Nvme expansion card

Tommy_Here · 12 Mar 2023 at 09:46

Hi all,

I’ve currently got 2x nvme drives in my Maximus X hero hero which are running at max speed no issues but looking for more storage and I can get a crucial nvme 4tb SSD for £20 more than the Sata mx500 so a no brainer - I’m looking at the asus hyper 4x pcie x4 expansion card which would insert directly into the bottom of my board - would this affect the top pcie slot of my graphics card?

SpellowHouse · 12 Mar 2023 at 09:57

I believe the answer is that there is a very small impact on the graphics performance but you are only talking one percent or so.

mickyflinn · 12 Mar 2023 at 10:03

Bottom slot on the motherboard is from the chipset so shouldn't affect GPU lanes, but best to read up on adding m2 card in the manual.

Tetras · 12 Mar 2023 at 18:18

The manual says the third full length slot can operate at 4 lanes, if the 1 lane slot it shares bandwidth is empty and (at least, this is my interpretation) you set the slot to 4 lanes in the BIOS, because otherwise it will only use 2 lanes by default. This would give you only 1 working slot on the Hyper M.2 card.

If you use the second full length slot, I believe the compatibility chart on the M.2 card's website says you can use 2 slots on the Hyper M.2 card, but your graphics card will lose 8 lanes.

My impression of this, is that if you're planning to use the third full length slot, which seems likely given the size of your graphics card, then you don't need to buy and won't get much benefit from the Hyper M.2 card, because only one slot will ever be usable.

Tommy_Here · 12 Mar 2023 at 19:57

Thanks all! I think the extra cost of the SSD + expansion card I’ll just go with the crucial mx500 for £249 4tb for my older game library to free up my 2TB and 1tb WD black SN850 for newer games that’ll benefit more from the nvme