[SOLVED] Which M.2 drive should I install Windows on?

[ultrarunner100]

Hey guys;
I have just about completed my new build.
I have an Asus Tuf Gaming X570 plus Wifi mobo, Ryzen 7 3700X processor, 32GB RAM, Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 Super, and two WD Blue SSD's in the M.2 slots.

Note that on this Asus board, only the SSD in the #2 slot (the chipset one) has a heat sink. I have ordered a 3rd party heatsink for the #1 drive.
As for installing Windows: I was advised to install Windows on M.2_1, the one that is closest the CPU, because this is the faster slot.
However, considering that my SSD is only PCIE 3.0, will it make any difference at all if I install the OS (Windows 10 Pro) on the M.2_2 slot?
That is what I did (for now) just to get the system running. I had done some research, and it seems that the SSD without the heatsink gets pretty warm compared to the one with the heatsink. It was this reason I installed Windows on the #2 drive.
But, since I will be installing the heatsink on the #1 drive, I will re-install Windows onto that drive if it will perform better than on the #2 drive.

Is there going to be any performance gain if I have Windows on the #1 drive?

Thanks for your help
Ultrarunner

 

[USAFRet]

The slot being "faster" at PCIe 4.0 is irrelevant if the drive is PCIe 3.0.

The slot does not make the drive faster. You will see zero difference.

 

[SkyNetRising]

BTW - what model WD Blue SSD M.2 ?
There are sata models and nvme models for WD blue M.2.

Also both M.2 slots are PCIE 4.0 compatible, if Ryzen 3rd gen cpu is installed (Ryzen 7 3700X is 3rd gen).

 

[ultrarunner100]

Thanks guys;
The drive is the SN550 NVMe.

 

[ultrarunner100]

I was curious, so I installed Windows on the M.2_1 after having created two partitions on the disk.
I want to partition the M.2_2 disk anyway, as I failed to do that when I was installing Windows the first time.
I am curious to find out how warm the drive without the heatsink gets when running the OS compared to when its just sitting there.

 

[ultrarunner100]

OK. So now I have Windows 10 Pro installed on both SSD's. I did this just to see whether the SSD #1 without the heatsink would run hotter than the one with the OEM heatsink while running Windows.

I installed CrystalDiskInfo on both Windows installs.
The result I am getting is strange:
SSD #1 (no heatsink) with OS running: 40C
SSD #2 (ASUS OEM heatsink), nothing running or accessing: 42C

Did I not install the ASUS heatsink onto SSD #2 correctly?
When I installed it, I simply peeled off the protective film from the thermal pad, and secured the heatsink using the two screws onto the spacers.

I will take a look when I install the 3rd party hs I ordered for SSD #1.

 

[ultrarunner100]

Update:
When I boot, I get the boot menu.
If I choose Windows 10 on the SSD #1, it takes 3 seconds to display the login screen.
If I choose Windows 10 on the SSD #2, it takes 28 seconds to display the login screen

The installs are the same. Matter of fact, I have ESET security installed on the #1, but not the #2. If anything, I would have expected ESEt to slow the boot down a bit, but it does not.

Checking temps, neither of the SSD are close to their throttle limits.

 

[ultrarunner100]

Issue solved:
The reason the boot is faster on the OS installed on SSD #1 is because it is set as default, and is pre-loaded before the boot manager comes up.
When I changed the default OS to the one on SSD #2, it booted faster from the boot manager screen
When the non-default OS is selected from the boot manager, the system needs to reboot before loading the OS.