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Switching M.2 slots

kalke1999
By kalke1999
in Storage Devices
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Go to solution Solved by Dedayog,
30 minutes ago, kalke1999 said:

My motherboard has 2 PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 connectors but only one has a heatsink. I currently have a gen 3 M.2 as my boot drive installed in the slot with the heatsink but i have a gen 4 M.2 on the way which is both larger capacity and is significantly faster.

My first question is: Would the new one need the heatsink or would it be fine without it?

My second question is: If the new one need the slot with the heatsink, could I just move my boot drive to the other slot and be fine or would that not work? I read something about messing up the boot order.

It'll be fine without it.  

 

Yes, you can just move them.  No performance impact will be noticeable.

 

Verify in BIOS about boot order, but since the 2nd one isn't a boot drive... it can't get confused 🙂  

Posted

My motherboard has 2 PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 connectors but only one has a heatsink. I currently have a gen 3 M.2 as my boot drive installed in the slot with the heatsink but i have a gen 4 M.2 on the way which is both larger capacity and is significantly faster.

My first question is: Would the new one need the heatsink or would it be fine without it?

My second question is: If the new one need the slot with the heatsink, could I just move my boot drive to the other slot and be fine or would that not work? I read something about messing up the boot order.

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30 minutes ago, kalke1999 said:

My motherboard has 2 PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 connectors but only one has a heatsink. I currently have a gen 3 M.2 as my boot drive installed in the slot with the heatsink but i have a gen 4 M.2 on the way which is both larger capacity and is significantly faster.

My first question is: Would the new one need the heatsink or would it be fine without it?

My second question is: If the new one need the slot with the heatsink, could I just move my boot drive to the other slot and be fine or would that not work? I read something about messing up the boot order.

It'll be fine without it.  

 

Yes, you can just move them.  No performance impact will be noticeable.

 

Verify in BIOS about boot order, but since the 2nd one isn't a boot drive... it can't get confused 🙂  

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Your new gen 4 M.2 COULD benefit from being placed under the heatsink as they tend to run on the warmer side due to their high speeds and power consumption. Most modern motherboards will have no issue with you moving the boot drive to another M.2 slot, jut be sure that if you do decide to switch around your drives that you go into your bios when you first boot and specify the correct boot drive. I attached a picture of what this would look like in an asus bios as an example. If you are on an asus motherboard you can just click and drag the correct drive to the topmost position. It is a simple process and similar on other boards.image.png.ac177e9dae22a72351b9e219da1bacdb.png

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24 minutes ago, q4aa said:

Your new gen 4 M.2 COULD benefit from being placed under the heatsink as they tend to run on the warmer side due to their high speeds and power consumption. Most modern motherboards will have no issue with you moving the boot drive to another M.2 slot, jut be sure that if you do decide to switch around your drives that you go into your bios when you first boot and specify the correct boot drive. I attached a picture of what this would look like in an asus bios as an example. If you are on an asus motherboard you can just click and drag the correct drive to the topmost position. It is a simple process and similar on other boards.image.png.ac177e9dae22a72351b9e219da1bacdb.png

Thank you, will check my bios!

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26 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

It'll be fine without it.  

 

Yes, you can just move them.  No performance impact will be noticeable.

 

Verify in BIOS about boot order, but since the 2nd one isn't a boot drive... it can't get confused 🙂  

Thanks, will start without moving them but keep an eye on temps! 🙂

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