Can anyone tell me if the Gigabyte AB350 Gaming 3 motherboard can boot from an m.2 pci-e adapter?

[t33to]

Motherboard in question https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_ga-ab350-gaming_e.pdf?v=7c722175d1dbcc7dfd947dd4f9559c1b

I'm looking at this adapter https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07FKW3Y73/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&psc=1

 

I'm pretty sure this will work as the motherboard itself supports nvme m.2

 

This will also by my first foray into m.2 drives, is it worthwhile to attach a heatsink to it if they don't come with one? Or put active cooling on it?

 

Please and thank you!

[Chronified]

The real question, is why would you??

That motherboard has a 3rd gen x4 slot on it for NVMe drives, use that for your boot drive as putting the adapter in will just bottleneck the system giving it an extra hurdle. For the rest of your NVMe storage on that expansion card they'll load up in Disk Management after the driver is pulled from Windows Update. There's no guarintee that they'll come up in the BIOS, especially being a budget A-series board.

As for cooling, unless the NVMe drive has a heatsink it isn't necessary given your case has proper airflow. If you're making a build that is fan-less and you expect radiant heat, then I'd consider a heatsink for the storage.