2x NVME within MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon Max

Savan_P · 4 Feb 2021 at 16:04

Hi All,

I currently have a SN550 NVME M.2 500GB installed in my MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon Max WiFi Motherboard.

I have purchased an additional SN550 1TB M.2 NVME drive today that I intend to install in the second slot, to use as a storage drive.

Is there anything within the settings I need to do to optimise the speed of the drives as I will be running two M.2 slots?

photoshop · 4 Feb 2021 at 16:41

It should run optimised from the outset.

EsaT · 4 Feb 2021 at 16:50

Just remember that NVMe in M2_2 slot disables all other PCIe slots except for CPU connected main x16 slot.

Savan_P · 4 Feb 2021 at 20:52

EsaT said:
Just remember that NVMe in M2_2 slot disables all other PCIe slots except for CPU connected main x16 slot.

Ahh - thanks for letting me know. Wasn't aware this would happen. Is this documented in the manual or anywhere?

EsaT · 4 Feb 2021 at 21:00

Savan_P said:
Ahh - thanks for letting me know. Wasn't aware this would happen. Is this documented in the manual or anywhere?

Should be also in manual, but maker's product web site usually have those.

M2_2 slot will be unavailable when installing devices in PCI_E2, PCI_E3, PCI_E4 and PCI_E5 slot.

PCI_E2, PCI_E3, PCI_E4 and PCI_E5 slots will be unavailable when installing M.2 PCIe SSD in M2_2 slot.
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450-GAMING-PRO-CARBON-MAX-WIFI/Specification

Anyway that's basically rule in B450 baords, because of chipset's limited IO lanes.

Savan_P · 5 Feb 2021 at 11:37

Thanks EsaT!

I might have to re-think my storage strategy. Toying with the option of just having the single 1TB NVME and selling the 500GB.

Savan_P · 7 Feb 2021 at 12:26

Arghh. The second M.2 arrived - went install and MSI don't provide a second M.2 screw to mount the drive.

How annoying!