Asrock x570 taichi + nvme m.2 drives

tuunade98 · September 23, 2021

Hi everyone,

just wondering does anyone have this motherboard and have installed m.2 drives into it? I got this board and waiting for 2 m.2 drives to arrive in the mail.

i just have some concerns when installing the m.2 drives.

1. Been googling and have found some people being confused about installing a m.2 drive in the first slot.. how do you screw the m.2 drive into place? Do you screw the m.2 drive in first then put the big heat sink on over it? Apparently that first m.2 slot uses the same screw hole for the big heat sink as well… so do I just put the m.2 drive in place then just put the heat sink over it and screw the heat sink in that screw hole which would technically also screw in m.2 same time. Would this be the correct way?? Hard to explain..

2. using 2 m.2 drives I would install them in slot 1 and 3 right?? Preferably my os m.2 drive in slot 1? When reading the manual slot 2 only seems to support smaller drives is this correct?

3. I don’t quite understand how m.2 drives work in general… if I were to be using slot 1 and 3 does that use up specific sata ports on my motherboard, which would mean im limited to 6 sata ports this way for other sata storage devices? How do the drives appear up in the bios? Does it just appear in bios like any other HDd/ssd? When reinstalling windows 10 on the drive do I just create a partition in the windows 10 installation wizard like I would any other storage device?

krakek · September 23, 2021

There is mounting hardware for the M.2 drive and the heatsink.

Because M.2 drives can be of different lengths there is an option to move the stand off for the M.2 drive mount.

However if you are using the more commong 2280 drives the stand off should be in the correct position already.

The way you do it is:
1) remove the heatsink
2) check where the stand off should be, if it is not there or is in the incorrect position install/move it
2.5) remove the sticker on the thermal pad if there is one below the M.2 slot
3) push the M.2 drive into the slot (it would be at an angle), then press down the other (from the connector) end onto the stand off
4) secure the M.2 slot by adding a screw onto the stand off
5) remove the thermal pad sticker on the heatsink, attach the heatsink above the M.2 drive
6) secure the heatsink using it's own screw(s).

You may also want to consult the manual, as it covers this process in detail.

Unless you plan to use a long M.2 drive I would advise using first and second slots (2-1 and 2-2) as the third slot (2-3) would come at the cost of the normal PCI-E slot (#5). Both 2-1 and 2-2 would work with the most common drive size (2280), you would need 2-3 only when using 22100 sized drive.

Slot 2-1 would be advisable for the system and demanding applications as it is directly tied to the CPU.

krakek · September 23, 2021

M.2 NVMe devices use PCI-E lanes. Because you have only so many of those PCI-E lanes motherboards often provide switches, which allow you to choose how you are using those finite lanes.

As far as I can tell only the use of the 2-3 slot leads to a trade off, where the lanes could be used either for it or the x4 PCI-E slot (#5). As far as I can tell the slot 2-1 uses dedicated lines from the CPU, while slot 2-2 uses dedicated lines from the chipset, but it is possible that I am missing something and that you may loose some SATA ports by using this slot.

On other boards it is common to provide an option to use either an M.2 slot with the 4 PCI-E lanes or to use those lanes for SATA ports. However I do not see this mentioned in the manual after a quick glance.

In general NVMe devices should work more or less like any other storage device.

tuunade98 · September 24, 2021

On 9/24/2021 at 12:14 AM, krakek said:

There is mounting hardware for the M.2 drive and the heatsink.

Because M.2 drives can be of different lengths there is an option to move the stand off for the M.2 drive mount.

However if you are using the more commong 2280 drives the stand off should be in the correct position already.

The way you do it is:
1) remove the heatsink
2) check where the stand off should be, if it is not there or is in the incorrect position install/move it
2.5) remove the sticker on the thermal pad if there is one below the M.2 slot
3) push the M.2 drive into the slot (it would be at an angle), then press down the other (from the connector) end onto the stand off
4) secure the M.2 slot by adding a screw onto the stand off
5) remove the thermal pad sticker on the heatsink, attach the heatsink above the M.2 drive
6) secure the heatsink using it's own screw(s).

You may also want to consult the manual, as it covers this process in detail.

Unless you plan to use a long M.2 drive I would advise using first and second slots (2-1 and 2-2) as the third slot (2-3) would come at the cost of the normal PCI-E slot (#5). Both 2-1 and 2-2 would work with the most common drive size (2280), you would need 2-3 only when using 22100 sized drive.

Slot 2-1 would be advisable for the system and demanding applications as it is directly tied to the CPU.

I believe one of the holes to screw in the heat sink is the very same hole to screw in the first slot m.2… what do I do in this situation just screw the m.2 in and ignore that hole for the heat sink? Or do I simply just put the heat sink over and basically screw the heat sink into that same hole while also securing the m.2 together?

krakek · September 24, 2021

1 hour ago, tuunade98 said:

I believe one of the holes to screw in the heat sink is the very same hole to screw in the first slot m.2… what do I do in this situation just screw the m.2 in and ignore that hole for the heat sink? Or do I simply just put the heat sink over and basically screw the heat sink into that same hole while also securing the m.2 together?

I would consult the manual, I seem to recall it having step by step instructions for all the slots, with pictures.

That said the M.2 NVMe SSDs are not your most fragile component, as long as the mounting set up is not damaging the drive itself you are going to be fine most likely.