2021 A 17 Tuf FA706IHRB

[Debi_Marie]

I have a question or two. Is it possible to upgrade the PCIe 3.0 on the motherboard to 4.0??    Perhaps there might be an external means to bypass the onboard M.2 SSD slot and have the SSD mounted on a PCIe 4.0 externally ???   I bought a Samsung 980 Pro SSD and it only functions at 3.0x4.      Should all else fail, what motherboard with PCIe 4.0 would fit in this laptop case??   I've tried looking up these subjects but failed to discover a solution, could someone please render assistance??

[cl-Albert · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If you check your cpu specs which is soldered to the notebook motherboard and cannot be replaced, it will only support PCIe 3.0 and below is the link to AMD's website for the AMD R5-4600H cpu if you want to see that it only supports PCIe 3.0 under the connectivity section.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-5-4600h

You may want to double-check my information, but the Samsung 980 supports PCIe 3.0x4 which is what your notebook supports while the Samsung 980 Pro supports PCIe 4.0x4 which I thought may be able to run at PCIe 3.0x4 speeds if it is necessary, but don't quote me on that.

[Debi_Marie]

Thank you for the response. The 980 Pro operates at PCIe 3.0 but not getting the full benefits.  I wonder what motherboard would fit in the laptop case that supports PCIe 4.0. I've asked Asus support this question but the answer I get back is what you've provided.      Additionally, is there any device that I could mount my 980 Pro externally in and that supports PCIe 4.0??  I'm attempting to not buy a new laptop at this time you understand.

[Raibex87 · Accepted solution]

You cannot buy laptop motherboards off the Internet as they have the CPU and GPU soldered on, so I wouldn't waste your time trying to do this.  In addition, USB type A ports are much slower than NVMe, and ASUS only offered USB4 support for the USB-C ports starting with Ryzen 6000 series CPUs, so mounting it externally would be even slower than the NVMe slot.  I hate to say this, but there is no possible way you can get PCIe 4.0 speeds on your laptop.

PCIe 3.0 still supports up to 3500 MB/s transfer speeds, so the difference would be a few seconds at most in loading times, so I wouldn't get too worried about it.

[Debi_Marie]

I sincerely apricate your response and answering this question for me. I was afraid that this might be the case and I wasn't expecting much in return. However, I'll keep this A17 a bit longer until I can upgrade it. I do have a ROG Strix  G731GT that I need to upgrade as well. Agreed that an NVMe enclosure would only produce 10mb/s or some such so that option was out completely. Maybe I'll go to a desk top and get away from laptops all together in the near future.    Once again, I deeply thank you for your kindness and response. I bid you a lovely day and take care. Bye.