M.2 Question?

[bachevyman]

• So a couple worker told me about the m.2 slot. I was excited to see my motherboard supports m.2. When I look at the port, it's this 20 pin connector, like 1/2 of an ide port on a Y2K Era mobo, pointed in the same direction as the sata pmotor, I cannot find an m.2 card that looks like it will fit this slot. Am I missing something?

   

[Nate152]

Hello bachevyman

That looks like a usb 3.0 header. The M.2 slot is under that long heatsink behind that header, you'll have to remove the two screws from the heatsink to get to it.

Tell me what motherboard you have and I'll point out the M.2 slot(s).

[bachevyman]

Asus maximus hero viii

I know what the m.2 slot looks like. My confusion is in my motherboard book, it points to that connector right next to the sata ports. I had a friend tell me maybe it's an m.2... but not an m.2 nvme

[Murph_9000]

That board is not a ROG Maximus VIII Hero.  Could it be a Maximus XIII Hero?

The 20 pin connector with two rows of pins on the edge of the board is a USB 3 front panel header.  I can see the back of your M.2 connector behind it, under the long decorative heatsink plate that's screwed down over it.  It's a normal M.2 NMVe slot that will take standard 22mm drives up to 2280 (or maybe 22110, depends on the exact board and slot).  Just unscrew the long panel over the slot to access it.

See page 2-6 (PDF page 48) of the Maximus XIII Hero User Manual.  If it's not that exact model, the procedure might be slightly different, but the decorative heatsink cover plate will be roughly the same type of thing.  You may need the tiny M.2 machine screw (and possibly the corresponding standoff) from the motherboard's accessories.

If it is the Maximus XIII Hero, see page 1-2 (PDF page 18) of the book I linked above for the motherboard layout.  The USB header in your photo is item 10.  There are 4 M.2 slots on that board, all labelled item 7.  If you only install one M.2 drive on that board, it should go in slot M.2_1 on 11th gen CPUs (that slot is unavailable on 10th gen), as that slot is directly connected to the CPU for higher performance.  Slot M.2_2 takes PCIe lanes from the GPU slot, forcing the GPU into x8 mode, so is best avoided.  M.2_3 and M.2_4 (the two slots under the long plate in your photo) go via the chipset, and are available on both 10th and 11th gen.  On 10th gen CPUs, use slot M.2_3 for the first NVMe drive.

[bachevyman]

Funny thing, I have a nero viii and an xiii. Guess I grabbed the wrong box. I was about ready to be like look at my manual,  but then noticed the xiii book ended up in the viii box making it completely wrong. Ty 

[Nate152 · Accepted solution]

Nice eye Murph, that is indeed an ROG Maximus XIII Hero.

Intel 11th gen cpu's have 20 pcie 4.0 lanes. For maximum performance and compatibility, you'll want to make sure your gpu and M.2 ssd is Gen 4. Although, you can use pcie 3.0 devices but, both the gpu and ssd should be pcie 3.0 to avoid issues.

There are four M.2 slots, put your ssd in the M.2_1 slot for the fastest speeds, as it uses x4 lanes from the cpu. 

You can use NVMe ssd's and I'd recommend this one. Since it's Gen 4, you'll want a 3000/4000 series gpu to go with it.

Amazon.com: Seagate FireCuda 530 1TB Solid State Drive - M.2 PCIe Gen4 ×4 NVMe 1.4, speeds up to 730...

The M.2_1 slot is under the heatsink that says Hero on it, use a magnetic screwdriver to remove the screws. There will be a thermal pad on the motherboard and the heatsink, remove the thin clear protective film from both. Install your ssd and screw on the heatsink snug, don't overtighten.

The four 7's are the M.2 slots.

[bachevyman]

**bleep** I got 4 of them? I found my error. I have an xiii and a viii and was reading the wrong manual. Can you raid them into 1 massive drive? Cause that would be awesome!