Problems with NVMe SSDs and motherboards that you need to know

Prawn here showing the potential issues you might have with NVMe SSDs and the things to consider when installing them, but also things to check in Windows.

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M.2 screws:

Tools to use:

Features of the Corsair MP600 Elite:
PS5-compatible M.2 SSD storage expansion: Expand your PS5 storage capacity with a PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD that delivers up to 7,000MB/sec sequential read and 6,500MB/sec sequential write speeds, for phenomenal read, write, and response times.
High-speed PCIe Gen4 Performance: Leveraging PCIe Gen4 technology for maximum bandwidth, the MP600 ELITE delivers incredible storage performance.
Expand your console’s storage: Expand your console’s storage, fitting the needs of nearly any game library, whether you have four games or 40.
Gaming Made Faster: The MP600 ELITE exceeds all Sony PS5 M.2 performance requirements, so large game files load faster than ever, directly from the SSD.
Low-profile aluminium heatsink: The aluminum heatsink helps disperse heat and reduce throttling, so your SSD maintains sustained high performance right out of the box.

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[viperrcr]

I have definitely realized over the last couple years that if I am interested in a certain motherboard, I first download the manual for that motherboard and research all of this stuff as there are surprises out there. I have seen in addition to SATA ports being disabled with certain NMVE scenarios, I have also seen Thunderbolt ports disabled in this fashion as well from what I have read in the mobo manuals. Read before you buy is my new mantra!

[Del_UK]

100% of this issue is down to AMD and Intel sitting on the old ways of 24 (20 via CPU and 4 via Chipset) PCIE lanes is enough.

[seancasgamer]

It's daibolical researching this. You literally have to read the manual of every motherboard you're looking to buy.

This was supposed to be easier with AM5, but the B650 and X670 chipsets then got inexplicably split into B650/B650E and X670/X670E which made the whole situation as clear as mud.

Why AMD didn't just say, "B650 is PCIe Gen 4 for everything and X670 is PCIe Gen 5 for main M.2 and first PCIe expansion slot" is a mystery to everyone.

[ciceroripi]

Just be sure to check the GPU with something running. the GPU goes into standby and changes the speed of the PCIe when nothing big is rendering, so that information is not correct if you don't have something actually being processed by the GPU.
That's why on GPUz there's a rendering test near that info.

[outsidein]

Subscribed, because none of the bigger channels seem to even touch on this topic.

[mitcharbiter]

This revelation blew mind and I've seen all sorts of things over the years; having started building my own PCs back in the x286 days.

Nicely done!

[GanJosie]

I skipped M2_1 slot for my z790 dark hero because using gen4 still cut my gpu to x8, so I put my system on M2_2 instead, which still connected to the cpu.😅

[jasonhenninger]

That's specifically why I chose the MB i did. I confirmed the last nvme slot piggybacked on a SATA port but did not interfere with the PCIEx16

[poorNOOB]

Well, all z690/790 boards that have PCIE gen 5 m.2 slot(s) will always halve the first X16 PCIE slot down to X8, regardless of the brand of the board you use.

[ewenchan]

So that's not a NVMe issue -- but rather a motherboard issue.

[OrcCorp]

Great video!
Thank god these are some very specific high-tier problems, affecting only a tiny minority of users. For example, If you can afford a 700 dollar motherboard, then spend money on bigger SSDs instead of several smaller ones. If you can't afford those SSDs, spend less money on the motherboard. You can get an excellent DDR5 motherboard for $200-300.

Usually, no point in having four or five 1Tb NVMe SSDs in your motherboard. Just buy two 2-4Tb SSDs and be done with it. Also, almost nobody needs these speeds on their SSDs. You don't benefit from it, unless you transfer massive amounts of data on your system regularly, or you do some extreme simulation with huge data amounts (although the work pipeline bottleneck in simulation usually is not the data transfer rate of an SSD, but the CPU, unless you're using a $20k super home computer with 2 physical CPUs with 128 cores both, or something like that).

Only 0.1% of PC users will actually benefit from the PCIe 5.0x4 (4 lanes, 4GB/lane) 16 GB/s data transfer speed compared to the 8 GB/s speed on PCIe 4.0x4 (4 lanes, 2GB/lane), so the 99.99% of us peasants are doing just great with the PCIe 4.0 speeds. Gaming doesn't benefit from the extra speed at all, and even heavy video editing or most productivity workloads doesn't benefit from it. The work pipeline bottleneck is pretty much always elsewhere.

[chrispridemore]

On the MSI board you can change the generation to 5 in the bios, and use a gen 4 ssd in that slot, and keep all your PCI lanes.

[Filmmaker]

Glad you doing this video. I upgraded my PC from an i7 4790k to a i9 13900k with an Asus Z790 Hero which I thought I could use at full speed with x5 NVME drives. Not so. I've installed 4 now, plan to add a 5th one soon. I think AMD Threadripper has much more M.2/NVME drives slots that any other chipset.

[Aurummorituri]

You can fill the board with NVMe drives and be "fine" on the CPU-Z screen, but you definitely not fine if multiple drives are active at once. With AMD you only get ONE drive connected directly to the CPU and ONE drive connected through the chipset to run at full bandwidth simultaneously without competition. Any drives past that are SHARING those lanes. If more than one drive on the same bus cranks up, speeds on other drives will drop or be halved by default. He says as much in this video. Intel is even worse. No direct CPU bus for an NVMe without robbing GPU lanes, so you only get ONE drive at full speed.

[jtnachos]

So, uh, question: Have you tried checking the lane usage while actually USING the graphics card for something? To see if it is prioritizing bandwidth to the gpu when it is going full tilt, but leaving it in a lower bandwidth mode when it isn't using that bandwidth? Obviously, test while gen5 slot is idle, but might be something worth checking.
It's also a good thing to remember that for most consumer uses, an NVME doesn't provide much, if any, noticeable benefit over a SATA SSD. So you can usually just whack a Sata ssd in instead of using that gen 5 slot.

Also, yes, always a good idea to check the specs of parts BEFORE purchasing them by looking at the more detailed data available on manufacturer's site, instead of just marketing slides. It's helpful for pretty much EVERY part.

[vincecooper]

Yes this is all True. I've been building my own Gaming configurations for 40 years. I currently use the Asus ROG Strix B550 XE Gaming Motherboard & 2 TB NVME M.2 SSD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU. Yes installing another M.2 in the lower slot will split the Lane Traffic to half. Instead of 16X they will both be 8X.

[qT_p]

The motherboard manuals show how the lanes are divided. From what ive seen on many AM5 boards, the top nvme slot steals lanes (which goes against the meta we've been accustomed to for the past few years)

[bes]

I have an ASRock X670E Pro RS and can fill all the m.2 slots and still get 16x Gen 4 for the GPU, depends on the CPU and motherboard type, if the motherboard has it's own controller chip for M.2 drives I think it frees up some lanes from the CPU.

[calldeltosell]

Check the block diagram for whatever board you are looking at. Then notice that (at least what I observed) that top position is probably driven off the CPU (e.g. z790 architecture). Any others, off the chipset. You can then break it according.

[deepakg]

Great video, surprised to see the GPU take a hit with the gen 4 drive. Thanks for exploring this!