I'm looking into getting an extra M.2 slot

[HeLiOn]

Hey there, guys.
I'm currently looking into expanding my SSD storage with at least one extra NVMe slot so I can experiment with Linux.
The current motherboard is an Asus TUF GAMING B650-Plus.
Before you ask, no, I currently can't afford to use one of the 3 slots I already have.

My previous configuration had a Z370 Aorus Gaming 7, and I know that populating all the M.2 drives meant disabling some of the other features, because of shared lanes.
They even provided this table, and it was easy to understand.
 

Spoiler

I've looked throughout the manual of my B650-PLUS motherboard and I don't see a section like this.
Does that there are no shared lanes and I can safely use any SATA or PCIe adapter?
Also, what avenue would you recommend I take for this kind of upgrade?

Thank you in advance.

[Average Nerd]

8 minutes ago, HeLiOn said:

Before you ask, no, I currently can't afford to use one of the 3 slots I already have.

Can you explain why? If you want to use a NVME drive, it's the cheapest option to use a mobo slot.

11 minutes ago, HeLiOn said:

Does that there are no shared lanes and I can safely use any SATA or PCIe adapter?

m.2_3 is shared with the 2nd PCIe x16 slot.

[SorryBella]

16 minutes ago, HeLiOn said:

Does that there are no shared lanes and I can safely use any SATA or PCIe adapter?

RTM harder.

Quote

M.2_3 shares bandwidth with PCIEX16_2. PCIEX16_2 will be suspended once M.2_3 is populated.

The sacrificial lamb is the 2nd x16 slot.

16 minutes ago, HeLiOn said:

Also, what avenue would you recommend I take for this kind of upgrade?

I mean depends, how much would it cost to consolidate your storage or going for external live install for your Linux distros, compared to buying X670 or X870 boards?

 

[HeLiOn]

 

27 minutes ago, Average Nerd said:

Can you explain why? If you want to use a NVME drive, it's the cheapest option to use a mobo slot.

m.2_3 is shared with the 2nd PCIe x16 slot.

The simple answer is that they are already populated.
One drive has Windows, one is for games and other media, the other is for work stuff.
There is no way for me to organize what I have in a manner that frees one of the slots.

25 minutes ago, SorryBella said:

RTM harder.

Sorry, I don't know what that means.

25 minutes ago, SorryBella said:

The sacrificial lamb is the 2nd x16 slot.

I think that's ok. I've seen expansion cards that use the PCIe x4 slots. I don't think I'll need it in the near future.

25 minutes ago, SorryBella said:

I mean depends, how much would it cost to consolidate your storage or going for external live install for your Linux distros, compared to buying X670 or X870 boards?

I just need one extra SSD to have Linux on. It's not something I have to do, it's just something I want.
Long story short, I'm seriously considering leaving Windows behind.
So I need a drive to test out Linux to see which of the software I use works on it.
I'm not looking for amazing performance, I just need something functional.

I have an old hard disk drive and and old M.2 SSD.
I'd like to use the SSD, but this thing turns out to complicated or costly, I'll just abandon the idea and use the HDD.

[Average Nerd]

2 minutes ago, HeLiOn said:

I think that's ok. I've seen expansion cards that use the PCIe x4 slots. I don't think I'll need it in the near future.

Your board only has x1 slots available in your storage config (I assume that you have a GPU installed).

x1 NVME cards do exist, they will just not be able to utilize the SSDs full speed.

[HeLiOn]

11 minutes ago, Average Nerd said:

Your board only has x1 slots available in your storage config (I assume that you have a GPU installed).

x1 NVME cards do exist, they will just not be able to utilize the SSDs full speed.

If it's faster than a WD Black hard drive, it will do just fine.
I found the sort of adapters you mentioned:

Spoiler

These things cost around 5 bucks...

[Average Nerd]

1 minute ago, HeLiOn said:

If it's faster than a WD Black hard drive, it will do just fine.

Then it'll be fine, yes

[HeLiOn]

1 minute ago, Average Nerd said:

Then it'll be fine, yes

Thank you for your help.

[SorryBella]

29 minutes ago, HeLiOn said:

Sorry, I don't know what that means.

RTM = Read The Manual.

 

But yeah no worry honestly. Asus' manual is a pain to read across the board. Pretty much every products they have have a terrible instruction manual.

[HeLiOn]

10 minutes ago, SorryBella said:

RTM = Read The Manual.

 

But yeah no worry honestly. Asus' manual is a pain to read across the board. Pretty much every products they have have a terrible instruction manual.

Ah, noted.
One last question. I looked around the manual, an there's literally nothing mentioning the two X1 slots.
Am I correct in assuming both of them are functional?
I know I'll have to use the lower one, as the GPU doesn't allow me the first one. 

[PDifolco]

2 hours ago, HeLiOn said:

Hey there, guys.
I'm currently looking into expanding my SSD storage with at least one extra NVMe slot so I can experiment with Linux.
The current motherboard is an Asus TUF GAMING B650-Plus.
Before you ask, no, I currently can't afford to use one of the 3 slots I already have.

My previous configuration had a Z370 Aorus Gaming 7, and I know that populating all the M.2 drives meant disabling some of the other features, because of shared lanes.
They even provided this table, and it was easy to understand.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

I've looked throughout the manual of my B650-PLUS motherboard and I don't see a section like this.
Does that there are no shared lanes and I can safely use any SATA or PCIe adapter?
Also, what avenue would you recommend I take for this kind of upgrade?

Thank you in advance.

Just get a cheap PCie M2 adapter and use a PCie slot of the board (x4 if possible)

[ewitte]

I've had dicey experiences with PCI adapters for SSD drives.  I don't know if it is a AMD chipset issue I've never tried on Intel.  Also, I was mostly doing U.2 drives.  The PCIe 3.0 Optane drives seemed fine though, PCIe 4.0 u.2 drives seemed more problematic.  Wouldn't work at all with any m.2 to u.2 adapter.  In a PCIe slot works for months then locks, disappears and needs to be reseated to show back up  (sometimes reseating the video card)...   Just got to the point i just replaced it with a 4TB 990 pro on a motherboard slot and live with less space.  I think the big problem is these are not designed for consumer machines and don't ever get firmware updates.

[HeLiOn]

4 hours ago, PDifolco said:

Just get a cheap PCie M2 adapter and use a PCie slot of the board (x4 if possible)

As @SorryBella pointed out, I only have 2 PCIe x1 slots.
I ordered one of these and a passive M.2 cooler.

 

[PDifolco]

4 hours ago, ewitte said:

I've had dicey experiences with PCI adapters for SSD drives.  I don't know if it is a AMD chipset issue I've never tried on Intel.  Also, I was mostly doing U.2 drives.  The PCIe 3.0 Optane drives seemed fine though, PCIe 4.0 u.2 drives seemed more problematic.  Wouldn't work at all with any m.2 to u.2 adapter.  In a PCIe slot works for months then locks, disappears and needs to be reseated to show back up  (sometimes reseating the video card)...   Just got to the point i just replaced it with a 4TB 990 pro on a motherboard slot and live with less space.  I think the big problem is these are not designed for consumer machines and don't ever get firmware updates.

I'm using a M2 in a PCie adapter since ages on 2 boards (X570 and X670E) and never had an issue

Maybe you had a crappy adapter, I use a Sabrent one (20 bucks, with heatsink)

[kokosnh]

Rather i would blame the m.2 to u.2 adapter first, as they are usually 30 cm or longer, so signaling errors can occur.

Check if you can force M.2 slot it to work in pcie 3.0 mode, if it’s annoy you.

the pcie to m.2 adapters have rather short traces, and on PCB, used them a lot, didn’t have problems.

[Blue4130]

13 hours ago, HeLiOn said:

 

Long story short, I'm seriously considering leaving Windows behind.
So I need a drive to test out Linux to see which of the software I use works on it.
I'm not looking for amazing performance, I just need something functional.

Why not just live boot of a usb?

[HeLiOn]

On 2/20/2025 at 1:22 AM, Blue4130 said:

Why not just live boot of a usb?

It's just too slow, and this SSD I have is just sitting around gathering dust.
I might as well put it to good use.