M.2 slot covered by graphics cards

SemperFitz · 29 May 2025 at 13:26

Hi all,

I have a MSI AMD B350M GAMING PRO AM4 mATX Motherboard and a RX 7700 XT graphics card. I wanted to install a M.2 ssd, but it appears that the gpu covers that slot! Is that supposed to be the case? Or will the SSD sit under the graphics card?

TIA

Rob_B · 29 May 2025 at 13:30

It's fairly normal, they wont interfere unless the SSD has a heatsink.

They can run warmer as they're so close to the GPU but usually it isn't a problem.

Liquid_Entity · 29 May 2025 at 13:37

My B650 I've installed a heatsink primary M2 and a non heatsink M2 and it's fine. My 7900XTX sits right on top of pretty much both of them

pastymuncher · 29 May 2025 at 19:02

You can't say that about all M2 drives though. I have the same board and with the motherboards own heatsink my Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2Tb was thermal throttling sitting in the slot between the gpu and cpu and the drive under the gpu was simply getting cooked by my 7900GRE as the motherboard heatsink was getting ovewhelmed. Both are gen 4 drives so I wouldn't have had a chance with a gen 5 drive. I sorted it eventually but it took drastic measures to do so.

WARburton · 29 May 2025 at 22:26

Liquid_Entity said:
My B650 I've installed a heatsink primary M2 and a non heatsink M2 and it's fine. My 7900XTX sits right on top of pretty much both of them

why not use the bottom slots under the heatsink?

pastymuncher · 30 May 2025 at 11:21

There is a heatsink for that slot as well, I have the same board. Top two slots are connected to the CPU while the other two are connected to the chipset. Top one is pci-e 5.0 all the others are pci-e 4.0.

WARburton · 30 May 2025 at 12:53

I thought the top one was pcie 5 and there other 3 are all pcie 4.

Having it in the chipset won’t make any noticeable difference

pastymuncher · 31 May 2025 at 11:14

That's exactly what I said.

pastymuncher said:
Top one is pci-e 5.0 all the others are pci-e 4.0.

adrichardson81 · 31 May 2025 at 11:39

It'll be fine - they wouldn't put a slot there unless they were reasonably confident it won't cook your drive.

If you're worried, check whether there's enough clearance for a slim heatsink for the drive. My guess is there will be - mine has 3 m.2 slots under a heatsink that's mostly covered by the GPU.