Asus Crosshair VIII Hero PCIe and M.2 Installation

[Steev43230]

So I got me one o' them there Asus Crosshair VIII* Hero PCIe motherboard things today. I also got me some m.2 SSDs (which I'd purchased a month earlier).

 

The SSDs came with a thin strip of metal that had a custom-cut double-sided tape on the back, for installation onto the SSD.

 

The Asus mommyboard, however, also had doublesided tape. Much thicker, and not noticeable unless you actually look at the bottom of the head spreaders which cover the m.2 slots.

 

Believing "nothing should to to waste," I installed both. The Asus stuff spread a little (see image).

 

2uestions:**

 

1. Should I have used both sets of tape and heat spreaders?

 

2. Do you think I should trim the spreading Asus tape - or just leave it be?

 

As a special treat, a second image is attached of my build so far. Gotta wait for the CPU - I failed to assume MicroCenter would sell out immediately, and Amazon never showed me it had any in stock.***

 

"Thank you for your support."

 

 

Steve

    *Will someone PLEASE tell them to stop this roman numeral nonsense? Makes it really difficult to buy what one intends to.

  **Yes, it is spelled "with a capital 2," as Bart Simpson said.

***I am aware that natural selection also applies to relationships between people and static-sensitive electronics. Even in the high humidity we're enjoying today.

 

 

[SenKa]

Use the stuff that came with the motherboard

[Steev43230]

Instead of or in addition to?

[Steev43230]

12 hours ago, Steev43230 said:

Instead of or in addition to?

'nother question. Should I plug in the other four-pin CPU power connector (leaving the remaining 4-pin orphaned? (See image)

[ch3w2oy]

Just plug in as many CPU connectors you have available.. Can't hurt anything but you really shouldn't need it.. That's up to you.. 

 

For the M2 heatsink, just use the motherboards heatsinks only.. You shouldn't need the thin piece of metal.. My SX8200 Pro also came with one and I don't use it either.. 

[Steev43230]

Thanks. Although I will have to get some more double-sided sticky tape, but that should not be a problem. It’s good to have knowledgeable feedback.Thanks. Although I will have to get some more double-sided sticky tape, but that should not be a problem. It’s good to have knowledgeable feedback.

[Steev43230]

. . . and . . . one more. Got my 2080Ti. It has two 8-pin power connectors. The cable that came with the PSU has an 8-pin PSU connector on one and and two 6+2 pin connectors on the other end (see image). The 2080 says it want's all 16-pins populated. (On-box system requirements state, "Two 8-pin supplementary power connectors.") So, is the one cable (8-pins at PSU to 16 pins at card) sufficient? Or should I go purchase two separate 8-pin to 8-pin connectors? This last sounds proper to me but I really would like to boot up today if doing so with 8-in and 16-out won't hurt anything.

 

It was my dad who was the electrical engineer. I'm just a loiterer. Er..., um, I mean lawyer.

Edited July 16, 2019 by Steev43230
Add photo

[AvogadrosDog]

1 hour ago, Steev43230 said:

. . . and . . . one more. Got my 2080Ti. It has two 8-pin power connectors. The cable that came with the PSU has an 8-pin PSU connector on one and and two 6+2 pin connectors on the other end (see image). The 2080 says it want's all 16-pins populated. (On-box system requirements state, "Two 8-pin supplementary power connectors.") So, is the one cable (8-pins at PSU to 16 pins at card) sufficient? Or should I go purchase two separate 8-pin to 8-pin connectors? This last sounds proper to me but I really would like to boot up today if doing so with 8-in and 16-out won't hurt anything.

 

It was my dad who was the electrical engineer. I'm just a loiterer. Er..., um, I mean lawyer.

You need to use the 8-pin power connector and the 6+2-pin power connector that are attached to the same cable. You don't need to get another 8-pin power connector. Your 2080Ti will not run unless you plug in all of the power connector slots otherwise the card will simply not start.

[Steev43230]

1 hour ago, AvogadrosDog said:

You need to use the 8-pin power connector and the 6+2-pin power connector that are attached to the same cable. You don't need to get another 8-pin power connector. Your 2080Ti will not run unless you plug in all of the power connector slots otherwise the card will simply not start.

So . this is the correct cable - 8 pins on the PSU side and 6+2 and another 6+2 on the card side. It's a Y connector - 8 pins branching out to 16. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) Thanks!

[Steev43230]

1 hour ago, AvogadrosDog said:

You need to use the 8-pin power connector and the 6+2-pin power connector that are attached to the same cable. You don't need to get another 8-pin power connector. Your 2080Ti will not run unless you plug in all of the power connector slots otherwise the card will simply not start.

So . this is the correct cable - 8 pins on the PSU side and 6+2 and another 6+2 on the card side. It's a Y connector - 8 pins branching out to 16. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) Thanks!

[Steev43230]

. . . and . . . voilà!

[AvogadrosDog]

8 hours ago, Steev43230 said:

So . this is the correct cable - 8 pins on the PSU side and 6+2 and another 6+2 on the card side. It's a Y connector - 8 pins branching out to 16. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) Thanks!

Yup that's correct.

 

Glad to see everything has worked out well. Enjoy your build!

[Steev43230]

Has anyone had any success in getting both m.2 slots recognized on this mobo? I've tried many settings in the BIOS to no avail.

 

So I need to enable SATA even though my m.2's are not sata and I have no sata devices?

 

• Re M.2_1, the manual says, "For 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors,
  the M.2_1 supports PCIe 4.0 x4 and SATA modes M key design and type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices."
• Re M.2_2, the manual says,"For AMD X570 chipset,
  the M.2_2 supports PCIe 4.0 x4 and SATA modes M key design and type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices"

Both my m.2's are "PCIe Gen 3x4" - but only the one in the _1 slot is recognized.

 

Maybe this is a hint. Let's see . . . .

Edited August 18, 2019 by Steev43230

[MMKing]

My X570-E recognize the top M.2 without any issues, but i've yet to install a second in the lower M.2 slot.

 

My manual told me to first remove the motherboard shield, then remove the M.2 shield, install the M.2, then install the M.2 shield again then finally install the motherboard shield. It was recognized in BIOS at once, and after a quick formatting in windows it was recognized there. Took like 10 minutes.

 

My Corsair MP510 came bare, with no heat dissipation at all. So i'm currently only using the ''thermal tape'' pre-applied to the M.2 shield on the motherboard. It's working fine, and seeing as manufacturers didn't really start with a thermal solution for their M.2 SSDs before PCI-E 4.0. I'm guessing my PCI-E 3.0 SSD will work flawlessly even with the better than nothing cooling solution Asus provided.

 

 

Your inability to have the Mobo recognize two M.2 Sata ports may be related to the PCI-E lanes to the M.2 sata, conflicts with the PCI-E lanes to any expansion cards.

 

Check out the ''specifications summary'' section in your manual. In mine, the only shared lanes are the ''x16_3'' and the ''x1_2'' slots.

 

second, go to the motherboard layout section 1.1.2 in your manual. And see which, if any of the PCI-E slots share bandwidth with any of your M.2 SSD slots. The slots should be refereed to as ''M.2_1 socket 3'' and ''M.2_2 socket 3'' in your motherboard manual.

 

On my motherboard, there should be no conflict between any of the M.2 slots and the PCI-E slots. Nor should there be, as the 3900x support 16 + 4 lane utilization. While the motherboard chipset takes care of the second M.2 slot.

 

 

As for power requirements. The 8 pin is more than enough for 8 core Ryzens and even the 12 core. But it was probably a safe bet from Asus to add the additional 4 pin seeing as AMD is planning to release a 16 core CPU on the platform. I use 8+4 on my 3900x... but it's probably not necessary. 8 pins deliver 235W of continuous power while a 4 pin delivers 155 watts of continuous power. Seeing as the 9900K can exceed a single 8 pin, it was probably a good idea to go for an 8+4 solution having the upcoming 16 core 3950x in mind.