Conflicts when install M.2 SSD and PCI Express-Know your motherboard.

[@syriustank]

I was literally scrubbing the internet for this exact answer, and lo, you had just posted this video. Thank you for the in-depth explanation, it really helped.

[@TaoMStudio]

@Alyssa Nash Glad it was helpful!👍

[@KTHKUHNKK]

@@TaoMStudio Hello Tao I just subscribed. I have a question please. I recently put a one terabyte M.2 in my Asus tuff gaming plus motherboard. I am using it as my primary drive with Windows 10 installed on it. Do you think it is possible with that installed, it may have a conflict with one of my CD/ DVD drive bays not showing up under my PC ? Thanks I eagerly await your reply. Keith

[@JoeTaco83]

@@KTHKUHNKK the motherboard I have will disable some of the SATA ports when I use a M.2 ssd. This is really disappointing for such a great technology to have this big hiccup..

[@KTHKUHNKK]

@@JoeTaco83 Hello Jose I found my problem with my drive not showing up. After putting everything back together believe it or not I forgot to plug in one of my drives that's why it was not showing up. It really had nothing to do with the M.2 Or SSD or anything like that. He was totally my fault I forgot to plug the drive back in. Keith Kuhn

[@KTHKUHNKK]

@@JoeTaco83 Are you sure it is disconnecting from your SATA ports ? Did you get the problem figured out ? Keith

[@VasishChawda]

You just increased my knowledge on looking out for motherboards by understanding that manual briefing. Good job as I am not a technician.

[@lucasp.derlam9612]

2 years later and it's the only video i found about this, thank you for the explanation!

[@TheArsenalgunner28]

Thank you for posting this, I’m going for a 2 x Samsung M.2 Drives and I would’ve made a huge mistake here. I’m instead going to purchase the MSI X570 Unify. Thank you again, great detail that even the big youtubers haven’t covered, most focus on VRM and Thermals but this was something very technical and specific that I wouldn’t have noticed most likely until I built my PC

[@obsoleteobsession]

I've been looking to add a second drive lately and totally forgot that the second m.2 slot sometimes deactivates PCIe slots. Thank you for this- you were very helpful!

[@MrGryphonv]

Just ran into this problem today. Added a 3rd M.2 with a pcie adaptor, and spent half the day troubleshooting the issues. Thank you for this video.

[@grencznermark2993]

hello, so can I use both M2 slots without any problem? Cause I don't really understand this guy in the video.

[@MrGryphonv]

@@grencznermark2993 If you dont use the bottome pcie slot, yes you can, its either the bottom pcie slot or the 2nd m2. can't use both.

[@mollamauladhie29]

@@MrGryphonv bro how i cant use 2 m2 my Mobo Gygabite B550M DS3H, now i use RX 6600 and 1 slot m.2, i mind can use 2 m.2 because i ready slot m.2...?

[@user-df2kk2gk5u]

Dude... you saved me! I was at the end of my rope... GPU not detected on MSI MB. Tried so many things but no luck. Then, I removed all but the first M2 SSD, and removed all other PCIe devices. It worked. Thank you!

[@Irochi]

You ask if this video was of any help? This video may be the more crystal clear on youtube regarding this topic right now A million thanks, pal. :) I wish there were more people online making helpful content like yours.

[@alfonsod.287]

I am about to buy this MoBo and found you. Great video, continue with those little things that nobody talks about!

[@TaoMStudio]

@Alfonso D. 👍

[@alfonsod.287]

@@TaoMStudio Hi Tao. I finally bought this mobo, and installed all PC parts. All good, until I didn't see the m.2 drives detected in the BIOS or even in the Windows installer. I have troubleshoted this problem for days, tried different BIOS versions, different m.2 drives and also different M,2 slots, nothing happened. This M.2 drive is my only memory card, so right now I am not able to use my PC basically...Could you please suggest how can I solve this?

[@TaoMStudio]

@Alfonso D. Hi, make sure you have the latest BIOS installed.

[@alfonsod.287]

@@TaoMStudio Hi Tao. I did, even used different methods to reinstall the updated BIOS and different USB sticks. But nothing.

[@maddymuhat8079]

@@alfonsod.287 just update your bios it would be fine

[@chriss2595]

Very clear, thank you sir! I have this mobo and I hate the fact that manufacturers are limiting so many things on their boards. It's like buying a car, and when you use one door, some doors won't open? So, reading the manual before the purchase is indeed super important. Another solution would be a workstation, but those mobo's cost a lot more.

[@sequoia9068]

You are an absolute legend for this!! Your info is so clear and concise, now I can finally know that my setup will work with both m.2 slots and the fourth pcie slot

[@hasanpranto7098]

bro can i use .. a m.2 sata III ssd in 2nd slot b550 gaming edge wifi ?? with gpu installed on the top pcie . is there will be any problem ? i am confuge like a hell now

[@brianjackson93]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is a perfect explanation. I can't believe that this information is easier to find on KZbin than on the manufacturer's website. I have the MSI B550 A-pro motherboard, and I have been trying to successfully install a 2nd m.2 ssd in the m2_2 slot. I ran into trouble when I tried to install a PCIE gen4 enabled m.2 drive in the 2nd slot because my mobo would not recognize it, so I had to exchange the drive for a gen3 device. Once I installed the gen3 device, I just ran the disk management utility and formatted the new drive and now it is working, but this can be difficult for hobbyists to understand.

[@hburnham67]

Thank you so much Tao, you just saved me so much time of further troubleshooting. I installed a 2nd GPU and have 2 M.2 drives installed, but motherboard wasn't detecting 2nd GPU. As soon as I saw your diagram I immediately knew the issue. Really appreciate you posting this, thumbs up!

[@TaoMStudio]

Glad I could help

[@OralAid]

But is there any solution, so that i can use both m.2 and both pci e slot at the same time???

[@smithgeo7051]

in 2024 and i finely found a video that is explained clearly . Thank you very much Tao

[@buf0rd]

Much appreciated. Very informative video. Exactly what I needed to realize i'm stuck w/ one gpu on this board w/ m.2.

[@Zeioth]

Dude, you are doing god's work. I was freaking out wondering why my second GPU was not detected, and turns out you cannot have a second M2 and a second GPU running at the same time. First time a find such bullshit in a motherboard in 30 years in the profession.

[@ricksaburai]

Well, mobos that are even compatible with two gpus AND m.2 slots aren't that old to begin with. There's a bandwidth limit and if you want more cards you're gonna need a beefier board. I'd rather have M.2 slots that disable SATA ports instead of PCIe, though. I agree it's a somewhat weird configuration. Especially considering it has 6 SATA ports I don't use - seems like this board pushes us towards one SSD and one or two HDDs, rather than a second SSD.

[@paulweston8184]

It's okay to not realize that two GPU's will eat up your PCIe lanes but be humble about it because saying that you've been in the profession for 30 years just means that A: you are lying or B: the "profession" you are referring to has something to do with finding bull turds and nothing to do with computers.

[@ricksaburai]

Thank you for this video, Tao. I've read the manual before but that combination table is simply awful. Your explanation made it easier to understand the underlying principle of shared bandwidth between the m.2 and pcie slots. It's a good board. Too bad we can't just slap it full of NVME SSDs lol

[@trevorstevens2889]

As bad as it is, it's better than the explanation in Asus manuals.

[@ricksaburai]

@@trevorstevens2889 That's the one I'm talking about. They just slap a poorly designed sheet on the manual that doesn't really explain anything unless you're already familiar with the bandwidth limit.

[@CNC295]

Thank you. I searched for hours trying to figure this out. Thank you for doing a video on it. Basically put, if you use the 2nd MVME slot, you really cannot use anything else except the bottom PCIE slot at the bottom of the board. And that is a 1x slot so pretty much useless. This board has very limited USB ports.

[@alangb2086]

I have the same B550 Tomahawk mobo, 2x M.2 drives, and the PCIE slot at the bottom of the board is perfect for my Wi-Fi card, very happy with my setup😊

[@cdnbrit]

Bottom slot is good for a USB expansion card. I know.. The usb is dismal on my B550 Gamers Edge.

[@zvacanti]

@@alangb2086so no issues with the gpu using both m.2’s?

[@alangb2086]

@@zvacanti No, because you are only using one M2 at a time, I have two. I use my bottom PCI slot solely for my wi-fi card as the MB doesn't have it onboard.

[@NaNoTech4Disaster]

Just bought the B550 Tomahawk, what you said around 4:20 when M2_1 and M2_2 occupied that means Pcie_e2 and Pci_e3 is disabled but the truth is its not disabled Its just nothing there, Not installed or occupied by anything. What this table shows is what combination you can do with available slots and no matter what the combination M2_1 is always available. On the first row if you occupy every slots the PCIe_E3 will be disabled (unusable). So if you have 2 M.2 SSDs and a PCi wifi you can use the 2nd row of combination by installing your wifi adaptor pci in slot pci_e4 as suggested by the manual. as you can see in the note below the table, (X) means no device. not installed by anything. (-) means disabled, unsusable. sorry for grammar. maybe.

[@adolfoconsorte6310]

too easy to understand!!!

[@AntonelloM]

very useful video. I found similar issue in the past on my ASrock x570, where while connecting a pci card, I was seeing a disc "disappearing" from the UEFI. Stupid ASRock support asked me to updated the bios to fix it, which clearly was useless, as it's a bandwidth limitation, and properly explained in the manual.

[@divyanshsinghvi5805]

Really informative for my build. And happy to see a video talking about something other than slot counts and vrm temps.

[@JonStockman82]

This video made me aware of conflicts when using m.2 drives and yes I read the manual that came with my new motherboard. I've been saving parts for the best part of a year all that was left GPU and I finally got one so new rig built. i5 10600kf 4.1ghz (4.8ghz boost) 32gb ram Z490 tomahawk board Rtx 3060 ti Happy days 👍 The Z490 however has conflicts with SATA ports if using M.2 drives. If M.2_1 is in use it disables Sata 2, if M.2_2 is in use it disables Sata ports 5 & 6. Hope this info helps someone.

[@ricksaburai]

SSDs nowadays are getting cheaper and they're only really worth it if they're NVMe for PCIe, either M.2 or as add-in directly to a PCIe slot. The only reason we still have SATA SSDs is compatibility with legacy boards. With this in mind, I'd very much prefer a board that disables SATA ports instead of PCIe slots. I got a B550 because it's still an awesome card, but this setup kinda pushes us towards a second drive being an HDD.

[@ziljin]

@@ricksaburai Sata SSD is still really fast so hypothetically 1 NVME vs the 2 disabled ports you can use with 2 Sata SSDs, you can get double the SSD storage with barely any sacrifice in performance?

[@ricksaburai]

@@ziljin fast compared to hdd, yes. To nvme, no. It's 64GB/s vs 600MB/s per bus type. And even then, it's still 6 sata ports on this board against 2 extra pcie slots, one of them being the barely useful x4. Not counting RAID, I can't think of a reason I'd have six satas in use concurrently. Edit: with that said, I agree that sata ssds would be better than an hdd, even if I'd rather use nvme.

[@ziljin]

@@ricksaburai I was looking at benchmarks and the nvme vs SATA SSD perform almost the same at least for loading programs. Only hdd was slow. I wonder is it okay to use data for storage. Like for Photoshop editing pictures will the picture save and load faster on ssd vs hdd? But then the ssd will die faster from too many writes?

[@dafyddthomas7299]

@@ricksaburai At moment SATA slots good to home large capacity HDD (Sata) not SSD like for archiving / storing video / images often in multiple TB's & 20 TB HDD's around $350 vs nothing available (consumers) in this capacity in M.2 and 2.5 SSD SAta yes but expensive and max I've seen is 8TB Samsung for $500 Not all non-recent Mobo I7 < G10's boards as example do not have M2's built on to the mobo; so rely on PCI-E cards to home M2 (1 lane) NVME drive or rely on Sata 3.5 & 2.5" HDD'. Although for modern boards is to: build as many M'2 the Mobo can support at once without reduction of Bandwidth to PCI-E card slots / or power drop outs / detection issues, possibly have 1-2 SATA SSD 2.5" - Samsung 870+ Series 2 - 4th and rest (archive / storage) external Sata HDD's - either SSD (2.5 Samsung, etc) or none SSD, e.g., Seagate 20 TB External Drive.

[@Farang_Lifestyles]

I have been reading over and over the MSI B460M MOTAR manual and didn't make sense to me clearly,,,, but thanks to you and your efforts of this video I have a much better understanding even though there are slight differences between MSI B460M MOTAR and MSI B550 Tomahawk,,,, thank you Tao

[@sheldonkupa9120]

Awesome, i have a Gigabyte b550ds3h with 5600x cpu. After replacing a nvme 3rd gen with a nvme 4th gen ssd, i got hickups while gaming. Took me one day to understand the ssd is good, but somehow the faster ssd affects gaming. Both linux and Windows have no probs to use both ssds same time full speed when NOT gaming. This video helped me a lot!!!

[@john-xo9mg]

you've gained a sub my friend was worried about using two m.2 on the mag Tomahawk now I know I can for my set up..

[@cael_1303]

Thanks. This answered my question as I just wanted to be sure that I could use both of my NVME slots and still install a wifi card down at the bottom (PCI_E4) with no issues.

[@chris_5by5]

Good explanation, and this is why I sent my Asus B550 board back and got a x570 a while back, by the way, these limitations are from the chipset, not the board, yes, slight variations are possible from one board to another within the same chipset type but most are the same or very close. To me the x570 and now the x570s are worth the $80 - $100 more not to have these headaches and limitations, especially if you need to run a primary and secondary gpu for multiple monitors and then have room for storage expansion as well.

[@Darkeninggg]

Hello, I’m a bit lost still I’ve got the msi b550 a pro. I have a 4.0 1tb m.2 plugged into the top m.2 slot and a 3.0 m.2 plugged into the bottom slot, is this negatively affecting my gpus x16 lanes? Or am I fine for now. I have a 5800x3d if that matters

[@chris_5by5]

@@Darkeninggg I cannot be 100% sure to be honest. A quick search results in people mentioning that the x16 lanes of the primary pcie slot not being affected though.

[@metroplex_0]

Thankyou for the video i have the same motherboard and bought a new m.2 and my capture card stopped working thought the issue was the PCIe lanes but you confirmed it so thankyou!

[@frattuncbas]

I bought Yeeliya usb card host controller and i m using all nvme ports too..Yes it wont work,i was searching for the solution,thanx for the video man..Now i will de activate second nvme and i will have mu second pci express.❤

[@danielm.2377]

Thank you! This is exactly what I've been looking for.

[@kasper7203]

Thanks for the simple explanation. I am a hardware noob and it really helped

[@paulfxst]

Many thanks for your video, still very relevant for the beginner trying to fathom the Tomahawk B550 intricacies....

[@dafyddthomas7299]

Thanks for this informative video - learning hard way for sure on this new tech of M2 SSD 2280's, + mixing with PCI Express Cards / slots and also impacts between Sata 3.5 HDD vs Sata SSD 2.5" - especially on Power draw / requirements & data / bandwidths + and upgrading older Motherboards that often don't have M.2 slots built on the Mobo's. Sometimes Hardware vs OS Vs S/ware can be very stressy.

[@sebastianpenaalzate7616]

Thanks for taking your time to explain this, this thing was driving me crazy and i found the answear here. Thanks

[@vraeljsp]

Pretty old video but you made me realize I’m making my graphics card less effective by taking 8 of the PCIe lanes and diverting them to the m.2 slot . Gonna move it tomorrow. Thanks! Crazy that the motherboard even has the top m.2 slot connected to a switch that makes it do that! Especially considering (on my particular motherboard) there’s only a single 5.0 bus connected to a switch for either x16 on the GPU slot or (if m.2 is in the slot) x8 on the GPU slot and the m.2. I kind of makes sense but it’s crazy at the same time. Needs to come with a HUGE warning label: Support for m.2 5.0 but it nerfs your GPU, recommended that you use 4.0 and NOT put it in the ‘main’ m.2 slot!

[@laxuscloud2495]

i plan to buy this board. so if i put 2 m.2 nvme ssd it will affect my GPU? the way you said it was its not recommended to put nvme ssd to m.2 slot 1 at all

[@vraeljsp]

@@laxuscloud2495 I have a different board entirely. Read your manual. If there’s a switch then it will turn off or nerf things if you have multiple things attached to the same switch. Depends entirely on the board.

[@laxuscloud2495]

@@vraeljsp i have been reading since i commented and fortunately i got my answer. And also i downloaded the manual. That was a big help for purchasing. So i think i will get two m.2 as they will work. One pcie gen4 and one pcie gen3. Which is fine with me.

[@smzi]

this doesn't make sense, how does using the top m2 slot draw power from the gpu?

[@martynclarke8400]

Although my mobo was different this cleared up a major headache for me :D. Big thumbs up.

[@drgrunn174]

Thank you man, I was really moving my sh1t inwards coz my videocard was not working. Figured out it is something related to the slots, but yea, U're da explanator! Danke !!!

[@sandorclegane3658]

My x570 pooped the bed. I bought a b550 with plans to run two m.2. I feel like an idiot now. You're always learning when it comes to pc gaming.

[@DavidSanR]

you can run 2 m.2 on a b550, and a gpu, just not gonna be able to use pci_2 and pci_3, still pci_4 its available.

[@sandorclegane3658]

@@DavidSanR yes but then my gpu drops to x8 instead of x16

[@DavidSanR]

@@sandorclegane3658 no it dosnt, pcie_1 its CPU bound, not chipset.

[@DavidSanR]

@@sandorclegane3658 "PCE_1 and M2_1 always run at full speed since they are direct CPU link." it dosn't matter if you have another m2 on the other m2_2 slot, that would only render ineffective the pcie slot 2 and 3, but dosnt affect PCE_1 because those arent lines shared by the chipset, its controlled by the CPU directly.

[@sandorclegane3658]

@@DavidSanR b550 doesn't have lanes it's all up to the cpu. X570 has lanes. You lose bandwidth if I put two m.2 nvme in

[@paulobraghetto]

Excelent!! A good help to understand these conflicts. Few youtube videos are deep on this issue. Thanks a lot.

[@noahburt2722]

Really appreciate your video, answered all of my questions. I should start reading manuals.

[@dlfzstuff4343]

Best and only Video that helped me with this issue Thank you !!!!!!!

[@nouryy]

This has been insanely helpful. Thank you so much good sir!

[@molambo]

I bought a B450M Mortar and an XPG GAMMIX S11 PRO, then find out that MSI does not support this model, but it does support the B350M Mortar! Just joy! Thank you MSI!

[@JavierGarcia-t5t]

guys if a second drive you have isn't recognized by the BIOS don't give up!! I eventually got it working by switching the positions of the two m.2 slots : )

[@kenbrake2828]

How do you switch the positions?!

[@JavierGarcia-t5t]

@@kenbrake2828 if your motherboard has multiple M.2 slots you can try another slot. In my case, switching the already installed m.2 and putting my second one in that slot got my BIOS to recognize both drives

[@kenbrake2828]

@@JavierGarcia-t5t Thank you. I finally got it to work by doing the same, alogn with a multitude of other things I tried!

[@borningame]

i have one m.2 ssd in m2_1 slot and i put pcie m.2 adapter to pcie x4 slot(pci_e3 slot),cant power pc

[@bruhhh69]

If I have only one M2 slot and if I install an M2 SSD in it, it won't disable any sata port right?

[@iancolegrove3742]

thank you really helpful I thought this was a big problem but it was good to know that I can still use the m.2_1 and it wont affect anything so thanks!

[@andrejantic4690]

Great video, good detail. Had a follow up question about this specific board. Would installing a M2 SSD in the M2_1 slot decrease the performance of a graphics card installed in the PCI_E1 slot (because it appears that the PCI_E1 slot and M2_1 slots both share PCIe lanes controlled by the CPU; would now both be running on only 8 PCIe lanes each)? Or would it be better to install the M2 SSD into the M2_2 slot as it appears the M2_2 slot is controlled by the mobo chipset?

[@andrejantic4690]

Actually I think I answered my question. So current gen (3000 series) and CPUs actually have 24 pcie lanes: 16 dedicated to a component like a graphics card, and then the rest are dedicated to NVMe or M2 cards (or potentially other components). So if you are only going to have 1 M2 ssd, I think it makes the most sense to include it in the slot controlled by your CPU. But now I wonder would having something in the m2 slot lower the performance of something in the PCI_E4 slot (like a wifi card) as I'm not sure how many pcie lanes the B550 chipset has.

[@sorefilm]

I installed the nmve and m.2 ssd on the mobo asus rog b450f gaming ii, the m.2 can't be read at all in the BIOS and the motherboard... I've set it but can't find it, how do I set it in the BIOS so that it can be read

[@mayureshmahale1544]

Thanks bro for such important information it help me lots of love !!

[@chrisk6474]

Excellent video. Helped me understand my manual from a different manufacturer. 🙏🏼

[@45eno]

X570 can be purchased for nearly the same price as b550. Just bought a open box x570s MSI Edge MAX WiFi for $143 total. Installed last night and seems to work great. Still had the plastic on the I/O cover and m2 heat sinks.

[@bencze465]

I looked in Germany and prices were like 150 vs 250, so it's only worth it if one needs the extra slots.

[@forsmarc]

THANK YOU! I looked everywhere for an explanation as well, good work!

[@videogamer3999]

Your explanation of PCIe slots combination was very helpful and detailed, thanks for uploading.

[@LikeAGroove]

I have a b550 gigabyte aorus elite v2 and installed an pcie x4 m2 ssd on the top m2 slot , i can't see any warning in the manual telling of any conflict between the top pci express slot (4.0 x16) and the top m2 slot (pci 4.0 x4) i'm running a 5600x with corsair vengange 2x8 3200mhz, will I be fine with upgrading to a 3070 ti later? Edit: nevermind, the ryzen 5000 series offer pcie 4.0 x20 lanes, where 4 are dedicated to nvme and x16 to pci slot(basically gpu)

[@Maraxion]

Sure. But often these messages comes in the manual on newer boards: The M.2 slot shares bandwidth with the SATA6G_4 port. When a device in SATA mode is installed on the M.2 slot, the SATA6G_4 port cannot be used. Then the question is, wil this just be a problem with a m.2 sata drive, or wil you also get the problem with the m.2 NVMe?

[@ssstudio5712]

Nice video man, thanks good explanation. My problem is I installed extra M.2 on port 4 which cancelled my sata HDD now I can see both my ssd’s but not that particular hdd drive. I think I need to make a compromise now. Thanks for the explanation tho

[@user-lx9jm1wo3h]

I wasn't expecting that beat to drop in the beginning lol

[@TheCarrion7]

Great video, but i still don't understand. I have just one ssd nvme in m2_2 slot, where should my gpu work? In the first pcie slot?

[@simonhansson1697]

My upper PCIE slot doesn't work while the lower one does. I'm using the upper M2 slot for my SSD, but from what I can tell from your video, the first M2 and the first PCIE don't conflict. The pins look fine and a BIOS- and drivers update didn't help. I've been troubleshooting this for hours but can't find a solution.

[@mollamauladhie29]

saya masih kurang mengerti, bagaimana jika Mobo Yang saya pakai GYGABITE B550M DS3H yang memiliki 2 slot SSD M.2 yang sama seperti di vidio di atas, karena saya ingin menggunakan 2 slot SSD M.2 tersebut secara bersamaan.. bisakah menjelaskan dan membantu saya

[@cryptobull4810]

That was very helpful and I decided to use the extra SSD as external.. One question, Can I use the PCI_E3 for an extra graphic card, and will it perform the same well???

[@matteo7295]

It's the same for z490 Tomahawk?

[@dannyvalid5983]

Wait is there a speed difference between M2_1 and M2_2 ? @Toa M studio

[@mrn234]

of course.

[@ourDreamcatcher]

Encountered this conflict, too. It's a little late, but it helped me!

[@dudedelicious]

Do you know if it is possible to use two m.2 + 1 m.2 using a pcie card with the x570 Tomahawk?

[@TaoMStudio]

@dudedelicious Yes you can. I could not find any mention between PCIe slots and M.2 slots for your board. Maybe x570 board is capable of higher bandwidth. Try PCIe slot 3 to see if recognises m.2 ssd. If it does not, then pcie4 should do it( you will not get full pcie m.2 speed when used with pcie x1 slot). Your manual: bit.ly/2KxEVhp (page 31,32)

[@dudedelicious]

@@TaoMStudio super man, thanks 👌

[@xXxGameboy500xXx]

Great video. Keep up the good work. answered my questions and thoughts and learned something new.

[@jicxergaming8233]

wow this video helped me understand more about m.2 slot Thanks alot.. +1 sub

[@frattuncbas]

What about cpu? All cpu are same or its all about mainboard?

[@mikem-gb3pj]

this is exactley what i needed to know i was wondering why my m.2 adaper wasnt working in my 3 slot i use both m.2 slots already so ty for this

[@TheVoidofNothing11]

Wow, thanks for solving my issue. Too bad I didn't know this prior to purchasing board. Now it looks like I'm stuck unless newegg will accept return.

[@warlust_gg]

Good video, exactly what I was looking for.

[@AmitAngon]

I am using B450 AORUS PRO WIFI mobo. it has tw M.2 Slots the first one PCIe 3x4 & the 2nd slot PCIe 3x2 Supported so i use both of the slots with difference brand of SSD. when i ran the speed test on 2nd ssd slot. its only use half speed now i have a question if i use ( PCIE to M2 Adapter NVMe M.2 PCI Express Adapter ) and connect it with PCI Slot can utilize the full speed ?

[@Hugosanches594]

Hi i need to use m2_1, pci_e1, pci_e2, pci_e3 m2_2. I know that i can’t do that on tomahawk b550 but i can do that with b550 asus rog-f?

[@Karan-1]

Thank you for the detailed information. I had one question. Can I use two M.2 NVME SSD on my motherboard with a graphics card. I'm planning to get the B550 Pcie Gen 4 MSI gaming edge wifi board. It has 2 m.2 slots. Will using both the slots make the performance slower? I don't plan on using any other Pcie slot. Only 2 nvme ssd and one graphics card. Would love if you can help! And keep up the amazing work! Thanks!

[@nivinraphael]

F

[@BlueXonar]

OK so, I have a GPU, two M2 SSD's, and a PCI-E x1 sound card. It will all work together, but I'll have to use the bottom x1 slot for the sound card? Useful info, thanks!

[@iplayloud2]

Ok but will the first M.2_1 slot (cpu side) affect the GPU's 16x lanes? I think it will drop to 8x.

[@denziiey]

no it doesn't

[@hspank]

wondering about installing a m2 carrier board, like asus Hyper M.2, and move my second m2 drive there (after doing a backup before), not sure how many m2 drives would be installable, will the GPU only have only 8 lanes instead of 16 to allow bifurcation between both pcie slots?

[@waterfelon33]

I still don't understand why only MSI does it like this, as you mentioned for example Gigabyte disables two SATA ports instead and I believe Asus does the same, only MSI disables PCIE lanes which is such a shame considering their boards are usually much better in many other aspects, could it be due to some bandwidth limitation in Southbridge/PCH specifically MSI using cheaper controller than other manufacturers?

[@EM8844]

Very nice. I gotta re check my z97-a manual about m.2 slots, its so confusing! Can they affect even gpus?

[@raphaelnguyen3974]

Does it have the same combination table with B660M ? I have issue that M2_2 Slot does not recognize my new M2 SSD or existing SSD if I switch to M2_2 Slot!

[@TubButter]

Not the same motherboard, ASUS tuf gaming b560m plus wifi, but a very similar layout. I cannot get the system to recognize the lower m2 slot. Any ideas? I’ve swapped m2 drives from bottom to top. Whichever is in the top works. Whichever is in the bottom is not recognized.

[@bornaradusin9723]

Hi there, is there anything in the bios you needed to turn on to enable m.2_2? i just got my board delivered today and i suspect that the second m.2 port is dead as what ever i do it is not presenting any memory connected while the first slot has no problem seeing them

[@thomaskiele572]

Hey great video, you've actual answered my questions. Cheers brother

[@bhavyamalik3239]

i wanted to know what slot to use for m.2 ? pcie 4.0 from chipset or cpu while having an rtx 3060 ti already in the pcie 5 slot. can we use both gpu and 1 m.2 ssd in the pcie from CPU simeltaneously on a b760 mother board? do gpu uses all the 16 lanes and wont spare any for the m.2 form the cpu?

[@willryan7387]

This has left me confused lol building my first pc and with this board can i have my gpu in the pci e1 slot, and 2 x m.2 ssd (both pcie3) in both m.2 slots and have all working? Thanks in advance

[@pedraportuguesa7373]

Hi!! In my M.2 "place", in the middle has a squared piece of rubber and it's higher higher than the standoff. Should I pulled that out??? Because it looks it will bend a little the ssd!! What you think?? Thanks!!

[@elixier33]

I am basically always using laptops it's been a long time since I've been using an actual desktop but I didn't realise that these restrictions applied to desktops I can put as many things into my laptop as I want without having any restrictions so this is really interesting. I was thinking of building a fairly high-end desktop if I was to build a high-end desktop I wouldn't want these restrictions I would want to be able to use all of the slots at once. I'm grateful for this video in means I can go and look for motherboards in a bit more detail it's just picking the one that looks the best

[@wandameadows5736]

Its because the new M.2 uses PCIE lanes instead of sata. Its really not about RESTRICTIONS, its about OPTIONS. As for a comparison to a laptop Desktops are way better for options/upgrades. Just make sure the MB you buy supports M.2. Also you probably want ever need to use all the slots. Most high end builds just use PCIE for a GPU.

[@ricksaburai]

Laptop design is all about size, so instead of what you call "restrictions" (actually slot priority) in not being able to use all slots at once, in laptops they just use fewer slots and some controllers are soldered directly to the motherboard. With laptops you're mostly stuck with the same gpu with no PCIe slots other than the occasional M.2 for an SSD upgrade. If anything it's laptops that are restrictive.

[@GabrielSkolderblad]

Hey man, so if i use a PCIE4 GPU and a PCIE4 m.2 NVMe and a PCIE3 m.2 NVMe all will run att their max speed right?

[@TaoMStudio]

@Oskar Lindgren check your mobo for any conflicts, and the max bandwidth.

[@GabrielSkolderblad]

@@TaoMStudio Yea thanks but i think it's hard to understand. Could you please help me? www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/MPG-B550-GAMING-EDGE-WIFI#down-bios

[@petertremblay3725]

I just bought an MSI B550 A-pro and i have a question on this since i want to install my sound blaster Z in second pcie and i want to know if this will reduce the speed of my GPU?

[@matthewpool494]

Is the m.2 conflict the same for the MSI X570 Tomahawk Wifi? I can't figure it out from the manual or internet search.

[@sandorclegane3658]

No. X570 has 16 pcie chipset lanes on the board itself.

[@matthewpool494]

@@sandorclegane3658 Thanks. I finally got it straight that both m.2 slots are independent nvme capable pcie4...

[@mgr5550]

Hi Tao, My MObo has an m.2 slot. But how do i find out of its NVMe compatible ? I dont understand why the design has to be so shady by manufacturers. Is there a way to tell. The Mobo manual mentions M.2 Connector, Socket 3, M Key, Type 2242/2260/2280 SATA and PCIe x4/x2 SSD support. On the website the product page says NVMe in huge bold letters. Then in the manual at 2 places it mentions NVMe mode configuration. How to find if this M.2 slot has NVMe compatibility ?

[@jellybeanrth962]

Hi Tai M Studio, I came across a motherboard that has a m.2/sata switch on the motherboard, is this switch similar to what you described in your video by disabling sata port to use the m.2 slot or does it slow the m.2 port speed so that a sata drive can be used at the same time as the m.2 slot , giving enough bandwidth for both storage devices to work at the same time. I have searched the net and can't find an answers to this.

[@ZIROBYTE]

hello !! can i put 2x 250 gb nvme 2280 in slot pci - e with adaptator + 1 nvme 512 gb always in the Asus Prime X470-Pro ? will suffer the systems with 4 nvme onboard ? about the pci expres 2.0 ? i have 1tb nvme already as main disc for os/datas. so the 250 gb + 512 gb nvme are for do a raid 0 for datas/backup images... have the follow system compnets: cpu 1800x @ 3.8 ghz - rs-du + 32 gb ddr3 @ 2933 ... thank you !!

[@Tanspotty]

Still confuse dude... I got that exact motherboard and trying to use PCIE e3 slot for m.2 expansion but it won't detect at all. Bios shows no e3 slot at all

[@Icefury]

Hello Tao, thank you for the video! Still a bit confused, can you answer a question for me? I have a MSI x570 Unify with 3 M.2 slots. Running a 5700x and Radeon 6900XT. Here is my question I have two NVME drives (Gen 4 2TB on slot m2_1) and (Gen 3 2TB on slot m2_2). Onboard Lan and Sound disabled (I use USB DAC). Only other pci-e card is a Intel 1gb nic plugged into PCI_E4. For "optimal" setup, am I using the right M2 slots? Would my gpu be running at 8x or 16x bandwidth with two NVME drives? Can you have two NVME drives on the x570 Unify and still maintain full 16x speed for the GPU?

[@TaoMStudio]

@Icedury Your setup is fine.

[@jetmiraclecommander4095]

I'm planning to buy a second m2 nvme, i noticed that it says m2_2 slot only supports PCIE x2? does this mean that it will have slower speed? Should i just go for sata ssd drive?

[@E-dirts]

I am using MSI B365M PRO-VH motherboard which has a single M.2, single PCIe x16 and two PCIe x1 slot. I am using an M.2 SSD, one x16 graphics card, one x1 wi-fi adapter card but the second x1 is empty. I attempted to use an x1 TV Tuner but windows never recognized it though the card is functional (tested). The manual says if you use the M.2 SSD the SATA 1 port won't work but I never understood why the second PCIe x1 didn't work. I am still stuck. So, I have attached another SATA based SSD on SATA 2 port which works just fine. I am no gamer and I don't see any dramatic improvement on speed as far as the M.2 is concerned. Even if there's any improvement that doesn't help me in any big way. On top the M.2 runs very hot which is understandable. I am seriously considering to move to SATA based SSD and leave M.2 empty so that I can use the PCIe card at least which I think is more important for me. Thanks for clarifying this issues on the video.

[@2h4]

so if I have a ssd in both M.2 slots will I still be able to use a wifi card on the PCI_E4 slot?

[@sassa77]

Thanks for this awesome explanation. I have a MSI® MPG Z390 GAMING PLUS . Im using M.2 1st slot and one of the sata port of the 6 is unavailable. That’s alright. Im not planning to use the second M.2 slot because two of the sata port would be unavailable. But Im planning to use the PCI_E4 slot for Nvme ssd by an adapter. Will it work?