Installing five Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSDs on Z790 Hero without dropping lanes?

[ApolloEleven]

This is a continuation of an older post which went quiet (https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?130891-Z790-Hero-M-2-configuration-with-a-RTX-4090/page2&h...) I recommending reading the whole thread for context, there were a lot of misinformation there that was corrected on later posts.

In that thread, it seems you can get three Gen4 M.2 NVMe without the GPU slot being dropped from x16 to x8 on the Z790 Hero as long they are not Gen5 SSDs. So my question is, can we get install another two Gen4 drives via the Hypercard on the very last PCIe slot (to the chipset)?

My plan is to have a total of five Gen4 or Gen3 NVMes without dropping lanes to the GPU.

Thanks.

[Nate152]

Hi ApolloEleven

I don't think so.

What you have to work with is 20 lanes from the cpu and 8 lanes from the chipset for a total of 28 pcie lanes.

Each drive uses 4 lanes, so with three drives that's 12 lanes + 16 lanes for the gpu, there is all 28 lanes used.

[ApolloEleven]

Nate152 wrote:
Hi ApolloEleven

I don't think so.

What you have to work with is 20 lanes from the cpu and 8 lanes from the chipset for a total of 28 pcie lanes.

Each drive uses 4 lanes, so with three drives that's 12 lanes + 16 lanes for the gpu, there is all 28 lanes used.

Thanks, that cleared it up.

[NickA]

I thought Z690 was 20+12 and z790 was 20+20? But you can definitely load a z690 with 4x nvme and still rock full 16x for video card and the 790 has an extra 8 lanes.

[Nate152]

I was going by what Intel has listed for the specs of Z790.

It shows the same for Z690.

[NickA]

That's correct but it's only for the chipset. This one is much easier to understand;
https://www.anandtech.com/show/17601/intel-core-i9-13900k-and-i5-13600k-review/3

[ApolloEleven]

Hmm does this mean I could install 5x onboard Gen4 NVMe SSDs after all? One way to find out is to plug the Hypercard in, still waiting for my RAM to arrive.

[NickA]

Looks to be the case as long as you use the G4 slot for the hyper card

[MovedPermanentl]

Yes, you can install 5 drives in total without sharing lanes if you use the Add-In Card on the lowest PCIe 4.0 Slot. I have a Z790 Hero and this is exactly how it works. You only share lanes if you put the card in the second PCIe slot below the GPU (the 5.0 slot).

[Nate152]

Yeah according to NickA's chart, z790 has 8 more pcie 4.0 chipset lanes than z690.