Is this a new type of motherboard overclock?

[Digideath]

Hi there. Ill make this simple and sweet.

I was getting occasional boot issues with m.2 slot 2 on my motherboard. I posted about it on here when another member pointed out to me there are limitations with the amd b550 chipset. Mainley that you can have 2 nvme drives running 4 lanes and only 2 sata 6gb drives running at the same time.

I didn't know this. And here's the point of the question. My system is currently up. I have 2 active nvme drives, 4 sata 6gb drives and 2 usb external drives. Yet my system is up and functional. All drives are showing. All drives test as normal. All are working at their rated speed.

So am i extremely lucky and am i effectively overclocking my motherboard in a new way?

[Sakkura]

Just depends how the manufacturer allocated the chipset resources, and whether they used any secondary controller chips to provide more connectivity.

[NattyKathy]

it's definitely not a new type of overclock  OC'ing just runs things at a faster clock rate and doesn't add/change features. If you were running into AMD chipset limitations with regard to mixing M.2 and SATA, some of the ports simply wouldn't work period. I'm pretty sure the limit is higher than 2x NMVe + 2x SATA and you haven't hit it yet. When you do the motherboard will start disabling ports and the board & Windows won't see the affected drives at all.

[Digideath]

2 minutes ago, Natty Ice said:

it's definitely not a new type of overclock  OC'ing just runs things at a faster clock rate and doesn't add/change features. If you were running into AMD chipset limitations with regard to mixing M.2 and SATA, some of the ports simply wouldn't work period. I'm pretty sure the limit is higher than 2x NMVe + 2x SATA and you haven't hit it yet. When you do the motherboard will start disabling ports and the board & Windows won't see the affected drives at all.

But that's the thing. It's not doing that.

The amd b550 chipset limits you to 2 nvme running 4 lanes and 2 sata 6gb drives.

I'm currently up and running with 2 nvme drives, 4 sata 6gs drives and 2 usb external drives. I'm way above the limitations of the b550 chipset.

[Sakkura]

2 minutes ago, Digideath said:

But that's the thing. It's not doing that.

The amd b550 chipset limits you to 2 nvme running 4 lanes and 2 sata 6gb drives.

I'm currently up and running with 2 nvme drives, 4 sata 6gs drives and 2 usb external drives. I'm way above the limitations of the b550 chipset.

I don't believe those limits are accurate. In any case, a motherboard can be configured differently or have a secondary controller that effectively (sort of) adds more lanes.

[NattyKathy]

10 minutes ago, Digideath said:

But that's the thing. It's not doing that.

The amd b550 chipset limits you to 2 nvme running 4 lanes and 2 sata 6gb drives.

I'm currently up and running with 2 nvme drives, 4 sata 6gs drives and 2 usb external drives. I'm way above the limitations of the b550 chipset.

I was getting at what @Sakkurasaid- that, logically, the limits you're basing the assumptions on must be wrong because the results of hitting the drive limit are absolute and well-known, and you haven't experienced them yet, so therefore you must not be hitting the limit, therefore the limit you're believing in must not actually be the true limit.

 

[Digideath]

9 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

I don't believe those limits are accurate. In any case, a motherboard can be configured differently or have a secondary controller that effectively (sort of) adds more lanes.

 

2 minutes ago, Natty Ice said:

I was getting at what @Sakkurasaid- that, logically, the limits you're basing the assumptions on must be wrong because the results of hitting the drive limit are absolute and well-known, and you haven't experienced them yet, so therefore you must not be hitting the limit, therefore the limit you're believing in must not actually be the true limit.

 

Notice the bit where it says 2.nvmex4 and 2 sata 6gb...

[IkeaGnome]

What motherboard are you using?

[Guest]

Some boards when Utilize the M2 slots would shut off some sata ports. If I'm not mistaken, this was mostly on B450 X470 chipsets.

[NattyKathy]

2 minutes ago, Digideath said:

 

Notice the bit where it says 2.nvmex4 and 2 sata 6gb...

the orange section on the left? That's listing the lanes built into the CPU. The Chipset lanes are in the blue boxes on the right and the Grey box at the bottom. Add them together and you have the actual number.

[NattyKathy]

I checked the manual for your motherboard and it only mentions a limit on using the second full-length PCIe slot alongside two M.2 drives, nothing about any limits on mixing M.2 and SATA.

[Digideath]

1 minute ago, Natty Ice said:

the orange section on the left? That's listing the lanes built into the CPU. The Chipset lanes are in the blue boxes on the right. Add them together and you have the actual number.

So 4 extra sata drives. That tallies up. I didn't notice that. I just went with what another member had said. He told me i had a limitation to my drives and used that screenshot.

But then why does my second m.2 drive suddenly dissapear at a cold boot? Why does it sometimes only have 2 lanes instead of 4? Why does it sometimes boot at full capacity? Now im confused? I've already confirmed this drive works fine in slot 1.

 

[NattyKathy]

4 minutes ago, Digideath said:

So 4 extra sata drives. That tallies up. I didn't notice that. I just went with what another member had said. He told me i had a limitation to my drives and used that screenshot.

But then why does my second m.2 drive suddenly dissapear at a cold boot? Why does it sometimes only have 2 lanes instead of 4? Why does it sometimes boot at full capacity? Now im confused? I've already confirmed this drive works fine in slot 1.

 

What's your configuration on things installed in your PCIe slots? In the MPG B550 Gaming Edge manual (page 18 in Euro version, page 31 in English version) there is a mention of conflict between some of the PCIe slots and the second M.2 port, which is a common limitation on these boards.

[Digideath]

5 minutes ago, Natty Ice said:

What's your configuration on things installed in your PCIe slots? In the MPG B550 Gaming Edge manual (page 18 in Euro version, page 31 in English version) there is a mention of conflict between some of the PCIe slots and the second M.2 port, which is a common limitation on these boards.

I only have a graphics card and an audio card in the very bottom x1 slot. Nothing else. I have that then all my drives.