Other videos to watch: Is your M.2 NVMe port slower than you realise? Not all M.2 ports give equal speeds ua-cam.com/video/QDAjO-RtbuQ/v-deo.html How to clone/copy Windows to a new drive and why you should ua-cam.com/video/ZxzLGLs39tA/v-deo.html How to install Kingston Fury Renegade ua-cam.com/video/ZXViO5KOIl0/v-deo.html Essential things to do when you first build your PC ua-cam.com/video/nkjQjozmzlY/v-deo.html I made some mistakes with this Lian Li Evo build ua-cam.com/video/4vc2P-nnY5E/v-deo.html Do not make this stupid mistake ua-cam.com/video/H6tqhO8Atnw/v-deo.html How to get more FPS with your Nvidia RTX GPU ua-cam.com/video/0eNVYrr6ZDg/v-deo.html
At Disk Formatting section of the video, it is good to be mentioned of 10-20% of the total amount of the disk space, to be left as unlocated for long reliability and data integrity of the SSD disks
Yep this is extremely important; better on AMD boards - more flexibility, some offer 4x4x4x4 - 4 M2's can be detected and used but haven't seen any thing like Bifurcation on any Z790 boards, even the new Z890 boards only offer limited bifurcation
Right, wish they released new HEDT platforms. 20-24 lanes, seriously... Also, bifurcating cards can help a lot. I mean, if one is more interested in the capacity than the speed, then splitting 8x into 4x 2x can be awesome. Imagine popping in two Asus Hyper M.2 cards (for 2x4 drives) with a board that allows 4-way splitting of slots. I'd be happy with 2x lanes.
Love this! I just recently added my SSD to the wrong slot after checking in Samsung magician. I'm still new to the custom PC space, so videos like this help me out a ton! Thanks for the tips/guide!
It's not always the top slot. Some boards steal PCIe 5 lanes from the GPU in the top slot (M.2_1), reducing your GPU from x16 to x8. This would be less of an issue with a PCIe 5 GPU, but the current generation of GPUs are PCIe 4, and will lose performance. The correct slot for a gen 4 drive can be M.2_2, if the board routes the CPU's x4 lanes there.
Its a good general rule of thumb, but if you are assembling your own PC motherboard up, then you can take the time to read some labels or the owners manual to see what is the proper slot for gen 4 support. Some boards even have the "dimm .2" slots next to the ram that allow 2 nvme similar to his pcie dual nvme card.
@@Wedgeman_Riley really random and kind of irrelevant to the current topic but thoughts on the x670e-a strix mobo? Trying to find a white one that would go with a 7950x especially after seeing your comment about the 28 gen 5 lanes.
@@Sl0th150 the x670e gaming is a good motherboard if your willing to spend alot and will work well with the 7950x because it has good power delivery and enough gen 5 lanes to support a gpu and 2 nvme ssds at gen 5 which is the most the board supports and still has enough gen 5 lanes for any expansion cards like an elgato capture card
Thank you. I just installed a 2nd 4TB ssd on the motherboard, and it didn't show, but after watching your video above regarding "disk management " it came alive 😊
I will say, that you should check your motherboard's manual before installing. My Asus ROG Strix B650 mobo doesn't state that one slot is better than another. My old Asrock X370 Tai Chi directed me to put the sata drive in the top slot and the NVMe drive in the second slot for full speeds.
You can just right-click the Windows start button and go right to disk management directly in Windows 11. If I remember right, the same shortcut works in 10 as well.
Just read the manual it will tell you which pci slot combo would work to get the maximum speed. It is actually better to read about it before buying the mobo ☺️.
Yup, and if you need to change the pciex16 to x8 so you can use the other slot. Had to figure this out on my server the other day. Also chipsets will usually tell you which have more m.2 slots and support full speeds.
I don't think you mentioned it, one thing I'd add is that for whatever reason, the retention screws for M.2 drives are exceptionally easy to strip. After stripping two of them, I went and bought an IFixIt kit. You don't really need to go that far, but you probably want to make sure you're using a Phillips #1 bit. Often it doesn't matter w/ Phillips heads, but in this case it does.
@@elm4nsuri Certainly possible! But I've never had this issue with any other screw type, and yet I've had the problem each time I've had to install an M.2 drive.
There's really no reason to overtighten any screws on a PC. Working on a car it could happen but stripping a screw on a PC is completely out of the question.
@@taylormeyer671 for me the issue wasn't overtightening - the issue was that the bit didn't fit very well. The M2 screws really want a P1 bit. Normally with other screws you can use other phillips bits, but not for the M2
It's always a best practice to use a bit that fits the screw snug. Philips was intended to prevent overtightening though. If you have precise control of your driver, torx would be better if it's an option. Over tightening is bad, slamming the tip of a driver into a circuit board is much worse.
I'm blown away how there's almost no videos on YT that dicuss single sided vs double sided NVMe drives, or the standoffs. Or the little rubber pad risers that come with Asus motherboards. My manual doesn't even mention any of this. What the heck
As always a soothing and helpful guide for this nutty new technology. As some have mentioned, you should definitely be looking at your motherboard manual. I think people try to wing it too much and with m.2 you cannot do that. Many people don't know you will often lose the use of a few sata ports when using m.2 on certain slots as well. I check m.2 configuration before I even buy a motherboard so I know it will work for my need.
@@drunkhusband6257 some people are upgrading to a motherboard with NVME support for the first time. i got some used PC parts about 2 months ago and it was the first motherboard i owned with NVME support. i had no idea NVME slots would disable SATA ports on the motherboard. I had my optical drive plugged into sata port 6 and then installed my secondary NVMe SSD. then i wondered if my Bluray drive broke. nope. the NVMe being plugged in disabled SATA ports 5 and 6.
I never thought to check the m.2 speed/lanes. I have 1 firecuda 530 2tb and 2 Samsung 980pro 1tb. I remember using the magician software on my ddr4 board and when I used their benchmark it never reached the rated speed. This is probably the reason. God there's so much to learn.
I didn’t have a screw but I read on Reddit somones been using it without m.2 screw without any issues for a little over 3 years now sooo 😬 I’ll take my chances lol
Followed your instructions on my 10 year old pc after purchasing a ssd. Thank you so much for the information as my computer is like new now and it was so easy to do using your instructions 😀 😊
Once I screwed in an NVMe SSD without the supporting screw hole under the SSD and it bent so much that I thought I snapped it. Nope, it still works to this day.
The P.Prawn just gave a whole bunch of crucial info on PCI NVMe that every mid-level user has to know. what makes it better is that it was delivered effectively under 10 minutes. Bravoooo
This seems to be a very underrated channel, the content is excellent. One question I had and was confusing from the manual, is there a difference or something to be aware of when installing NVME double sided vs single. It mentions rubber grommets and seems slot dependent looking at a ASUS z790 manual. - Cheers
If it's double-sided then you'll need cooling on both sides. The rubber pads they often provide would buffer the metal on the bottom side from scratching the motherboard and preventing shorts. You won't see a double-sided NVMe unless you're using a very high capacity drive. All the 2TB and less I've seen are single-sided. You can tell by where the memory chips are. The back side will only have a sticker.
STEP 1 - do research about speeds etc STEP 2 - buy your hardware STEP 3 - turn the screw to mount the M.2 SSD and have the standoff come out of the motherboard
I know you might not see my comment amongst all the other comments, but you sir, are a fantastic UA-camr and creator. This was seriously a high quality and educating video. I appreciate your effort and time you spend to make this video!
The biggest problem is one you can have with hard disks as well: If you install more than one identical drive, nothing in the software gives you enough information to distinguish between them :-).
expcialy stupid windows 10 and 11 that purposly screw up your duel boot even if you get the duel boot working properly at first windows say-ten or EL says no!
Thanks. Should com in handy as I am now building a new PC to replace the one I built 15 years ago. Data storage technology has changed a lot since then. Never heard of NVMe or M.2 until I began researching parts for the new system.
You mentioned using NVME in all slots reducing GPU PCIE to 8x. As I understand it, there is no current GPU that takes advantage of using 16X. For reference I am using Asrock Taichi z790 and Asus Tuf Oc 4070n ti. I plan on using the top slot and at least 2 others for NVME installation. Thanks. Great video
thanx for the help i added an extra drive and was wonder what the heck went wrong but with your video i was able to easily figure out the system forgot to name the drive easily fixed it
You're missing a related option. If you are going after maximum nvme m.2 storage for minimum cash, you can use an interface converting device. Use 4 pcie x4 gen 2 drives over 1 pcie x4 gen 4 interface. This works by converting the slower older hen pcie protocol to the faster new gen protocol. Gen 4 throughput is double gen 3, which is double gen 2. At the end you are moving the same Gb/s through half or a quarter the same lanes because of the converter. You pick up a very small amount of latency but multiply the pcie lanes on desktop level systems reducing total cost.
Hey! Thanks for your video. I am building a PC and I bought two same exact M2 SSD. When installing windows, how do I make sure I select the fastest one? Not sure what to do. If I install one first it will be a pain in the butt to remove the GPU to install the second one
Same goes if you use certain SATA connections, your lower NVME slots will run at lower speed. Also, cheaper boards may just have one PCIX 4.0 NVME slots (such as B650 for AMD) and the rest PCIX 3.0. New X670 "Extreme" boards vary from model to model, so you have to carefully check for the specs you want before purchase (even if they are $500).
Your advice is a little outdated, my Aorus b650 elite ax AM5 (definitely a lower end AM5 board) has 3 nvme slots, 2 of which are 4.0 and one which is 5.0.
i have a msi b650 carbon wifi and a pcie 4.0 wd black sn770 ssd. Do you know if it would slow my gpu down if i get another m.2? doesnt need to be 4.0 i just want a second ssd for mass storage. sorry i'm not sure about the lanes on the mobo cause i dont know a lot about this stuff :D
@@Mustis91 If you install a second NVME in second or third slot, your card will run at PCIX 8x. If your video card is not very powerful, you are fine installing in the slot 2 and 3. Your fourth NVME slot and SATA are run by the chipset. If you want to keep your PCIX 16x intact and you don't need fastest speeds for your NVME storage, install it in the FOURTH NVME slot. Here are the specs of your mobo: 4x M.2 M.2_1 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices M.2_2 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices M.2_3 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices M.2_4 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 22110/2280/2260 devices 6x SATA 6G * PCI_E1, M2_2 & M2_3 share the bandwidth. PCI_E1 will run at x8 speed when installing devices in M2_2 or M2_3 slots. You are fine installing a second 4.0 NVME. I would recommend getting something like Samsung 2TB NVME and installing it in Slot 1 for best performance. Your current WD NVME could then go in Slot 4 (bit slower) for your storage. I don't see a point of getting another 1TB drive at this point. If you don't need more than 2TB of storage, then you just simply use 2TB in slot 1 :). You can add the WD at a later date when needed. Wait for Black Friday for some nice sales.
Sir I would love a video from you specifically covering how to assign which drives and where things go, for instance if I have a drive that I have dedicated to storing videos for editing, and I want to save a clip in the moment, that clip will go specifically where I want it to. Obviously there is much more you could utilize this for as well, but it's an idea for a video!
Prawn I have the Asus GeForce RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card and Windows 11 installed on Crucial T705 2TB SSD PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 Internal Gaming SSD. The Case is NZXT H7 Flow RGB | Mid-Tower ATX Airflow Case with RGB Fans and Water Cooler NZXT Kraken ELite 360 RGB Black AIO Intel/AMD CPU Hydro-Cooler (2023 Edition). Now because I listen to some advice by you I think in another video you said to install just one for the first time and that's what I did. I have two more drives which are: Samsung 990 PRO 4TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD/Solid State Drive PC/PS5 and Samsung 870 QVO 2TB 2.5” Gen2 SATA SSD/Solid State Drive. The ROG HYPER M.2 CARD looks very close to the Graphics Card. It would be right underneath the fans. Which is best a ROG HYPER M.2 CARD or just install on the motherboard? I would have to remove the Graphics Card first to install the Samsung 990 PRO 4TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD/Solid State Drive PC/PS5 or is it easier just to install a ROG HYPER M.2 CARD? Prawn what do you think?
It was just a normal (though very informative) tech vid until the moment you popped on screen in that brilliant costume. The moment I saw that I clicked like, you didn't even have to say it! You brilliant legend, you! Edit: I just noticed the channel name, lol!
Very Informative Video i also have the Z690 Formula and regularly use armoury crate, i can now check my WD Black SN850 drives are performing as they should be. Thank You!
I bought that superfast Crucial T something nvme SSD. It's supposed to go up to 13-14 GB/sec. It's only for Pcie-5, but the gigabyte z790 motherboard has only 16 lanes. So, when I use it, it can't go at the fastest speed, but after setting the cache optimized via the crucial SSD app, I got it up to 10GB for a while. Last time I checked, it was only at 7.5 GB (only, ha), and the AMD GPU is compromised. I'm not sure if that's right, but I think it is. Great video.
Thank you so much for this! You explained clearly and deffo saved me from a lot of pain, installing my new 990 2Tb. Love your style so: liked, Subbed, shared and commented! May I ask, nay beg, that you make a vid explaining the subtleties of provisioning, over or under!? I truly love the way you explain things and I'm sure that with your guidance, the penny will finally drop! Thank you once again, you are a legend, Sir!
For example Z790 Aurorus Master and also some motherboard from ASUS share top m.2 slot with GPU PCIe slot, so it is not always a good idea to install disk to the top one.
@vincewilson1 same here.. I am beginning to believe the bottom slot is best. My graphics card is installed into the top PCIEX16 slot. Also the bottom heat sink will be perfect for my new 990pro ssd 🤔
I'm a noob and this was super helpful lol. I was sweating buckets while adding the ssd to my pc lol. I felt like I was performing brain surgery😂😂 Thanks for great instructions! :)
Most board manufacturers put cooling plates like (MSI M.2 Shield Frozr) on the higher speed interfaces (PCIe 4.0) cause they run faster than PCIe 3 which means more heat generated, more expensive boards have cooling solutions on all or most NVMe slots cause you're paying more.
An high speed nvme SSD can throttle down in speed when a certain temperature target is reached, usually with long sustained data transfers. A thermal pad especially on the controller chip helps to dump the heat to a heatsink allowing it to maintain higher/full speed.
My main worry now is finding tower with less lights than Blackpool, what is it, don't they let needs in clubs or something? If I am building and want to use all 3 nvme m.2 drives does this mean a ball ache of adding one by one? I also want yo add 4 x 32 gb DDR4 ram. Any advice please. Great video - very clear and easy to follow.
Very useful. Thanks. I was curious what speed my SSDs were since I have a 5700g CPU. Evidently, doesn't matter. I found my Gen 3 SSD at Gen 3 speed and my Gen 4 SSD at Gen 4. I have a 4TB Gen 4 coming tomorrow to replace my Gen 3 drive and I'm happy to see I didn't waste $50. lol... No need to replace the 5700g just yet.
FYI always read the M/B guidance some M/B will reduce the speed on the GPU lane, and some will say slot 1 and slot 2 cannot be populated simultaneously
i love how no one really wants to go into detail about the 8x speed drop when thats the only real thing that matters. you all just gloss over it as fast as possible........ WTF is really going on
Right I didn't have the correct motherboard to use my crucial T SSD. But it's a late model. z790. There are not enough PCI lanes. It's going at half of what it can do.
I have a MSI B550 Gaming GEN3 Gaming Motherboard (AMD Ryzen 5000 Series, AM4, DDR4, PCIe 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, M.2, USB 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI/DVI-Port, ATX) Can I put a Gen 4 m.2 SSD like TEAMGROUP T-Force G70 PRO Aluminum Heatsink 1TB DRAM SLC Cache 3D TLC NAND NVMe InnoGrit PCIe Gen4x4 M.2 2280 Or will it bottle neck the write speeds ?
@@Nothing_is_sacred Yes, but it will only have Gen 3 speeds. It also depends on your brand of SSD and the number of lanes you have. Check the speeds of the Gen4 SSD and find out the stats of your motherboard from its manufacturer's website. I'd go ahead and buy it if you want it. You can keep it for when you get a Gen4 or gen 5 motherboard. Good luck. Rob
Thanks for this video. Could u answer a question for me please. I am currently building a new pc (after very long time) again. I never used m.2 (werent a thing, when i last have build one). I plan to use 2 m.2´s. A smaller one as systemdrive and a 2 TB one as gaming drive (both Samsung 980 Pro). The motherboard i want to buy is the ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-E (hopefully the i225-v doesnt screw me). Now my question: where should i place which M.2? Since, from my understanding the STRIX supports 2 equally fast m.2. slots its down to which drive will generate more heat (upper slot seems to have a much beefier headsink). So should i put the Systemdrive under the better heatsink or the Gamedrive? Also if any of my assumptions are wrong please let me know. Thanks in advance, and have a nice day.
I'm setting up a new gaming rig with 3 1Tb KC3000 drives on a Z790 Tomahawk MB...this is all very helpful. Any comments on the Kingston SSD Manager software in comparison to the Samsung Magic software?
Curiously, the 1st M.2 slot you recommend people to install their drive to (the one closest to the CPU) is the slot one SHOULD NOT use on the ASUS STRIX z790-E board in particular, since this will limit the GPU to run at x8. I wonder if I will ever use that slot at all. Oddly, it´s the only PCI E 5.0 M.2 slot. Equipped with a beefy thermal shield. Since I haven´t built a PC over a decade, I´m intrigued by this, wondering if I am missing something important here. Any thoughts on that?
@@josephaltman460 I hate to be the one telling you, but I THINK both the 1st AND the 2nd M.2 slots share the same CPU lanes with your GPU. If I am not mistaken, you have to install in the 3 M.2 the furthest away, Corretct me, if I am wrong, but you might be running your GPU at x8 right now. Please send us feedback.
If you have bought a drive with a heatsink is it still necessary to lay it upon extra thermal padding? Installing into my new Aurora R15(2 TB 980 pro w/heatsink) and PS5(1 TB pro w/ heatsink) each. Basically is it not necessary to have thermal padding if you bought an ssd with a heatsink?
I have too many drives. Can you do a video on maybe a cheap Nas I could use three or four 2tb and 4tb NVME m.2 drives that no longer fit on my motherboard ?
Fantastic video! I bought an m.2 ssd for my wife's computer, installed as an extra non OS drive just for space, I decided I want to put it in my computer. We have the SAME exact computer, would it be allright if I just installed it in my computer as extra space?
Great tips, I just subscribed, it's interesting to know about the possible GPU impact on installing more NVME's I'll just stick to having 2 and external ssd for storing my non essentials on.
Let me ask you this if I could... To start I have a asus rog strix x570-e(basically the same as yours) I have my C/boot drive in the top. It's running at 3.0x4. I just bought a new NVMe drive today. Can I/Should I move that first NVMe SSD to a lower port and put my new SSD in the top port? Or will that jack everything up? Like will my PC be looking at the old port like where the heck did everything go? Great video and thank you for the help.
Tip* The closest mvme slot to the cpu is not always the fastest slot. It could be a pcie gen 4 slot and not the gen 5 slot if you have that. Check your motherboard manual or if it is written on the board it's self. I think with the new motherboards the closest slot to the gpu pcie slot is the fastest.
@@TheProvokedPrawn depending on your cpu and board, 1 or more m.2 slots could be gen 5, it's normally the closest to the gpu but most are gen 4 or gen 3 :)
Very useful @The Provoked Prawn. My drives are x2 Samsung 990's and x 3 Crucial Gen 4 drives all running at Gen 2x1. I have an Asus Z790 Hero Motherboard, how do I get them running at the Full speed please?
I come from the days of the 66mhz processor, its amazing the changes to modern pc s
Рік тому+1
I dont have a thermal sink for mine, is that ok? It's installed in the top slot. I spent a long time thinking of what slot should I use, because while the second one is apparently slower (only 2 slots in my mobo btw), it comes with a heatsink. On the other hand, it goes right below the graphics card, little room to breath under that hot thing.
i have 4 m.2 slots on my mobo, lets say i fill all of them, top slot being 2tb m.2 7000mbps, middle 2tb, and bottom 2 slots 8tb, 8tb, all say speeds 7000mb, so with all filled in, wil they all run at 7000mb speed individually?
tfw I built a pc back in 2019 and installed the NVMe on the second slot without a heatsink while the first slot went unused for almost four years and had the paper still on the heatsink. Just switched it right now. Surprised my PC didn't catch on fire.
Other videos to watch:
Is your M.2 NVMe port slower than you realise? Not all M.2 ports give equal speeds ua-cam.com/video/QDAjO-RtbuQ/v-deo.html
How to clone/copy Windows to a new drive and why you should ua-cam.com/video/ZxzLGLs39tA/v-deo.html
How to install Kingston Fury Renegade ua-cam.com/video/ZXViO5KOIl0/v-deo.html
Essential things to do when you first build your PC ua-cam.com/video/nkjQjozmzlY/v-deo.html
I made some mistakes with this Lian Li Evo build ua-cam.com/video/4vc2P-nnY5E/v-deo.html
Do not make this stupid mistake ua-cam.com/video/H6tqhO8Atnw/v-deo.html
How to get more FPS with your Nvidia RTX GPU ua-cam.com/video/0eNVYrr6ZDg/v-deo.html
At Disk Formatting section of the video, it is good to be mentioned of 10-20% of the total amount of the disk space, to be left as unlocated for long reliability and data integrity of the SSD disks
You should check the MB manual for the bifurcation table which will detail PCIE lane sharing details.
Yep this is extremely important; better on AMD boards - more flexibility, some offer 4x4x4x4 - 4 M2's can be detected and used but haven't seen any thing like Bifurcation on any Z790 boards, even the new Z890 boards only offer limited bifurcation
Right, wish they released new HEDT platforms. 20-24 lanes, seriously... Also, bifurcating cards can help a lot. I mean, if one is more interested in the capacity than the speed, then splitting 8x into 4x 2x can be awesome. Imagine popping in two Asus Hyper M.2 cards (for 2x4 drives) with a board that allows 4-way splitting of slots. I'd be happy with 2x lanes.
Love this! I just recently added my SSD to the wrong slot after checking in Samsung magician. I'm still new to the custom PC space, so videos like this help me out a ton! Thanks for the tips/guide!
Glad I could help!
It's not always the top slot. Some boards steal PCIe 5 lanes from the GPU in the top slot (M.2_1), reducing your GPU from x16 to x8. This would be less of an issue with a PCIe 5 GPU, but the current generation of GPUs are PCIe 4, and will lose performance. The correct slot for a gen 4 drive can be M.2_2, if the board routes the CPU's x4 lanes there.
thats why you dont buy intel, ryzen doesnt have this problem because it has 28 gen 5 lanes on the 7000 series
Its a good general rule of thumb, but if you are assembling your own PC motherboard up, then you can take the time to read some labels or the owners manual to see what is the proper slot for gen 4 support. Some boards even have the "dimm .2" slots next to the ram that allow 2 nvme similar to his pcie dual nvme card.
@@Wedgeman_Riley really random and kind of irrelevant to the current topic but thoughts on the x670e-a strix mobo? Trying to find a white one that would go with a 7950x especially after seeing your comment about the 28 gen 5 lanes.
@@Wedgeman_Riley that’s convenient, I have an x570 board with a 5800x and I was worried about adding another NVME
@@Sl0th150 the x670e gaming is a good motherboard if your willing to spend alot and will work well with the 7950x because it has good power delivery and enough gen 5 lanes to support a gpu and 2 nvme ssds at gen 5 which is the most the board supports and still has enough gen 5 lanes for any expansion cards like an elgato capture card
Thank you. I just installed a 2nd 4TB ssd on the motherboard, and it didn't show, but after watching your video above regarding "disk management " it came alive 😊
Glad it helped
did it show in bios?
Happy to see NVMe slot between CPU and peg slot. I was the engineer inside Intel added a nvme to desktop in Skylake time keeping atx form factor.
cool man
I will say, that you should check your motherboard's manual before installing. My Asus ROG Strix B650 mobo doesn't state that one slot is better than another. My old Asrock X370 Tai Chi directed me to put the sata drive in the top slot and the NVMe drive in the second slot for full speeds.
How did you install your m.2? Die you use the rubber pad to prevent the m.2 from bending?
You can just right-click the Windows start button and go right to disk management directly in Windows 11. If I remember right, the same shortcut works in 10 as well.
Just read the manual it will tell you which pci slot combo would work to get the maximum speed. It is actually better to read about it before buying the mobo ☺️.
Yup, and if you need to change the pciex16 to x8 so you can use the other slot. Had to figure this out on my server the other day. Also chipsets will usually tell you which have more m.2 slots and support full speeds.
I don't think you mentioned it, one thing I'd add is that for whatever reason, the retention screws for M.2 drives are exceptionally easy to strip. After stripping two of them, I went and bought an IFixIt kit. You don't really need to go that far, but you probably want to make sure you're using a Phillips #1 bit. Often it doesn't matter w/ Phillips heads, but in this case it does.
nah. only you had to be careful of this.....
@@elm4nsuri Certainly possible! But I've never had this issue with any other screw type, and yet I've had the problem each time I've had to install an M.2 drive.
There's really no reason to overtighten any screws on a PC. Working on a car it could happen but stripping a screw on a PC is completely out of the question.
@@taylormeyer671 for me the issue wasn't overtightening - the issue was that the bit didn't fit very well. The M2 screws really want a P1 bit. Normally with other screws you can use other phillips bits, but not for the M2
It's always a best practice to use a bit that fits the screw snug. Philips was intended to prevent overtightening though. If you have precise control of your driver, torx would be better if it's an option. Over tightening is bad, slamming the tip of a driver into a circuit board is much worse.
Thanks installed extra ssd and I didn’t see it on pc, followed your easy steps and I am good to go. Thanks.
You're welcome!
I'm blown away how there's almost no videos on YT that dicuss single sided vs double sided NVMe drives, or the standoffs. Or the little rubber pad risers that come with Asus motherboards. My manual doesn't even mention any of this. What the heck
My Gigabyte MB has plastic risers and I've been trying to figure out how to get then to work for about a week now! 😅
As always a soothing and helpful guide for this nutty new technology. As some have mentioned, you should definitely be looking at your motherboard manual. I think people try to wing it too much and with m.2 you cannot do that. Many people don't know you will often lose the use of a few sata ports when using m.2 on certain slots as well. I check m.2 configuration before I even buy a motherboard so I know it will work for my need.
True
New? The tech is like 10 years old now
@@drunkhusband6257 some people are upgrading to a motherboard with NVME support for the first time. i got some used PC parts about 2 months ago and it was the first motherboard i owned with NVME support. i had no idea NVME slots would disable SATA ports on the motherboard. I had my optical drive plugged into sata port 6 and then installed my secondary NVMe SSD. then i wondered if my Bluray drive broke. nope. the NVMe being plugged in disabled SATA ports 5 and 6.
@@drunkhusband6257 Yup, my Z97 motherboard has an M.2 slot, definitely not as new as one would think.
Is it possible to boot into u.2 ssd if its inserted to an u.2 to m.2 adapter?@@TheProvokedPrawn
Thanks you for these great tips. I don't have any Gen 4 stuff yet, but I'll make sure my 3 NVMe's are working properly thanks to your video!
I never thought to check the m.2 speed/lanes. I have 1 firecuda 530 2tb and 2 Samsung 980pro 1tb. I remember using the magician software on my ddr4 board and when I used their benchmark it never reached the rated speed. This is probably the reason.
God there's so much to learn.
I didn’t have a screw but I read on Reddit somones been using it without m.2 screw without any issues for a little over 3 years now sooo 😬 I’ll take my chances lol
Followed your instructions on my 10 year old pc after purchasing a ssd. Thank you so much for the information as my computer is like new now and it was so easy to do using your instructions 😀 😊
👍
Once I screwed in an NVMe SSD without the supporting screw hole under the SSD and it bent so much that I thought I snapped it. Nope, it still works to this day.
pcbs can bend quite a bit before snapping
The P.Prawn just gave a whole bunch of crucial info on PCI NVMe that every mid-level user has to know. what makes it better is that it was delivered effectively under 10 minutes. Bravoooo
Would be intrested in knowing which Case you showed in this video? It looked so nice and clean!
ua-cam.com/video/4vc2P-nnY5E/v-deo.html
You sound like the male counterpart to the female narrator in Baldur's Gate 3.
With a dab of Jack Sparrow.
He reminds me of Meoni, a FF14 youtuber.
Thanks! This was perfect info for me to install my new NVME SSD.
This seems to be a very underrated channel, the content is excellent. One question I had and was confusing from the manual, is there a difference or something to be aware of when installing NVME double sided vs single. It mentions rubber grommets and seems slot dependent looking at a ASUS z790 manual. - Cheers
If it's double-sided then you'll need cooling on both sides. The rubber pads they often provide would buffer the metal on the bottom side from scratching the motherboard and preventing shorts. You won't see a double-sided NVMe unless you're using a very high capacity drive. All the 2TB and less I've seen are single-sided. You can tell by where the memory chips are. The back side will only have a sticker.
Thank you for this video this is the First time installing a SSD like this, Really helped
STEP 1 - do research about speeds etc
STEP 2 - buy your hardware
STEP 3 - turn the screw to mount the M.2 SSD and have the standoff come out of the motherboard
Most people won't do step one.
I know you might not see my comment amongst all the other comments, but you sir, are a fantastic UA-camr and creator. This was seriously a high quality and educating video. I appreciate your effort and time you spend to make this video!
Thanks. That's very nice of you
Coolest PC building channel(sorry if that's limiting or making modest)if I ever saw one.
Thank you 👍
The biggest problem is one you can have with hard disks as well: If you install more than one identical drive, nothing in the software gives you enough information to distinguish between them :-).
expcialy stupid windows 10 and 11 that purposly screw up your duel boot even if you get the duel boot working properly at first windows say-ten or EL says no!
@@nightmarerex2035 dual* boot. they're not fighting each other
Thanks. Should com in handy as I am now building a new PC to replace the one I built 15 years ago. Data storage technology has changed a lot since then. Never heard of NVMe or M.2 until I began researching parts for the new system.
thanks. will be sure to check that speed. About to add a 2tb ssd and will check the speed for sure now.
Very informative video! You've helped me ensure my new Crucial P3 NVMe was running optimally. Keep up the good work, Prawn!
Great to hear!
You mentioned using NVME in all slots reducing GPU PCIE to 8x. As I understand it, there is no current GPU that takes advantage of using 16X. For reference I am using Asrock Taichi z790 and Asus Tuf Oc 4070n ti. I plan on using the top slot and at least 2 others for NVME installation. Thanks. Great video
I've seen no negative impact from it
My board states only the first slot uses the CPU lanes the rest use chipset lanes so they do not affect gpu
Not true at all. Put that 4070 in a pci 3.0 slot and see what happens to the memory bandwidth on the card.
@@TimberWulfIsHere ummm nobody uses 3.0 lol
@@TheHumbleRoots you must be pretty fkin delusional to think that 100% of people are using minimum b550 mobos then.
some new info for me thank you. I didn't know how much more armory could do
No problem!
thanx for the help i added an extra drive and was wonder what the heck went wrong but with your video i was able to easily figure out the system forgot to name the drive easily fixed it
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Thank you for the video I felt like I was listening to a radio DJ very clear and nice voice
Face for radio, voice for UA-cam. :)
THIS DUDE BURPING NOT TALKING 👍👍
You are weird.
Hey man, this helped me get full 4.0 speeds from my mobo, it was m.2 2_2 had to swap them around just got a new gen 4, thanks.
Glad I could help
You're missing a related option. If you are going after maximum nvme m.2 storage for minimum cash, you can use an interface converting device. Use 4 pcie x4 gen 2 drives over 1 pcie x4 gen 4 interface. This works by converting the slower older hen pcie protocol to the faster new gen protocol.
Gen 4 throughput is double gen 3, which is double gen 2. At the end you are moving the same Gb/s through half or a quarter the same lanes because of the converter. You pick up a very small amount of latency but multiply the pcie lanes on desktop level systems reducing total cost.
do you know if a ryzen 5800x3d pairs well with the msi x570s edge max wifi & a 250gb samsung 970 evolution plus with a 2tb 970 evo plus?
In my bios it's has the PCI set to auto. If I know it's 4th Gen ssd should I change it in the dropdown or should I leave it at auto?
Hey! Thanks for your video. I am building a PC and I bought two same exact M2 SSD. When installing windows, how do I make sure I select the fastest one? Not sure what to do. If I install one first it will be a pain in the butt to remove the GPU to install the second one
i love nvme info videos, great video
Glad you enjoyed!
Quite helpful! Thank you for going through all of this.
Same goes if you use certain SATA connections, your lower NVME slots will run at lower speed. Also, cheaper boards may just have one PCIX 4.0 NVME slots (such as B650 for AMD) and the rest PCIX 3.0. New X670 "Extreme" boards vary from model to model, so you have to carefully check for the specs you want before purchase (even if they are $500).
I'm using asus B650 board, it have 1x 5.0 and 2x 4.0. I would said ASRock only have 1x4.0 and 2x 3.0
Your advice is a little outdated, my Aorus b650 elite ax AM5 (definitely a lower end AM5 board) has 3 nvme slots, 2 of which are 4.0 and one which is 5.0.
Doesn't matter you won't notice the difference in speed its so nominal
i have a msi b650 carbon wifi and a pcie 4.0 wd black sn770 ssd. Do you know if it would slow my gpu down if i get another m.2? doesnt need to be 4.0 i just want a second ssd for mass storage. sorry i'm not sure about the lanes on the mobo cause i dont know a lot about this stuff :D
@@Mustis91 If you install a second NVME in second or third slot, your card will run at PCIX 8x. If your video card is not very powerful, you are fine installing in the slot 2 and 3. Your fourth NVME slot and SATA are run by the chipset. If you want to keep your PCIX 16x intact and you don't need fastest speeds for your NVME storage, install it in the FOURTH NVME slot.
Here are the specs of your mobo:
4x M.2
M.2_1 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices
M.2_2 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices
M.2_3 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices
M.2_4 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 22110/2280/2260 devices
6x SATA 6G
* PCI_E1, M2_2 & M2_3 share the bandwidth. PCI_E1 will run at x8 speed when installing devices in M2_2 or M2_3 slots.
You are fine installing a second 4.0 NVME. I would recommend getting something like Samsung 2TB NVME and installing it in Slot 1 for best performance. Your current WD NVME could then go in Slot 4 (bit slower) for your storage. I don't see a point of getting another 1TB drive at this point. If you don't need more than 2TB of storage, then you just simply use 2TB in slot 1 :). You can add the WD at a later date when needed. Wait for Black Friday for some nice sales.
Sir I would love a video from you specifically covering how to assign which drives and where things go, for instance if I have a drive that I have dedicated to storing videos for editing, and I want to save a clip in the moment, that clip will go specifically where I want it to. Obviously there is much more you could utilize this for as well, but it's an idea for a video!
Prawn I have the Asus GeForce RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card and Windows 11 installed on Crucial T705 2TB SSD PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 Internal Gaming SSD. The Case is NZXT H7 Flow RGB | Mid-Tower ATX Airflow Case with RGB Fans and Water Cooler NZXT Kraken ELite 360 RGB Black AIO Intel/AMD CPU Hydro-Cooler (2023 Edition). Now because I listen to some advice by you I think in another video you said to install just one for the first time and that's what I did. I have two more drives which are: Samsung 990 PRO 4TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD/Solid State Drive PC/PS5 and Samsung 870 QVO 2TB 2.5” Gen2 SATA SSD/Solid State Drive.
The ROG HYPER M.2 CARD looks very close to the Graphics Card. It would be right underneath the fans. Which is best a ROG HYPER M.2 CARD or just install on the motherboard? I would have to remove the Graphics Card first to install the Samsung 990 PRO 4TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD/Solid State Drive PC/PS5 or is it easier just to install a ROG HYPER M.2 CARD? Prawn what do you think?
It was just a normal (though very informative) tech vid until the moment you popped on screen in that brilliant costume. The moment I saw that I clicked like, you didn't even have to say it! You brilliant legend, you! Edit: I just noticed the channel name, lol!
Ha. Now I'm wondering how many people don't notice the name and are confused at the end.
@@TheProvokedPrawn lol that's entirely possible. I thought you were a weird looking rabbit at first!
@@kiranaric lol
Very Informative Video i also have the Z690 Formula and regularly use armoury crate, i can now check my WD Black SN850 drives are performing as they should be. Thank You!
I bought that superfast Crucial T something nvme SSD. It's supposed to go up to 13-14 GB/sec. It's only for Pcie-5, but the gigabyte z790 motherboard has only 16 lanes. So, when I use it, it can't go at the fastest speed, but after setting the cache optimized via the crucial SSD app, I got it up to 10GB for a while. Last time I checked, it was only at 7.5 GB (only, ha), and the AMD GPU is compromised. I'm not sure if that's right, but I think it is. Great video.
Nice voice bro. So comforting.
Thanks Anton. Sub to hear more of it 👍🦐
@@TheProvokedPrawn Thanks. Already did it. 😀👍
bro i'm a straight ass man but your voice nearly had me second guessing myself, that shit is deeper than the marianna's trench!
Wtf
You woke me up to some of the limitations.
This video is really good. Well done mate !
Thank you so much for this! You explained clearly and deffo saved me from a lot of pain, installing my new 990 2Tb. Love your style so: liked, Subbed, shared and commented!
May I ask, nay beg, that you make a vid explaining the subtleties of provisioning, over or under!?
I truly love the way you explain things and I'm sure that with your guidance, the penny will finally drop!
Thank you once again, you are a legend, Sir!
For example Z790 Aurorus Master and also some motherboard from ASUS share top m.2 slot with GPU PCIe slot, so it is not always a good idea to install disk to the top one.
I have the Z390 Ultra Aurorus from Gigabyte.
@vincewilson1 same here.. I am beginning to believe the bottom slot is best. My graphics card is installed into the top PCIEX16 slot. Also the bottom heat sink will be perfect for my new 990pro ssd 🤔
I'm a noob and this was super helpful lol. I was sweating buckets while adding the ssd to my pc lol. I felt like I was performing brain surgery😂😂 Thanks for great instructions! :)
yo, this really helped me after i installed a extra sn850x into my pc and couldnt find it in the file explorer lol, really appreciated
another great video prawn! well done, thanks
Thanks again!
Incredibly useful video, as are all your videos!
Very kind
How come some of the M.2 slots have heat pads and other slots don't on the same motherboard? Does this impact performance?
for the most part it doesn't make a difference. And if you look all the m.2 slots have cooling. for this board.
Most board manufacturers put cooling plates like (MSI M.2 Shield Frozr) on the higher speed interfaces (PCIe 4.0) cause they run faster than PCIe 3 which means more heat generated, more expensive boards have cooling solutions on all or most NVMe slots cause you're paying more.
An high speed nvme SSD can throttle down in speed when a certain temperature target is reached, usually with long sustained data transfers. A thermal pad especially on the controller chip helps to dump the heat to a heatsink allowing it to maintain higher/full speed.
My main worry now is finding tower with less lights than Blackpool, what is it, don't they let needs in clubs or something? If I am building and want to use all 3 nvme m.2 drives does this mean a ball ache of adding one by one? I also want yo add 4 x 32 gb DDR4 ram. Any advice please. Great video - very clear and easy to follow.
First time on this channel. The sudden appearance of the prawn at the end cracked me up. Well done.
It's always nice to have a surprise guest show up! We'll have to see what other surprises await in our future videos.
Very useful. Thanks. I was curious what speed my SSDs were since I have a 5700g CPU. Evidently, doesn't matter. I found my Gen 3 SSD at Gen 3 speed and my Gen 4 SSD at Gen 4. I have a 4TB Gen 4 coming tomorrow to replace my Gen 3 drive and I'm happy to see I didn't waste $50. lol... No need to replace the 5700g just yet.
Thank you for helping me with my very first NVME selection and installation.
Glad to help!
FYI always read the M/B guidance some M/B will reduce the speed on the GPU lane, and some will say slot 1 and slot 2 cannot be populated simultaneously
i love how no one really wants to go into detail about the 8x speed drop when thats the only real thing that matters. you all just gloss over it as fast as possible........ WTF is really going on
What's the issue with that , I'm facing the same thing ...can anyone help?
Right I didn't have the correct motherboard to use my crucial T SSD. But it's a late model. z790. There are not enough PCI lanes. It's going at half of what it can do.
@@setabjatarafder3203 Need a motherboard that has high count of PCIe lanes otherwise you are sharing it with the GPU.
I have a MSI B550 Gaming GEN3 Gaming Motherboard (AMD Ryzen 5000 Series, AM4, DDR4, PCIe 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, M.2, USB 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI/DVI-Port, ATX)
Can I put a Gen 4 m.2 SSD like
TEAMGROUP T-Force G70 PRO Aluminum Heatsink 1TB DRAM SLC Cache 3D TLC NAND NVMe InnoGrit PCIe Gen4x4 M.2 2280
Or will it bottle neck the write speeds ?
@@Nothing_is_sacred Yes, but it will only have Gen 3 speeds. It also depends on your brand of SSD and the number of lanes you have. Check the speeds of the Gen4 SSD and find out the stats of your motherboard from its manufacturer's website. I'd go ahead and buy it if you want it. You can keep it for when you get a Gen4 or gen 5 motherboard. Good luck. Rob
Good to know. Thanks a ton. The next gen AMDs are starting with 88 PCIe lanes.
Thanks for this video. Could u answer a question for me please. I am currently building a new pc (after very long time) again. I never used m.2 (werent a thing, when i last have build one). I plan to use 2 m.2´s. A smaller one as systemdrive and a 2 TB one as gaming drive (both Samsung 980 Pro). The motherboard i want to buy is the ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-E (hopefully the i225-v doesnt screw me). Now my question: where should i place which M.2? Since, from my understanding the STRIX supports 2 equally fast m.2. slots its down to which drive will generate more heat (upper slot seems to have a much beefier headsink). So should i put the Systemdrive under the better heatsink or the Gamedrive? Also if any of my assumptions are wrong please let me know. Thanks in advance, and have a nice day.
I'm setting up a new gaming rig with 3 1Tb KC3000 drives on a Z790 Tomahawk MB...this is all very helpful. Any comments on the Kingston SSD Manager software in comparison to the Samsung Magic software?
Curiously, the 1st M.2 slot you recommend people to install their drive to (the one closest to the CPU) is the slot one SHOULD NOT use on the ASUS STRIX z790-E board in particular, since this will limit the GPU to run at x8. I wonder if I will ever use that slot at all. Oddly, it´s the only PCI E 5.0 M.2 slot. Equipped with a beefy thermal shield. Since I haven´t built a PC over a decade, I´m intrigued by this, wondering if I am missing something important here.
Any thoughts on that?
I hated putting it into the second slot, since the first has the heat pipe!
@@josephaltman460 I hate to be the one telling you, but I THINK both the 1st AND the 2nd M.2 slots share the same CPU lanes with your GPU. If I am not mistaken, you have to install in the 3 M.2 the furthest away, Corretct me, if I am wrong, but you might be running your GPU at x8 right now. Please send us feedback.
z790 has more pci e lanes, it doesn't matter
Wouldn't putting thermal pads under the m.2 drive increase the temperature transfer to the area under the m.2? Just a little confused for my build
Most completed video
Big support for the channel and keep on making awesome content and guides and giveaways in the future as well. Worked for me
Always check the manual for the motherboard because some M.2 slots are shared with PCIe slots or SATA ports.
If you have bought a drive with a heatsink is it still necessary to lay it upon extra thermal padding? Installing into my new Aurora R15(2 TB 980 pro w/heatsink) and PS5(1 TB pro w/ heatsink) each. Basically is it not necessary to have thermal padding if you bought an ssd with a heatsink?
I have too many drives. Can you do a video on maybe a cheap Nas I could use three or four 2tb and 4tb NVME m.2 drives that no longer fit on my motherboard ?
Fantastic video! I bought an m.2 ssd for my wife's computer, installed as an extra non OS drive just for space, I decided I want to put it in my computer. We have the SAME exact computer, would it be allright if I just installed it in my computer as extra space?
If you're not using an nvme drive as your os drive, you're missing out. But yes, you can install as spare storage
Great tips, I just subscribed, it's interesting to know about the possible GPU impact on installing more NVME's I'll just stick to having 2 and external ssd for storing my non essentials on.
Here's a follow up that might be useful ua-cam.com/video/CT55vgeuhPo/v-deo.html
Let me ask you this if I could... To start I have a asus rog strix x570-e(basically the same as yours) I have my C/boot drive in the top. It's running at 3.0x4. I just bought a new NVMe drive today. Can I/Should I move that first NVMe SSD to a lower port and put my new SSD in the top port? Or will that jack everything up? Like will my PC be looking at the old port like where the heck did everything go? Great video and thank you for the help.
Most informative and well prepared video about the subject yet, thank you very much
Thank you.
Tip* The closest mvme slot to the cpu is not always the fastest slot. It could be a pcie gen 4 slot and not the gen 5 slot if you have that. Check your motherboard manual or if it is written on the board it's self. I think with the new motherboards the closest slot to the gpu pcie slot is the fastest.
There aren't gen 5 drives yet (that I've seen) and they're backwards compatible anyway.
@@TheProvokedPrawn depending on your cpu and board, 1 or more m.2 slots could be gen 5, it's normally the closest to the gpu but most are gen 4 or gen 3 :)
Yup. Always refer to your motherboard's manual.
m.2 4x4 cards are going to thermal throttle without oversize heatsinks so if you want RAID 0 you're going to probably want a riser cable somewhere
Can you review the Lian Li 216 case?
Right, on my MSI motherboard (and many others) my secondary pcie x16 only supports up to 3.0.
Nice casing with funs :-) what is it. Please let us know the configuration of the beast with 10 funs in the case 🙂
Very useful @The Provoked Prawn. My drives are x2 Samsung 990's and x 3 Crucial Gen 4 drives all running at Gen 2x1. I have an Asus Z790 Hero Motherboard, how do I get them running at the Full speed please?
Excellent information >> perfect for what I needed to know thank you 👌💯👀🎥😎🌟
Glad it was helpful!
enjoying a non shrill high pitch voice its almost like music to my ears
Sub for more music
@@TheProvokedPrawn thx for reminder
Great video thoroughly enjoyed it very well detailed and understood everything you said thank you
Glad you enjoyed it! Hope you enjoyed enough to subscribe 🦐
I come from the days of the 66mhz processor, its amazing the changes to modern pc s
I dont have a thermal sink for mine, is that ok? It's installed in the top slot. I spent a long time thinking of what slot should I use, because while the second one is apparently slower (only 2 slots in my mobo btw), it comes with a heatsink. On the other hand, it goes right below the graphics card, little room to breath under that hot thing.
Man, you need to drop the orange bunny at the end :)
bunny?
@@TheProvokedPrawn Sorry, I meant shrimp 😅... by the way, I like your videos which provide really comprehensive information!
@@boudisam9321 thanks. 👍
This was highly informative - thank you so much.
You are so welcome!
Thanks for this video.
You're welcome
i have 4 m.2 slots on my mobo, lets say i fill all of them, top slot being 2tb m.2 7000mbps, middle 2tb, and bottom 2 slots 8tb, 8tb, all say speeds 7000mb, so with all filled in, wil they all run at 7000mb speed individually?
Depends on your motherboard ua-cam.com/video/m_qy7rMs2AE/v-deo.html
Excellent 👌
thx. had no idea I needed to mount it.
tfw I built a pc back in 2019 and installed the NVMe on the second slot without a heatsink while the first slot went unused for almost four years and had the paper still on the heatsink. Just switched it right now. Surprised my PC didn't catch on fire.
Great tips I am running Optane 1600X for system and cheap 2TB M2 NVME for data.
thank you man!
You're welcome Julian!
If my drive already has a heatsink, should I leave on the bottom thermal pad or take it off completely?
If your M.2 drive didnt came with a screw, you can unscrew one from an old hdd