Adding an NVME drive

[kb5zue]

Currently running an Asus TUF Sabertooth 990FX motherboard that has one (1) nvme slot.  I have a Samsung 970 EVO Plus in that slot but would like to add an additional nvme for furture use.  Since the mobo has only the one nvme slot, will the following satisfy the need for an additional nvme for later expansion with room to grow.  I would like to be able to expand to additional nvme but in the description it talks about setting up the nvme drives in RAID.  I have no plans to use raid, just want to be able to add drives as individual drives and not RAID.  Will this card work in a non-raid situation with individual drives?  Many thanks to all that help.

 

https://www.newegg.com/asus-model-hyper-m-2-x16-card-v2-pci-express-to-4-x-m-2/p/N82E16815293043

[Applefreak]

AFAIK those cards only work with chipsets that support nvme already. Your board does not. Instead it uses an additional controller to realize that feature. Up until today I didn't even know there was an updated version of that board. I have a 990FX R 2.0 her in my NAS and I've tried a similar card from silverstone. It did work wih Sata M.2 SSDs but not nvme SSDs.

[kb5zue]

Here is the correct description of my board.  Does this make a difference?  I forgot to add the revision number in my original post.  Like I said earlier, I do have an nvme on the mobo but the mobo only supports just the one nvme slot.  I am seriously considering adding additional nvme because of their speed and I really could use the additional space.  If I understand correctly, the nvme has just the one key slot while the m.2 has two slots.  Is there a noticeable difference in the speed between the two drives?  Thanks for the help.

 

Board: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. SABERTOOTH 990FX R3.0

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

15 minutes ago, Applefreak said:

AFAIK those cards only work with chipsets that support nvme already. Your board does not. Instead it uses an additional controller to realize that feature. Up until today I didn't even know there was an updated version of that board. I have a 990FX R 2.0 her in my NAS and I've tried a similar card from silverstone. It did work wih Sata M.2 SSDs but not nvme SSDs.

Nvme doesn't need anouther controller, it just needs something in the bios that allows it to see and boot from nvme drives.

 

That card needs pcie bifurcation, which I don't think this board supports.

 

If its not a boot drive, you don't need bios support at all, nvme will work in any system with a pcie bus.

 

1 minute ago, kb5zue said:

Here is the correct description of my board.  Does this make a difference?  I forgot to add the revision number in my original post.  Like I said earlier, I do have an nvme on the mobo but the mobo only supports just the one nvme slot.  I am seriously considering adding additional nvme because of their speed and I really could use the additional space.  If I understand correctly, the nvme has just the one key slot while the m.2 has two slots.  Is there a noticeable difference in the speed between the two drives?  Thanks for the help.

 

Board: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. SABERTOOTH 990FX R3.0

 

The problem with that card is it needs pcie bifurcation support, and I don't think that board supports it(but you can try).

 

You can ad as many nvme drives as you want, but a single m.2 adapter is best.

[kb5zue]

Great, many thanks for the help.  I googled "bifurcation", but still didn't understand what it was trying to say.  Guess I will consider the individual card idea instead.  Thanks again.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

9 minutes ago, kb5zue said:

Great, many thanks for the help.  I googled "bifurcation", but still didn't understand what it was trying to say.  Guess I will consider the individual card idea instead.  Thanks again.

 

basically it lets you split one pcie slot into multiple. This is usefull for things like those 4x mi.2 slots. Some system(mostly newer higher end ones) let you do this, while other system only let you use one pcie device per slot, and if you want multiple devices, you need a pcie switch. You can but a card with a switch, but there aren't cheap (i think around 200-400 usd)

[kb5zue]

OUCH!!  won't go that route, that's for sure.  thanks.

 

 

[-rascal-]

@Electronics Wizardy I remember AMD showcasing the ASUS TUF 990FX R3.0 when I attended PAX West 2016.

Basically, a finally attempt for the AMD FX-series CPUs before Ryzen hit the market a year later.

 

@kb5zue

Looks like the M.2 slot goes through the SB950 chipset, so it will be PCI-E 2.0 speed.

 

 

https://www.kitguru.net/components/motherboard/luke-hill/asus-tuf-sabertooth-990fx-r3-0-motherboard-review/all/1/

Quote

That M.2 connector also supports PCIe x4 SSDs up to 110mm in length, though don’t expect to max out transfer rates on your shiny new Samsung 960 EVO as the PCIe links are Gen 2, NOT Gen 3. That makes the slot capable of an effective 20Gbps bandwidth which, following efficiency conversion for 8/10-bit encoding for PCIe Gen 2, translates into a maximum theoretical transfer rate of 2GBps. Quite a way off the 4GBps capability of PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots on modern Intel and AMD platforms.

 

EDIT: 

Reading the manual a bit more...yes... the M.2 slot shares bandwidth with the with the PCIe16_2 slot.

The PCI-E X16 (length) slot that runs electrically at X4 is disabled, when the M.2 slot is used as PCIe, rather than SATA III.

[kb5zue]

Rascal, thanks for the information but sorry to say, it is in a language that I don't fully understand.  In layman's terms, can you give me an idea what it says?  Sorry for the confusion.

 

I already have the one nvme slot on the board populated with a Samsung 970 evo plus, but would like the ability to add additional nvme drive(s) in the future.  If it worked like I would want, it would be a really big help.

 

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by kb5zue
additional info.