[SOLVED] X570 PCI Lanes and M.2

[Jake Hall]

I've tried to research this, but I still don't understand, bear with me.

I have an "Asus TUF Gaming x570-Plus Wifi" and a Ryzen 5900x. I'm currently using 2 SATA HDD's and 1 SATA Optical drive.
I'm using the M.2_1 under the CPU for an NVME (PCI_4.0), I have my 3080 GPU and a Creative PCI Sound card.

If I wish to remove one of my HDD's from SATA and replace it with another NVME drive in M.2_2, Will I be running out of PCI lanes? If so, Should I consider a SATA SSD via M.2 or SATA connector (and does that option use PCI lanes?) This drive will primarily be used for storage only.

I appreciate any clarity. Thanks

 

[Eximo]

The chipset also has PCIe lanes. There is a 4x connection between the CPU and the chipset, so your second M.2 drive will share bandwidth with your other I/O and sound card.

Though all your file copying from CPU PCIe SSD to the HDD has the same limit, you just don't see it since the hard drives are slow.

For just bulk storage, you don't even necessarily need NVMe storage. SATA SSDs or M.2 Sata drives will be a little cheaper. Though nothing wrong with NVMe drives, they are getting quite competitive in cost.

 

[Jake Hall]

The chipset also has PCIe lanes. There is a 4x connection between the CPU and the chipset, so your second M.2 drive will share bandwidth with your other I/O and sound card.

Though all your file copying from CPU PCIe SSD to the HDD has the same limit, you just don't see it since the hard drives are slow.

For just bulk storage, you don't even necessarily need NVMe storage. SATA SSDs or M.2 Sata drives will be a little cheaper. Though nothing wrong with NVMe drives, they are getting quite competitive in cost.

So I should be good? The chipset has available lanes?
https://images.anandtech.com/doci/14161/X570.png

I saw a deal for an NVME drive, and I wish to retire my HDD. I may throw some games on the new storage drive. The other sata drive is an older ssd.

 

[Eximo]

Yep, just have to check your motherboard manual for the order of things, and which ports disable other ports.

 

[Jake Hall]

That's what I can't find in the manual. But that's not a big deal. There's only 2 ports being used, and I can move them around and figure that out

 

[Eximo]

They aren't very implicit are they.

Basics:

CPU:
x16 slot for the GPU
x4 M.2
x4 chipset

Can't change those, so no issues there.

Chipset

8 SATA ports potential
2 1x slots
x16 slot in 4x mode
1 M.2 slot

M.2 will consume two SATA ports, typically.
Any populated 1x slots will usually force the 4x slot to 1x mode. Or you can use all 4x on the slot by not using the 1x slots at all.
Might also have conflicts if you filled up all the SATA ports.

 

[Jake Hall]

Thank you for looking into it