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M.2 slot

Nooblifeelliott
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Hey all. I have an ASUS ProArt B550-Creator motherboard, I currently am using the first m.2 slot for the boot drive but my second m.2 slot is empty. My board has no wifi, but it would be nice to have. Anybody know if it's possible to install a WiFi card like those used in many laptops to this second m.2 slot? Speeds aren't horribly important, and I know there are ways to make an m.2 sad work in some wifi slots on laptops, but is it possible to go the other way?

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There are PCIe wifi adapters! you can use them instead of wasting a precious m.2 storage slot, or if i'm not wrong usually motherboards have a separate m.2 wifi slot too, so you might want to check your motherboard's manual to see if it has one and if it does, where its located.

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12 minutes ago, Nooblifeelliott said:

Hey all. I have an ASUS ProArt B550-Creator motherboard, I currently am using the first m.2 slot for the boot drive but my second m.2 slot is empty. My board has no wifi, but it would be nice to have. Anybody know if it's possible to install a WiFi card like those used in many laptops to this second m.2 slot? Speeds aren't horribly important, and I know there are ways to make an m.2 sad work in some wifi slots on laptops, but is it possible to go the other way?

Wifi M.2 cards are keyed differently to NVMe SSDs and are therefore not compatable with the M.2 slots on your motherboard. You can get an M key to E key adaptor apparently, but that would make this approach more expensive than alternatives and more prone to failure.

 

You are better off getting a PCIe WiFi adapter. Which of your PCIe slots are currently in use? Also, what CPU do you have?

I might be experienced, but I'm human and I do make mistakes. Trust but Verify! I edit my messages after sending them alot, please refresh before posting your reply. Please try to be clear and specific, you'll get a better answer. Please remember to mark solutions once you have the information you need. Expand this signature for common PC building advice, a short bio and a list of my components.

 

Common build advice:

1) Buy the cheapest (well reviewed) motherboard that has the features you need. Paying more typically only gets you features you won’t use. 2) only get as much RAM as you need, getting more won’t (typically) make your PC faster. 3) While I recommend getting an NVMe drive, you don’t need to splurge for an expensive drive with DRam cache, DRamless drives are fine for gamers. 4) paying for looks is fine, just don’t break the bank. 5) Tower coolers are usually good enough, unless you go top tier Intel or plan on OCing. 6) OCing is a dead meme, you probably shouldn’t bother. 7) "Bottlenecks" rarely matter and "Future-proofing" is a myth. 8) AIOs don't noticeably improve performance past 240mm and don't improve at all past 360mm. 9) RTFM.

 

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He/Him - I'm a PhD student working in the fields of reinforcement learning and traffic control. PCs are one of my hobbies and I've built many PCs and performed upgrades on a few laptops (for myself, friends and family). My personal computers include 4 windows (10/11) machines and a TrueNAS server (and I'm looking to move to dual booting Linux Mint on my main machine in future). Aside from computers, I also dabble in modding/homebrew retro consoles, support Southampton FC, and enjoy Scuba Diving and Skiing.

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I agree with the above, losing an M.2 slot for a wifi card seems like a waste, though from reading the disclaimers on the spec page of your board, it sounds like the second M.2 slot will be switched from 4 lanes to 2 lanes, if you use one of the little 1 lane slots for a wifi card. Still, better than losing the M.2 slot entirely.

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8 hours ago, will0hlep said:

Wifi M.2 cards are keyed differently to NVMe SSDs and are therefore not compatable with the M.2 slots on your motherboard. You can get an M key to E key adaptor apparently, but that would make this approach more expensive than alternatives and more prone to failure.

 

You are better off getting a PCIe WiFi adapter. Which of your PCIe slots are currently in use? Also, what CPU do you have?

I've got a ryxen 9 5950x paired with rtx4070 and my pcie slots are filled with my GPU, 10g Ethernet, and a rme hdspe audio interface card, leaving me no open accesible pcie slots therefore the possible use of the second m.2 slot. May just have to use USB, but I prefer internal as I use most of my USB outs and hate hubs. 

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5 hours ago, Nooblifeelliott said:

I've got a ryxen 9 5950x paired with rtx4070 and my pcie slots are filled with my GPU, 10g Ethernet, and a card, leaving me no open accesible pcie slots therefore the possible use of the second m.2 slot. May just have to use USB, but I prefer internal as I use most of my USB outs and hate hubs. 

That motherboard has 10 USB slots on it,  You probably have 2 more on the case so what are you doing? 😉 

 

Your board also has 5 pcie slots... now the way its setup if your card is 2 slot you have access to 5 , If it's 3 slot you have access to 4.

 

The things you listed are all single slot so should leave 1 atleast for the WiFi card.

 

Can you send a picture of the inside of your pc? 

CPU : Ryzen 7 7800X3D @ -30mv All core

CPU Cooler : Thermalright Frozen Prism 240mm AIO

Mobo : Asrock B650m Pro RS Wifi

Ram : 32GB (2X16GB) Lexar Ares 6000MHZ CL 28-36-36-68

GPU : MSI Gaming X Slim 4070Ti Super 16GB ( 308W PL +140 Core +1000 Memory )

Storage : 2TB Verbatim Vi5000 Gen 4 NVME

PSU : Thermalright TG-750w 80+ Gold ATX 3.0 PCIE 5.0

Case : Fractal Design Pop Mini MATX

Case Fans : 3 X Thermalright TL-C12C-S RGB 

Monitor :27" Samsung Odyssey G5 2560 x 1440 180 HZ IPS 

Keyboard : HyperX Alloy Core RGB

Mouse : Corsair M65 Elite RGB

Headset : Corsair HS35 Gaming Headset

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