Question Regarding M.2 PCIe compatibility on my MSI X570 A-Pro

[Jmvars]

Looking at the specifications for the MSI X570 A-Pro it tells me there's one M.2 slot supporting PCIe 4.0 and another supporting only PCIe 3.0. I already have a PCIe 3.0 drive connected to the 4.0 slot and I'm planning on buying a 4.0 drive, moving the current drive to the 3.0 slot and connecting the new 4.0 drive to the 4.0 slot.

My questions are:

• Will having both slots occupied impact performance of anything in the system or the drives themselves?
• Where can I get an extra M.2 screw?
• Bonus question I forgot: I see there are four SATA slots connected to the X570 chipset, which the M.2 slots are also connected to, but also two that are connected to the ASMedia controller. I do have two SATA SSD's connected to the X570 SATA slots, will that affect the drives in any way? Should I connect the SATA SSD's to the ASMedia slots instead?

If it helps, the rest of my system is:

• AMD Ryzen 5800X3D
• AsRock Radeon RX 7900 XT
• G.SKILL Ripjaws V 32GB 3600Mhz
• Samsung 960 Evo 1TB NVMe (the PCIe 3.0 drive currently connected)

 

[Lafong]

The screws can be difficult to find locally. They aren't standardized across motherboard brands.

I had to go online and buy this:

Amazon.com

It includes several different styles of M.2 screws. In my case, one of the styles worked for my Asrock motherboard. I'd assume one of the styles is what you'd need for your MSI.

 

[Jmvars]

The screws can be difficult to find locally. They aren't standardized across motherboard brands.

I had to go online and buy this:

Amazon.com

It includes several different styles of M.2 screws. In my case, one of the styles worked for my Asrock motherboard. I'd assume one of the styles is what you'd need for your MSI.

Thanks, I'll need to see if I can find one of those kits from a store that doesn't have a $16 import and shipping fee.

 

[sitehostplus]

Looking at the specifications for the MSI X570 A-Pro it tells me there's one M.2 slot supporting PCIe 4.0 and another supporting only PCIe 3.0. I already have a PCIe 3.0 drive connected to the 4.0 slot and I'm planning on buying a 4.0 drive, moving the current drive to the 3.0 slot and connecting the new 4.0 drive to the 4.0 slot.

My questions are:

• Will having both slots occupied impact performance of anything in the system or the drives themselves?
• Where can I get an extra M.2 screw?
• Bonus question I forgot: I see there are four SATA slots connected to the X570 chipset, which the M.2 slots are also connected to, but also two that are connected to the ASMedia controller. I do have two SATA SSD's connected to the X570 SATA slots, will that affect the drives in any way? Should I connect the SATA SSD's to the ASMedia slots instead?

If it helps, the rest of my system is:

• AMD Ryzen 5800X3D
• AsRock Radeon RX 7900 XT
• G.SKILL Ripjaws V 32GB 3600Mhz
• Samsung 960 Evo 1TB NVMe (the PCIe 3.0 drive currently connected)

1. To your first question, it should not make any difference. The only thing that might make a difference is if you hook the 4.0 drive to the 3.0 slot and vice versa. That would slow things down.

2. For replacement M.2 screws, I recommend first talking to the motherboard manufacturer. For some weird reason, that stuff is proprietary. If they can't help, talk to a local computer shop and see what screws they have that fit. This will unfortunately be trial and error, with possibly lots of error before you find the right screw.

3. Again, you should call customer support and see what they have to say. If they can't help, the best thing you can do is trial and error and see what works and what doesn't. The good thing is, the worst that can happen is it simply will not work, and reversing any changes should restore things immediately.

 

[Jmvars]

1. To your first question, it should not make any difference. The only thing that might make a difference is if you hook the 4.0 drive to the 3.0 slot and vice versa. That would slow things down.

2. For replacement M.2 screws, I recommend first talking to the motherboard manufacturer. For some weird reason, that stuff is proprietary. If they can't help, talk to a local computer shop and see what screws they have that fit. This will unfortunately be trial and error, with possibly lots of error before you find the right screw.

3. Again, you should call customer support and see what they have to say. If they can't help, the best thing you can do is trial and error and see what works and what doesn't. The good thing is, the worst that can happen is it simply will not work, and reversing any changes should restore things immediately.

Thanks for the answer.

Good to know it won't affect performance.

As for the M.2 screw, I found one rolling around the mobo box, I overlooked it the first time. It fits the stand-off so I'm good on that front.

 

[sitehostplus]

Thanks for the answer.

Good to know it won't affect performance.

As for the M.2 screw, I found one rolling around the mobo box, I overlooked it the first time. It fits the stand-off so I'm good on that front.

Glad to hear you got lucky finding that screw.

I wasn't so fortunate. I originally bought my asrock motherboard and threw the screws away thinking I would never need them (was fine with SATA HDD's at the time). Then MS threw me a loop when they considered requiring SSD's to run windoze, so I had to scramble to get screws that fit my moboard. What a mess that was! 🤣🤣

Fortunately, my new ASUS motherboard doesn't use M.2 screws, so I have nothing to lose anymore. 😉

 

[Jmvars]

Glad to hear you got lucky finding that screw.

I wasn't so fortunate. I originally bought my asrock motherboard and threw the screws away thinking I would never need them (was fine with SATA HDD's at the time). Then MS threw me a loop when they considered requiring SSD's to run windoze, so I had to scramble to get screws that fit my moboard. What a mess that was! 🤣🤣

Fortunately, my new ASUS motherboard doesn't use M.2 screws, so I have nothing to lose anymore. 😉

I feel like M.2 mounting could easily be done toolless, it doesn't exactly need high strength fastening, just something to hold it down and prevent it from sliding back.

 

[sitehostplus]

I feel like M.2 mounting could easily be done toolless, it doesn't exactly need high strength fastening, just something to hold it down and prevent it from sliding back.

Well, Asus did that, and it's too sweet. 🤗