M.2 NVMe compatibility

[MassConfusion]

I have AM3+ motherboard (Asus - M5A99FX Pro R2.0 ATX to be exact) and I was wanting to purchase a Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD drive as a spare drive to install all my games on. Would there be and compatibility issues with that?.

 

[Farva]

Unless you have an AOC card that you can put that NVMe drive onto...

Your motherboard doesn't even have a NVMe slot...

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A99FX_PRO_R20/specifications/

AMD SB950 controller :
5 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray,
1 x eSATA port(s), red,
ASMedia® PCIe SATA controller :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), navy blue,

 

[pitingres]

You could get a PCIe card to mount the m.2 drive on, but I don't think I see the point; just get a SATA SSD for your games, will work just as well.

 

[hwfkwr]

Are the PCIe drives mountable on any PCIE slot, or is something special needed?
Want to make sure I can use this drive with this motherboard.

 

[kirbyrj]

Are the PCIe drives mountable on any PCIE slot, or is something special needed?
Want to make sure I can use this drive with this motherboard.

Have to read the documentation in the manual for specifics (more of an issue when there are more than 1 M.2 slot). Generally speaking (and I'm 99% sure it's the case with that board) if there is only 1 M.2 slot, it will work with NVMe so that drive will work.

 

[kirbyrj]

You could get a PCIe card to mount the m.2 drive on, but I don't think I see the point; just get a SATA SSD for your games, will work just as well.

The only advantage is you don't have to run cables. It will work at some level...just won't be able to boot off it (and then you might be able to if you have a NVMe UEFI bios. I know Asus added support for it on some of their older boards. The Sabertooth version could boot off of NVMe. Not sure if they added it to that board.

A SATA drive should be cheaper though unless you find a killer deal. Definitely cheaper than the Samsung 970. Unless you plan on buying now and then using it as a boot drive later...

 

[hwfkwr]

Have to read the documentation in the manual for specifics (more of an issue when there are more than 1 M.2 slot). Generally speaking (and I'm 99% sure it's the case with that board) if there is only 1 M.2 slot, it will work with NVMe so that drive will work.

Thanks.

Out of curiosity, would would more than one M2 slots cause the drive to not work? BTW - the drive I linked is PCIe drive and so I wanted to make sure there weren't different types of PCIe

 

[kirbyrj]

No. What you will run into is some are NVMe and some are AHCI (SATA) and some work with both. Every board deals with PCIe lane limitations differently. Some will steal from graphics cards, some will steal from regular SATA ports, etc. You have to read the fine print and it is very board specific. Pretty much every board will give you a full speed x16 graphics slot and a full speed PCIe x4 NVMe port. After that it's a crap shoot.

 

[hwfkwr]

No. What you will run into is some are NVMe and some are AHCI (SATA) and some work with both. Every board deals with PCIe lane limitations differently. Some will steal from graphics cards, some will steal from regular SATA ports, etc. You have to read the fine print and it is very board specific. Pretty much every board will give you a full speed x16 graphics slot and a full speed PCIe x4 NVMe port. After that it's a crap shoot.

Gotcha, thanks.

 

[hwfkwr]

kirbyrj Thanks for the input, worked like a charm.