On the motherboard, does the slot I plug in an M.2 SSD in matter? (and what is Samsung Elpis?)

[McLpOP]

Motherboard: B650 AORUS ELITE AX

SSDs: Samsung 980 Pro and Samsung 990 Pro

Does it make any difference at all in which of the 3 slots of the motherboard I plug in my SSDs? I looked at the mobo manual and the M2A_CPU and M2A_CPU slots seem identical. Currently, the 980 Pro is plugged into the PC (in the M2A slot). I am about to add in the 990 Pro and got curious. Should I swap 980 into the M2B slot and put the 990 in the M2A slot or does it not matter? what about the M2C_SB slot? On the actual mobo, the M2A slot has a cover on top so I assume that just means better thermal performance but otherwise no difference.

Also, as I was coming here to ask the above question I saw the tier list and clicked it. The tier list mentions 980 Pro, specifically Samsung Elpis. Seemingly Elpis is better. Is there a way for me to check if my drives have the Elpis controller (through software or on the box)?

I doubt there is any meaningful performance change either way so the entire post is just for extra information out of curiosity. I kinda found it hard to find a clear answer by googling myself (especially the Elpis stuff) that's why asking here so appreciate any answers!

[Agall]

5 minutes ago, McLpOP said:

Motherboard: B650 AORUS ELITE AX

SSDs: Samsung 980 Pro and Samsung 990 Pro

Does it make any difference at all in which of the 3 slots of the motherboard I plug in my SSDs? I looked at the mobo manual and the M2A_CPU and M2A_CPU slots seem identical. Currently, the 980 Pro is plugged into the PC (in the M2A slot). I am about to add in the 990 Pro and got curious. Should I swap 980 into the M2B slot and put the 990 in the M2A slot or does it not matter? what about the M2C_SB slot? On the actual mobo, the M2A slot has a cover on top so I assume that just means better thermal performance but otherwise no difference.

Also, as I was coming here to ask the above question I saw the tier list and clicked it. The tier list mentions 980 Pro, specifically Samsung Elpis. Seemingly Elpis is better. Is there a way for me to check if my drives have the Elpis controller (through software or on the box)?

I doubt there is any meaningful performance change either way so the entire post is just for extra information out of curiosity. I kinda found it hard to find a clear answer by googling myself (especially the Elpis stuff) that's why asking here so appreciate any answers!

Almost always with newer motherboards, the very top one is wired to the CPU's (aka North Bridge) primary peripheral expansion and the rest are usually through the chipset (aka South Bridge) which shares bandwidth with other devices.

 

I would almost always plug your boot drive into the top one for minimal latency and maximum bandwidth. Both AMD and Intel have allocated enough bandwidth so motherboard manufacturers can use the top M.2 and top PCIe 16x for pretty much the only expansion devices anyone needs.

 

A lot of motherboard manuals will have this block diagram to demonstrate where things are wired.

 

[Tetras]

M2A and M2B are both CPU connected, so theoretically you'd get the best speed from using those, but I wouldn't worry about it and I definitely wouldn't go to the trouble of swapping anything around.

 

6 minutes ago, McLpOP said:

Also, as I was coming here to ask the above question I saw the tier list and clicked it. The tier list mentions 980 Pro, specifically Samsung Elpis. Seemingly Elpis is better. Is there a way for me to check if my drives have the Elpis controller (through software or on the box)?

The 970 Evo Plus could come with Elpis or the original Phoenix, but I'm not aware of the 980 Pro having multiple controllers. I believe the firmware is different between the different drives, so you could try googling the firmware version.

[McLpOP]

@Agall I see, the diagram definitely helped.  Based on @Tetras's response and the diagram, a swap seems like unnecessary effort so might just plug 990 into M2B. Thank you guys!!