PCI-E X4 card in PCI-E X1 does not work , but other PCI-E X4 card does

[Roman848]

Hello,

It is kinda long story so sit tight

 

I recently received Two identical Intel SSD DC P4600 Series NVME PCI-E 4x 2TB Cards.

My MSI X570 A-PRO has only 1x PCI-E 16x (GPU) then 1x PCI-E 8x (which has 16x physical connection) and then 3x PCI-E 1x.

Unfortunately my RTX 4070Ti (Aorus Master) is a thick boi and blocks 1x PCI-E 1x and PCI-E 8x

So i am left with 2x PCI-E 1x

I watched Linus where he cut of the end of the PCI-E 1x to accomodate longer card (i think it was NIC but it doesnt matter)

Told myself hey i could do that, so i did. (It went really well and all pinouts stayed intact so the physical connection is ok to the cards.)

But Only one card works , i tried switching them up and both of them would load but not at the same time so i though ok the other PCI-E must be damaged or something.

So i tried One of the PCI-E SSDs in combination with Intel PCI-E 1x Gigabit LAN Card , which worked , and i also tried a basic PCI-E X4 to M.2 Nvme SSD which also worked.

 

My question is , whats wrong basically ?  

 

In MB Manual there is a statement that PCI_E4 wouldnt work IF PCI_E2 is occupied , but it isnt because that is the one that is occupied by the GPU (size)

PCI_E5 is the slot where i know it is working and i tried both cards in this slot and both of them loads (can also see them in BIOS)

I Also tried ONLY occupying PCI_E4 slot with the Intel SSD but nope.

But when i try other PCI_E4 slot with Basic of the shelf PCIE x4 to NVME M.2 it works.

 

Hope my explanation is enough, let me know if you have any tips which i could try  

 

I have variants to try, maybe i will try to buy riser for the blocked 8x slot and route it somehow so the Intel SSD would fit...

 

[kokosnh]

yes, it should have worked, so no idea. 
There's nothing in the manual, try updating uefi, or if there is any setting for the PCI_E3 slot (sometimes, there's a PCIe splitter, and you can set the PCI_E3 to x4, or x2, or x1)

 

On 3/18/2024 at 6:15 PM, Roman848 said:

i will try to buy riser for the blocked 8x slot and route it somehow so the Intel SSD would fit...

this is most reasonable idea.
Do also consider running second adapter, from bottom M.2 to PCIe x4 slot (it the bottom M.2 slot is empty)

To be honest, these two SSD cost so much, you could consider changing platform to PRIME X670-P, or wait for the x690E, to get full bandwidth. 
 

[Roman848]

5 hours ago, kokosnh said:

yes, it should have worked, so no idea. 
There's nothing in the manual, try updating uefi, or if there is any setting for the PCI_E3 slot (sometimes, there's a PCIe splitter, and you can set the PCI_E3 to x4, or x2, or x1)

Thanks for your reply ! I updated the Bios just before writing this article, but it did not help. Nothing sadly in the bios , only settings are mentioning PCI_E1 slot which is the top x16 slot.

 

5 hours ago, kokosnh said:

this is most reasonable idea.
Do also consider running second adapter, from bottom M.2 to PCIe x4 slot (it the bottom M.2 slot is empty)

I occupy the M.2_2 port with 256GB NVME which i would sack in order to have room for the Intel SSD , sadly doesnt work in that port so yeah..

 

5 hours ago, kokosnh said:

To be honest, these two SSD cost so much, you could consider changing platform to PRIME X670-P, or wait for the x690E, to get full bandwidth. 

Very expensive even used.. that is why i wanted to use them since that is basically only way how to add more storage to my pc without using SATA expansion cards or some 2-4 NVME cards (which would cost me money, i received these Intel cards for “free” so…)

 

Still i am kinda grateful that atleast one of the cards is working in the slot , i found even some PCI-E x4 Risers for dirt cheap ( these Intel ssds are PCI-E 3.0 so i dont worry about the speed) so i will probably try that. And to be honest MSI X570 A-Pro is not the greatest motherboard in terms of connectivity (doesnt even have USB-C front header)

 

Dont want to jump to AM5/DDR5 just yet as they seem really unstable at the moment (atleast from my perspective)

 

Thanks again for your reply !  

[kokosnh]

 

37 minutes ago, Roman848 said:

6 hours ago, kokosnh said:

Do also consider running second adapter, from bottom M.2 to PCIe x4 slot (it the bottom M.2 slot is empty)

I occupy the M.2_2 port with 256GB NVME which i would sack in order to have room for the Intel SSD , sadly doesnt work in that port so yeah..

 

I had a something like this in mind. 
https://pl.aliexpress.com/item/1005002947546110.html 
 

combine it with the PCIe riser, for the second PCIE x16 slot, and you can have two SSD mounted vertically  (if case to support it, and it's not interfering with GPU)