1 adapter

Here M.2 PCIE x4 adapter - for installing in x16 slot.
M.2 PCIE x4 adapter

Note #1 - You'll have to keep your sata drive for bootloader.
You can install windows on M.2 drive.

Note #2 - Windows 7 doesn't have native support for NVME. It needs several hotfixes and NVME drivers to be integrated into install media. Install windows 10 instead.

 

[USAFRet]

For a motherboard that old, I still recommend a 2.5" SATA III SSD

 

[boju]

I agree going with Sata 3 SSD. It's the 'no moving parts' factor that make SSDs fast. Sata SSD and Pcie Nvme access times are instant, it doesn't matter how it's connected, Sata cable or M2, random access is the same. Throughput as in file transfers is faster with Pcie, that's true, but how often are you going to be copying large files where 3500MB/s is going to be the difference vs 600MB/s for you? If you want the snappy performance SSDs give for general use / loading Windows and programs then throughput isn't the answer, random access is.

 

[SkyNetRising]

If 970 evo is already purchased, then why not use it.

 

[eh936]

Ok.

Here M.2 PCIE x1 adapter - for installing in x1 slot.
M.2 PCIE x1 adapter

Here M.2 PCIE x4 adapter - for installing in x16 slot.
M.2 PCIE x4 adapter

Note #1 - You'll have to keep your sata drive for bootloader.
You can install windows on M.2 drive.

Note #2 - Windows 7 doesn't have native support for NVME. It needs several hotfixes and NVME drivers to be integrated into install media. Install windows 10 instead.

Many thanks SkyNet. That's what I've got installed running off a SATA HDD is Windows 10 64 bit Home.

 

[eh936]

For a motherboard that old, I still recommend a 2.5" SATA III SSD

I'll give that a try but considering the age of this motherboard the SATA SSD should boot (detected by the BIOS) once I've installed Windows 10 Pro on it yes ? Also will the performance of the SATA SSD be marginal over a 5400RPM SATA HDD ?

 

[USAFRet]

I'll give that a try but considering the age of this motherboard the SATA SSD should boot (detected by the BIOS) once I've installed Windows 10 Pro on it yes ?

Yes.

A 2.5" SATA III SSD is seen as no different than a regular HDD.
Just way faster.

 

[NedSmelly]

I'll give that a try but considering the age of this motherboard the SATA SSD should boot (detected by the BIOS) once I've installed Windows 10 Pro on it yes ?

Your motherboard will certainly be able to boot directly from a 2.5” SATA SSD. I used to boot an ancient i7-870 system from 2010 using a SATA SSD, as well as a Core Duo laptop.

 

[USAFRet]

Also will the performance of the SATA SSD be marginal over a 5400RPM SATA HDD ?

Not "marginal"...rather, a huge benefit.
It will feel like a whole different PC.

 

[eh936]

Not "marginal"...rather, a huge benefit.
It will feel like a whole different PC.

many thanks. I'm actually pretty upbeat in resurrecting and old LGA 1155 motherboard and cpu.