Gen4.0 nvme as boot drive in a Pcie adaptor in a Pcie 2.0 1x slot? (lol bear with me here...)

[AMixOfGeekContent]

Tldr: I know that it won't run at full speed. I just want to know will it work as a main boot drive without any hassles? Or will it somehow be incompatible with my old Pcie 2.0 PC?  And will it be faster than my current HDD, as expected?

Also, how long are m.2 nvme drives? This adaptor looks short to me for some reason:

https://www.newegg.ca/p/1B3-00A8-00013

 

 

Explanation (lol):
I think I'll just get really cheap upgrades for my old Dell XPS 8500 desktop PC right now and keep saving money until I'm ready to commit to an expensive new gen pc.

 

From googling, I believe my pc has 1x Pcie 2.0 slot(s), which can go up to 330MB/s.

 

Even though that's nowhere near a gen4 nvme's full potential, it'll still be faster than my current HDD lol.

 

It's not that expensive and it's something I can likely use in a new computer later. Even tho I don't use Windows, DirectStorage sound pretty awesome, and who knows what else the future will bring?

 

Also, how much disk space does windows 11 system files take? Iirc, my current system files on Zorin OS Lite 16.2 barely traits up any space.

 

[cmndr]

If you look at the adapter you linked it actually lists the sizes of the drives it works with ON it. 
It shows 2280, 2260, 2242, 2230. As long as your drive is one of those it's fine.

There's nothing HORRIBLY wrong with using a slow slot if your comparison point is a harddrive. The big area where it'll "hurt" is transferring files around between different drives. Your HDD would be the slow part in that anyway. It's not ideal but it's not like anything would explode. 

Verify that your system can boot from a PCIe drive though. If it can't, the dirty work around involves a bootloader on a USB drive that gets booted from and which redirects you to the SSD. Not something I've done but I've seen it in an LTT video. 

[Poinkachu]

21 minutes ago, AMixOfGeekContent said:

Tldr: I know that it won't run at full speed. I just want to know will it work as a main boot drive without any hassles? Or will it somehow be incompatible with my old Pcie 2.0 PC?  And will it be faster than my current HDD, as expected?

Also, how long are m.2 nvme drives? This adaptor looks short to me for some reason:

https://www.newegg.ca/p/1B3-00A8-00013

 

 

Explanation (lol):
I think I'll just get really cheap upgrades for my old Dell XPS 8500 desktop PC right now and keep saving money until I'm ready to commit to an expensive new gen pc.

 

From googling, I believe my pc has 1x Pcie 2.0 slot(s), which can go up to 330MB/s.

 

Even though that's nowhere near a gen4 nvme's full potential, it'll still be faster than my current HDD lol.

 

It's not that expensive and it's something I can likely use in a new computer later. Even tho I don't use Windows, DirectStorage sound pretty awesome, and who knows what else the future will bring?

 

Also, how much disk space does windows 11 system files take? Iirc, my current system files on Zorin OS Lite 16.2 barely traits up any space.

 

Soo... why the infatuation with NVME ?
Just upgrade to standard 2.5" ssd ?
Pretty pointless buying Gen 4 just to reduce it to Gen 2, with an adapter.

[tkitch]

PCIE Gen2 x1 will still be 500MB/s transfers (so bloody effing fast)

 

That being said:  Your system is old enough that it will NOT recognize an M.2 Drive as a boot drive without help.  Linus mentioned this in a recent video:
 

Clover Bootloader should fix the issue.

 

[Eigenvektor]

2 minutes ago, tkitch said:

PCIE Gen2 x1 will still be 500MB/s transfers (so bloody effing fast)

Same as a SATA (3) SSD. So you'll not gain anything as long as the board has at least SATA with 6 Gbps, as @Poinkachu pointed out.

[NF-A12x25]

16 minutes ago, tkitch said:

PCIE Gen2 x1 will still be 500MB/s transfers (so bloody effing fast)

thaaaaaat’s pretty slow

[tkitch]

Just now, NF-A12x25 said:

thaaaaaat’s pretty slow

in terms of synthetics?  Yup.  Hella slow.

In terms of real-world use?  No, it's really not.

[NF-A12x25]

6 minutes ago, tkitch said:

In terms of real-world use?  No, it's really not.

There’s a big difference for boot times and loading times between a SATA ssd at 500MBps and a proper nvme ssd

[tkitch]

4 minutes ago, NF-A12x25 said:

There’s a big difference for boot times and loading times between a SATA ssd at 500MBps and a proper nvme ssd

And for most people who boot once a week?  They won't miss the 20 seconds.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 hour ago, AMixOfGeekContent said:

It's not that expensive and it's something I can likely use in a new computer later. Even tho I don't use Windows, DirectStorage sound pretty awesome, and who knows what else the future will bring?

Directstorage wont be coming out for awhile and gen4 is useless for everything but particularly r/w heavy workloads like high res vid editing, youll be fine with even a lowend gen3 speed wise since thats as fast as you are gonna get in terms of noticable load time benifits

 

Pcie gen2 is 500mb/s so pretty much as fast as a high end sata ssd which is already a huge improvement over an hdd, nvme is a noticable improvement but minor compared to hdd -> sata ssd

[brob]

1 hour ago, NF-A12x25 said:

There’s a big difference for boot times and loading times between a SATA ssd at 500MBps and a proper nvme ssd

 

Not enough to matter. Generally less than 3 seconds.

 

 

[Dabombinable]

27 minutes ago, brob said:

 

Not enough to matter. Generally less than 3 seconds.

 

 

That's my experience when running my 512GB Adata SX8200 Pro on my Gigabyte H97-HD3 via the PCIe gen 2.0 x2/x4 slot (x2 due to using a PCIe wifi card instead of PCI).

2 hours ago, AMixOfGeekContent said:

Tldr: I know that it won't run at full speed. I just want to know will it work as a main boot drive without any hassles? Or will it somehow be incompatible with my old Pcie 2.0 PC?  And will it be faster than my current HDD, as expected?

Also, how long are m.2 nvme drives? This adaptor looks short to me for some reason:

https://www.newegg.ca/p/1B3-00A8-00013

 

 

Explanation (lol):
I think I'll just get really cheap upgrades for my old Dell XPS 8500 desktop PC right now and keep saving money until I'm ready to commit to an expensive new gen pc.

 

From googling, I believe my pc has 1x Pcie 2.0 slot(s), which can go up to 330MB/s.

 

Even though that's nowhere near a gen4 nvme's full potential, it'll still be faster than my current HDD lol.

 

It's not that expensive and it's something I can likely use in a new computer later. Even tho I don't use Windows, DirectStorage sound pretty awesome, and who knows what else the future will bring?

 

Also, how much disk space does windows 11 system files take? Iirc, my current system files on Zorin OS Lite 16.2 barely traits up any space.

 

It might work - depends on how bad the BIOS is:

Booting from an NVMe PCIe Intel Solid-State Drive Technology Brief

 

As a platform your XPS is pretty decent:
XPS 8500 Specifications (dell.com)

[AMixOfGeekContent]

11 hours ago, tkitch said:

PCIE Gen2 x1 will still be 500MB/s transfers (so bloody effing fast)

 

That being said:  Your system is old enough that it will NOT recognize an M.2 Drive as a boot drive without help.  Linus mentioned this in a recent video:
 

Clover Bootloader should fix the issue.

 

Thanks. I remember watching this, but I didn't remember them hiding a usb thumb drive inside the pc case lol.

[AMixOfGeekContent]

14 hours ago, Poinkachu said:

Soo... why the infatuation with NVME ?
Just upgrade to standard 2.5" ssd ?
Pretty pointless buying Gen 4 just to reduce it to Gen 2, with an adapter.

I can use the nvme later when/if I'm ready to build a brand new pc, when it might come in handy editing high res videos.

[Poinkachu]

1 hour ago, AMixOfGeekContent said:

I can use the nvme later when/if I'm ready to build a brand new pc. And apparently, it might come in handy editing high res videos.

Then just buy a Gen4 later when you are ready to build a PC, by then the price might've come down even more, or there's improvement in the tech, or both.

For the kinda PC you want to put it in, If I were you, I'd just get the cheapest decent enough 2.5" SSD. The speed difference compared to the usual HDD will be like heaven & hell already.

[AMixOfGeekContent]

40 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Then just buy a Gen4 later when you are ready to build a PC, by then the price might've come down even more, or there's improvement in the tech, or both.

For the kinda PC you want to put it in, If I were you, I'd just get the cheapest decent enough 2.5" SSD. The speed difference compared to the usual HDD will be like heaven & hell already.

The rationale is: nvme's aren't that expensive right now. I'll see what the difference in cost is for nvme+adaptor vs ssd. It might be easier to install a sata ssd tho. Unless my bios can just simply boot in ufei mode or something, which it might be able to do.

[Dabombinable]

1 hour ago, Poinkachu said:

Then just buy a Gen4 later when you are ready to build a PC, by then the price might've come down even more, or there's improvement in the tech, or both.

For the kinda PC you want to put it in, If I were you, I'd just get the cheapest decent enough 2.5" SSD. The speed difference compared to the usual HDD will be like heaven & hell already.

There is an advantage to not having power or SATA cables going everywhere. If they'd been available at a low enough price at the time - I'd have a 4TB QLC NVME SSD instead of a 4TB 870 QVO.

[brob]

58 minutes ago, AMixOfGeekContent said:

The rationale is: nvme's aren't that expensive right now. I'll see what the difference in cost is for nvme+adaptor vs ssd. It might be easier to install a sata ssd tho. Unless my bios can just simply boot in ufei mode or something, which it might be able to do.

 

If history is any judge, NVMe prices are likely going to keep falling. This time next year it's entirely possible that a 2TB drive will cost what a 1TB drive does today. 

[AMixOfGeekContent]

1 hour ago, Dabombinable said:

There is an advantage to not having power or SATA cables going everywhere. If they'd been available at a low enough price at the time - I'd have a 4TB QLC NVME SSD instead of a 4TB 870 QVO.

What advantages? I'm curious.

[NF-A12x25]

11 minutes ago, AMixOfGeekContent said:

What advantages? I'm curious.

cable management, with a modular PSU you don’t need to put the sata cables in at all if you’re using nvme drives only