Old Motherboard - Which M.2 is supported..?

flashheart85

flashheart85

flashheart85

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Hi.


I'm sorry if this is a dumb question. I'm trying to get a new SSD/M.2 for my partners P.C. She currently only has a HDD but mainly plays Sims 3/4 and World of Warcraft. Her load times are ridiculous and i'd l;ike to get her a small upgrade. I play on upgrading her PC fully next year but for now this would be perfect.

I've checked her mother board on the Gigabyte website here It says "1 x M.2 Socket 3 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA &PCIe x4/x2/x1 SSD support)"

However, the list on their 'supported drives' page has a VERY limited choice.

As long as I get a decent brand and it 'fits' into the length (2242/2260 etc) should it work. For example this one ? if not that one what would be the specs i'd need to look out for? Or would I be better off just getting a normal SATA SSD and play it safe.
 
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It’s very likely the drive will work without issue but just hasn’t been tested by Gigabyte to make it on to the list (assuming they keep it up to date even!).

If it were me, I would go for it and 5 year warranty on that drive is good also for the monies :)

Maybe check for any BIOS updates on the board mind just in case that adds support for more drives perhaps? I think it should work ok but.
 
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I would just buy a 1TB Samsung 990 EVO Plus, which can be bought for around £70 at time of posting. I don't have reason to think it wouldn't work in that motherboard - in fact, I'd be amazed if it didn't.

After buying the drive and while you're waiting for it to arrive, make sure the BIOS is up-to-date. It wouldn't be such a bad idea to clean any dust out of the PC. Believe it or not, but an SSD could make the CPU run a bit hotter, as the drive is able to load data faster and more frequently.
 
You could take a punt at this:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £43.94 (includes delivery: £3.99)​

I've had a few B-Stock SSD's from OCUK and have never had a problem, they also accept offers so you could possibly nab it for £25-30.

See here for info on putting offers in:

**B-GRADE CLEARANCE AND FORUM DEALS**

Hi, Looking to get a deal and save some pennies then why not check out the clearance section on our website or just click here. As part of a forum deal I'm looking to open up my b-grade sections to offers. A lot of prices are reduced heavily already so if I can't match the offer I will...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk

That said, some older motherboards can be iffy with certain NvME's, especially newer models. We've had a few instances of that on here in the past, I'd be half tempted to find a super cheap sata drive and just slap that in.
 
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The main thing with your motherboard is that the M.2 slot runs at PCIe 3.0 speeds. Long story short, there's no point paying extra for PCI 4.0 or even PCI 5.0 M.2 drives, when the PCIe 3.0 drives are the most affordable.

That and the speed differences won't be too noticeable, even if the motherboard did support higher bandwidths. Even using SATA SSDs, there's not much benefit nowadays since the prices of M.2s are not that much more, no significant cost savings to be had there. Only reason to get one is if running out of usable M.2 slots. That said my current PC is M.2-only coming from SSD & HDD combo and honestly, in day to day use... it doesn't feel any faster. Might be cos Windows 11 is terrible, likes to slow things down anyway and hogs resources though :cry:

Usually I would pick the fastest storage device for Windows/boot drive and then go from there for additional drives. It sounds like you want to just stay with a single drive, which isn't a bad idea, but it's good to have important files either seperate or backed up (i.e. have a seperate smaller partition for Windows, allowing any future reinstalls of Windows to not delete important files).

The cheapest decent M.2 is a Patriot P300 500GB (Google it, since it doesn't seem like OCUK have that particular one in stock atm). It is possible to find 500GB SATA SSDs for under £25, but it's up to you if saving a fiver is worth the admittedly not very noticeable drop in speed.

But if going for a single drive and installing games and such on it, I'd recommend 1TB to be safe. The 1TB M.2s cost around £45-50 when you shop around. Look for Western Digital Green SN350.
 
flashheart85 said:
I've checked her mother board on the Gigabyte website here It says "1 x M.2 Socket 3 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA &PCIe x4/x2/x1 SSD support)"

However, the list on their 'supported drives' page has a VERY limited choice.
Click to expand...
When 6th gen was released, M.2 drives still weren't that widely used (at least, not like now) and we've had loads of drives released since then.., so the QVL for any of those boards is near useless at this point.

flashheart85 said:
As long as I get a decent brand and it 'fits' into the length (2242/2260 etc) should it work. For example this one ? if not that one what would be the specs i'd need to look out for? Or would I be better off just getting a normal SATA SSD and play it safe.
Click to expand...
Most drives will work fine in an older board, but do check that you still have the screw (if not already attached to the board). The vast majority of drives for desktops are 2280 and I'd expect this to be the longest standoff.

For the intended usage, any reputable SSD will be fine and a big upgrade on the HDD, even if just a SATA brick. The NV3 isn't a drive I'm a big fan of due to relatively low rated endurance and variable parts. I'd keep in mind the price per GB too, since 500GB is usually suboptimal versus 1TB/2TB drives.
 
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It supports SATA and NVMe, the price difference between 500 and 1GB is minimal and the 970 Evo Plus is my personal weapon of choice at this point.

The reason the website has so few tested drives is simply down to what they tested at the time and what was available, it’s rarely if ever revisited after launch.
 
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