[SOLVED] Secondary SSD installation

[rinden]

Would like to confirm if the motherboard I am getting supports PCIe and SATA as I been noticing that majority of the latest motherboard M.2 slot supports both PCIe and SATA

I am getting MSI B450 Tomhawk Max motherboard. It has 1 M.2 Slot does it means I can place M.2 Samsung SSD 850 EVO SATA on it?
What if i would like to add a secondary SSD presumably another M.2 Samsung SSD EVO 860 SATA , where can i add it? As the motherboard has only 1 M.2 Slot or it is impossible and I have to get a different SSD which form factor isn't M.2. E.G : 2.5" Samsung 860 pro and add it through the SATA ports
Because I would like to install a secondary SSD and I got another M.2 SSD


Thanks in advanced for your help!

 

[PC Tailor]

It supports both PCIe and SATA M2.

PCIe 3.0 x4 when using Ryzen
PCIe 3.0 x2 when using Athlon with iGPU.

 

[rinden]

But it has only 1 M2 slot, so if i want to add my second M2 SSD how would i go around doing it

 

[USAFRet]

But it has only 1 M2 slot, so if i want to add my second M2 SSD how would i go around doing it

Why the need for another NVMe drive?
What do you use the system for?

If the motherboard has only one M.2 port, you'd have to use a PCIe adapter.
But, depending on what you use this system for...you may not see any expected speed difference.

 

[rinden]

Why the need for another NVMe drive?
What do you use the system for?

If the motherboard has only one M.2 port, you'd have to use a PCIe adapter.
But, depending on what you use this system for...you may not see any expected speed difference.

1 of the M.2 SSD is 256gb and would solely be for booting up windows
and I would like to have another SSD to store my miscellaneous stuffs such as games. As I do not have a HDD anymore, I am not sure if the spare M2 SATA SSD can be connected to my motherboard via SATA cable like a HDD would.

Thus would like to know if i have another M2 SSD, how would I set it up given as the motherboard (MSI B450 Tomahawk Max) has only 1 M.2 slot which is used up for the 256gb SSD for booting up. Or I got to get a different SSD which form factor isnt M.2 but a 2.5" SATA SSD instead

 

[USAFRet]

You don't want an "M.2" drive.
A regular 2.5" format SATA III SSD is what you're looking for. Connects exactly as an HDD would.

 

[rinden]

You don't want an "M.2" drive.
A regular 2.5" format SATA III SSD is what you're looking for. Connects exactly as an HDD would.

Ah damn, alright because I have an extra form factor M2 500GB SATA SSD , so I guess I can't get it to use it as the motherboard only has 1 M2 slot which is being used up at the moment. So I would probably need to buy a normal 2.5" sata SSD?

Wondering if I can use the spare M2 SATA SSD and connect exactly as an HDD would so I wouldn't have to go and purchase that respective ssd type which you recommended.

 

[USAFRet]

I believe this adapter would work.
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-Aluminum-Enclosure-EC-M2SA/dp/B01N6PMZLW

 

[rinden]

I believe this adapter would work.
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-Aluminum-Enclosure-EC-M2SA/dp/B01N6PMZLW

Alright, thank you so much for your replies as it cleared my doubts tremendously. I apologize if I sounded annoying / stupid as I was really lost as I wanted to have another ssd installed and coincidentally I had that spare disk. Am currently learning about these new stuffs about computers.