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M.2 Installation: I'm Scratching My Head

ationfictons
Level 10
I've got an X570 Crosshair VIII Hero. I just switched my M.2 drive in the first M.2 slot (under the video card) and I ran into the same issue that confused me when I first put the system together. In that slot, the Asus-provided heatsink/cover screws into an offset that doubles as the place where a screw is supposed to hold down the M.2 drive:

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Well, my original photo was oriented better. Anyway you can see the two (empty) intermediate standoff spots and then the one that's got the standoff in it. Because the Asus-provided heatsink/cover uses that standoff, I can't screw the M.2 drive down before attaching the sticky Asus-provided heatsink/cover. So, I have to hold it down with my finger while I attempt to screw the adhesive-attached Asus-provided heatsink/cover down on top of it. Either that or go without the Asus-provided heatsink. Am I doing something wrong here?

Now, the second M.2 slot (at the bottom of the motherboard):

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is longer and doesn't have that issue. You can see three intermediate standoff positions and then the one used to screw down the Asus-provided heatsink/cover (I've put the Asus-provided standoff/screw into the 3rd intermediate position to show where that would go for a "normal" (2280) M.2 (and so I don't lose it)). Since the motherboard is an X570 and I'm using a Ryzen 3700X, both of those M.2 positions should be running at the same PCI4 speed. Except when I measured it with the default Crystal DiskMark M.2 tests, the 2nd position was roughly 15% slower than the 1st position.

First M.2 slot:

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and second M.2 slot:

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EDIT: When I ran the test on the first M.2 position, I watched the temperatures of the drive in HWINFO64. According to that, the controller temperature (Drive Temperature 2) never budged from 71 degrees C (I've never seen it budge at all -- it's the same temperature even immediately after a cold boot). The drive's memory temperature (Drive Temperature 1) increased by 21 degrees C during the test: from a stone-cold, cold-boot temperature of 28 degrees C to 49 degress C at its peak. Right now, it's idling at 31 degrees C. So, the Asus-provided heatsink/cover (along with the graphene heat spreader/label on the M.2 drive, itself), seems to be working fine. I just don't know if there's a better way to install it.
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7 REPLIES 7

knt
Level 7
I don't have the same motherboard as you, but I can confirm that my X570 E Gaming is also not running at full speed on the NVME 2 slot both with gen3/4 NMVE SSD tested.

At least your read/write speed on NVME 2 slot is nearer to the top end compared to what I can get, I can only manage half the write speed whilst the read speed is similar to yours with my WD850.

ationfictons
Level 10
The M.2 I just installed is a Kingston KC3000 (SKC3000D/2048G):

https://www.kingston.com/unitedstates/us/ssd/kc3000-nvme-m2-solid-state-drive?capacity=2048gb

It's theoretical read/write speeds are both about 7,000 MB/s.

At least some of the difference you're seeing is that the WD850:

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-black-sn850-nvme-ssd#WDS200T1X0E

is rated at 7,000/5,100 MB/s. What are you actually getting? How do the temperatures look in HWINFO64 while you're running Crystal DiskMark?

knt
Level 7
Both NVME slots temps always stays below 60 C when running CrystalDiskMark 5 passes test.

Speed on NVME 1 slot always at full read/write speed ~7000+/~5300+ M/Bs WD850 1TB.

Speed on NVME 2 slot read ~6200 MB/s & write ~3200 MB/s. WD850 2TB.

To be honest I've given up looking for answers for NVME 2 slot for full speed as others have also confirmed that NVME 2 slot never gets full speed. Just have to wait for BIOS updates and test if it fixes it.

Also, Armoury Crate also confirms both NVME slots are in Transfer Mode PCIe 4.0 x4.

Escorpiom
Level 9
This is not a temp issue.
Are you guys aware that the second NVME slot is connected to the south bridge?
For any speed issues, I would look at the link between the southbridge and the SOC.
The uefi has some settings for that, if I recall correctly.

Escorpiom wrote:
This is not a temp issue.
Are you guys aware that the second NVME slot is connected to the south bridge?
For any speed issues, I would look at the link between the southbridge and the SOC.
The uefi has some settings for that, if I recall correctly.


In my case not an issue with temps on any of my NVME.

The Armoury Crate app shows that both NVME slots are running at PCIE 4 x4 speed and I believe this is to be true as I have set all the related settings to gen4 in the BIOS.

When I get some time I'll probably take the NVME 1 slot out and just test the NVME 2 slot alone.

ationfictons
Level 10
As far as I can remember, I've got everything set up for PCIE 4 in the BIOS. I'll have to pop into it sometime and double-check.

I remember when I first saw the M.2 slots and thought "Cool. Now I don't have to mess with all those mounts and cables." Now, I look at them and think "Ugh. I've got to remove the graphics card and partially disassemble the motherboard using all those microscopic screws and mess with the adhesive on the covers." How time changes our perspectives.

I wonder if buying one of those multi-M.2 PCIE 4 expansion cards would work as fast as the built-in slots:

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-M-2-X16-Expansion-Card/dp/B084HMHGSP

Of course, that particular card needs a x16 slot. So, it might be fine in this motherboard. But, I was thinking of trying out an ITX next time and it wouldn't fit there.

ationfictons
Level 10
After looking over the manual some more, I guess I have some theoretical answers to some of the questions in this thread. First, as to installing a 2280 M.2 in the first slot, I guess I'm doing it "correctly." Here's a zoomed in picture from the manual:

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Since M.2 drive's don't naturally lie flat in their sockets, I guess I'm supposed to use one hand to hold the M.2 down, another hand to position the adhesive coated cover/heatsink onto it, another to use a screwdriver on the teeny-tiny screws. And throw a couple more hands in there just because it's persnickety.

Regarding the speed, both M.2 sockets can run at PCIe 4.0 x 4 speed, though the first socket is handled by the CPU and the second socket is handled by the chipset. Since this is an X570 chipset, both sockets will run at PCIe 4.0 speed. The Storage blurb in the manual:

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and the Operating Mode blurb:

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But, the problem is the x4 lane between the chipset and the cpu:

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Right there in the middle of the diagram. So, yes, the second M.2 slot has x4 lanes dedicated from it to the chipset. But, anything it needs the CPU to do has to compete with whatever else wants to go across the x4 lane between the chipset and the cpu. Probably not a lot of traffic, but probably some effect. Also, that communication would have to go through 2 hops instead of the 1 one from the first M.2 slot.

As for my thinking about a multi-M.2 PCIe 4.0 expansion card, here's the manual's blurb about expansion slots:

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Unless I limited my GPU to x8 mode, the 2nd PCIe slot is useless. That would put me into the 3rd PCIe x16 slot which is electrically x4 (which is fine for an M.2). But, it would be connected to the chipset, just like the 2nd M.2 socket on the motherboard. Plus, at x4, it could only hold one M.2 drive. So, there's no point in that.

Oh, well. Not happy answers. But, interesting ones.