New Asus X870E Strix board - M.2 drive disappearing

[Cheairnyndahl]

Hello, just installed my new Asus X870E-E Strix motherboard, loving it so far. When I initially got in to Windows, all of my drives were present (even the new one that wasn't formatted yet was showing in Disk Management) - I updated everything in terms of latest drivers for the motherboard etc, rebooted and enabled EXPO on my RAM, set to 6000MHz with voltages set, didn't touch any other settings...

And now one of my M.2 drives is not showing up in BIOS or in Windows?  I've tried changing the BIOS setting for Bifurcation to GPU+M.2 mode, that doesn't help.  Any suggestions as to what else I can try?  I have a feeling it's related to the whole thing of the GPU slot & the M.2-2 & M.2-3 sharing bandwidth, but the drive that's in one of them is showing up while the other is not now.
I'm going to try disabling EXPO & see if that helps for some reason... wouldn't make any sense if that was it, but perhaps the BIOS version I'm on is messing something up.

[Kraebel]

I am having a similar issue with the X870-E Hero Motherboard. I have a Gen 5 Crucial T705 2TB in M2_1 and a Samsung 990 2TB in M2_4. The issue seems to be on the M2_1 for me with the T705 and not sure if it is a BIOS issue, Gen 5 drive issues, or a bum drive. I am able to boot to windows and do some stuff but eventually blue screens and on reboot right into BIOS. From there the M2_1 drive is not seen but Samsung always is. It seems if I power off the PC and power back on, it sees it again and boots to windows only to happen again, especially when running CrystalDiskMark.

I then took out the T705 and put the Samsung 990 in the M2_1 slot and has been rock solid regardless of memory timings using DOCP or not. I was able to install Windows and all drivers and run multiple benchmarks without issue. One thing I Noticed is the T705 appears to be a bit thicker then the 990 and had some issues getting the M2_1 heat sink to click in where it clicked in with ease on the 990.

I am on the latest 0706 BIOS and running the 9800x3D and Gskill 64GB DDR6400 C32 sticks.

Next thing I will probably try is the T705 again in M2_1 with no other M2 slots populated.

[Psamtik]

Does the t705 work in slots 2 or 3, ignoring the x8 gpu speed drop for the moment, just to make sure its working as intended? If it does and its thicker as you say, it could be the way the quick release cover mounts that is applying uneven pressure on it. It may need a separate heat sink or maybe just a thinner thermal pad if that is the case. 

If you do get a separate heat sink though, my guess is it will have to be a big one, as what put me off getting one for my main boot drive was that big heatsink that the heatsink version comes with. Luckily you can pick up a decent size one for a reasonable price, maybe even an active cooled one, though I am not a fan (excuse the pun) of the mini fans as they tend to be noisy, so large passive may be better. Something like this if it doesn't get int he way of the GPU https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermalright-heatsink-Double-Sided-Silicone-Computer/dp/B0BNHZGGJP/?_encodi...

[Cheairnyndahl]

I had a not so fun scare when messing with my drive arrangement, the drive I use for stable diffusion/forge rendering stopped showing up after I put one of the aftermarket heatsinks I got on it. Tried both slot 4&5. I know the drive in question, a 2TB TForce Z440, is dual sided, but that isn't the only issue causing it to not work, because the other drive I have on the other of the 2 heatsinks is the Adata 4TB,and it is also dual sided (and thick, I had to use thinner thermal pads and put the heatsink on just right to get out to cool properly).

I moved the TForce drive in question back to m.2-3 & suddenly it's fine again. Just glad I didn't somehow break the drive, but very confused as to why it didn't work in the heatsink.

I did manage to get all 5 m.2 slots to register and work again during that though. Ended up with manually RAM timings, speed and voltage this time, but it works 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think all 3 top slots, m.2-1 as well as 2 & 3, seem to save issues with thicker drives in terms of mounting pressure or randomly not working, but I could be wrong. 

[Kraebel]

I will give the m2 and m3 slot a try to see if results are any better just to see if it is a drive issue. Was also looking at getting the T700 orr 705 with the heat-sink and just not use the motherboard's heat-sink.

[Kraebel]

Just tried the T705 in M2 and same issue. Now trying a T700 with heat sink in M1.

[Ramez7151]

Im having the exact same issue with that particualr slot in m2.3. I only have 3 ssd so i just moved two to the bottom slots to avoid taking up pcie bandwidth. I was going to exchange the board at microcenter since i just bought it. 

The experiance of Cheairnyndahl above is mkaing me feel like this is a bios issue not a hardware problem. 

[Cheairnyndahl]

I would highly recommend you exchange your board while you still can. There are people who have RMAed for another board & are no longer having the issue. I wish I had because now I'd have to deal with Asus RMA to get another one. This far BIOS updates have not solved the problem. It randomly comes and goes. In fact, now that I'm on 0706, I've had it where all 5 drives showed up in BIOS & Windows, then the next day I booted up, having changes nothing, and m.2-3 was gone again.

My current solution, to keep the drives under the best cooling possible whilst also not having drives disappear, is to have the my Samsung 990 Pro 4TB that's got most of my games on it under the thick-arse m.2-1 heatsink, my primary rendering/stable diffusion drive in m.2-2 under the heatpiped heatsink there, my C drive, with Windows and all that, in an aftermarket heatsink I purchased, in m.2-5, and my ADATA S70 4TB other games/storage drive in the Sabrent x4 4.0 PCIe card with it's own very effective heatsink. While this does mean my GPU is limited to x8, I can disable the m.2-2&3 drive slots through BIOS to run it at full x16 if needed, and with that layout, all 4 drives are running nice & cool, the only one that has slightly higher Temps all the time is my C Drive, which is to be expected with it never truly being idle, thanks to Windows. 

I also have a fan blowing over the PCIe x4 card & c drive heatsink area, as well as another one blowing over my RAM & the two upper/bigger heatsinks. That helps a ton both with m.2 Temps & the RAM Temps (since my sticks are 48GB each, they're dual sided, so they run warm regardless of settings, airflow helps a ton). 

[Ramez7151]

Thanks for responding i appreciate it. Ill head over to microcenter tomorrow. I really hate having to take apart and put together these PCs. I was trying to avoid it. 

also a 5 percent difference related to a motherboard issue with bandwidth is significant . 

[Cheairnyndahl]

It really does come down to if you plan on actually using all 5 slots at some point. I did, which is why it's a serious issue for me, more than just a nagging one.  You would basically be unable to reliably have M.2-3 accessible if you keep the current board, and it's entirely possible if you exchange it for another, it may not have the issue, as I've had a least 2 people now say they had this issue & getting a new board via exchange with the retailer they got it from solved the issue.

For those wondering, I did some A to B comparisons, but granted, it was only in one game (Dragon Age Veilguard, as that's what I'm currently playing), with the primary PCIe slot in x8 4.0 mode vs x16 4.0 mode, and the results were actually kind of surprising.  

Things to keep in mind: These results are with a RTX 4090, running at 2580MHz at 900mV (which is a HEAVY undervolt, when you consider the 4090 runs standard at 1050-1070mV), and yes it's 100% stable there. The gap between performance would probably only be slightly larger at higher clocks - I didn't think about it or I would've run before & afters at 2985MHz at 1070mV and stockish (~2760-2790MHz at 1050mV) as well, just for the comparisons.  Also keep in mind, this is with every single option in game cranked to the maximum, I'm running with DLSS on Quality and Frame Generation ON - I bounce back & forth between that & DLAA turned on with the resolution scaling turned down a tad... personally I think DLSS Quality looks better, and unfortunately even an RTX 4090 can't run the game at completely playable FPS 100% of the time with DLAA at native resolution - and trying to run Frame Generation to compensate doesn't work great, as I'm sure most of you know, Frame Generation when you're getting ~60fps or less is actually horrid... especially considering my native resolution is 5120 x 1440 (which is only 1 million pixels less than 4K) Anyways:

Location Number 1 with x8 slot speed got 132fps.  With the slot at the full x16 speed, the exact same location/view got 140fps.

Location Number 2 with x8 slot speed got 130fps, with the slot at full x16 speed it got 137fps.

Averaging those two out, it is about a 5.2-5.8% performance difference - again keep in mind that's with an undervolted/underclocked 4090.

So for those of us with super-high end GPUs, the x8 sacrifice, in some games, may not be worth it... it's hardly a noticeable difference in the one I'm testing, since you can't really tell a 5% decrease/increase in FPS when you're well over 100fps in the first place.

[Ramez7151]

These are expensive motherboards. Even if I’m not using it… owning an expensive motherboard with a potential defect doesn’t sit right with me.