m.2 slots and AMD x870
Posted by Solaries3@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 11 comments
What's up with the low number of m.2 slots on the chipset? Can I work around the issues effectively by adding an m.2 expansion card and still keep all my lanes for my GPU?
I'm looking to upgrade my CPU/MB and am a bit shocked to see that every x870e motherboard I'm seeing only supports 2-3 m.2 slots without downgrading the GPU's PCIe slot from x16 to x8. I understand this is going to be a very small performance hit for most users and situations, but I game at 4k and will be upgrading to an RTX 5090 eventually, so I don't want to lose anything if I can help it.
Thanks!
tybuzz@reddit
As far as I am aware, this only pertains to the 2nd pcie x16 slot on the majority of x870E motherboards and not the first. There are 4 slots m.2 mobos, but they are all high end and very expensive. 99% of people don't use more than even 2 m.2 slots, let alone 4.
You could use a m.2 expansion card in the 2nd pcie x16 slot, but depending on the configuration you will may hit the x8 limit. A good expansion card is also expensive. It would likely be better to just get fewer larger capacity m.2 drives.
Unless you actually need high speed access to more than 4 m.2 drives, another option would be external drives or even cheap SATA ssds.
Solaries3@reddit (OP)
Both Gigabyte and ASUS say using 3 (or 4) m.2 devices will reduce the PCIe lanes on the gen5 x16 PCIe slot to x8. This MSI card someone else linked appears to bypass the issue and instead will reduce lanes for USB4, which I don't care about at all so this seems like a good direction so far.
tybuzz@reddit
I only looked at a few including the ProArt X870E-CREATOR WIFI, which doesn't appear to have the issue. Pretty lame the other higher end boards do though.
The_Anal_Advocate@reddit
If you don't care about USB4 then don't get 870 and instead stick with 670.
Solaries3@reddit (OP)
Looks like almost nothing is lost going with x670e, so I found a good model with a decent price and sale that appears it'll get me everything I want.
Thanks!
Solaries3@reddit (OP)
Will look into that, thanks! I hadn't realized 670 and 870 were so similar.
-UserRemoved-@reddit
For what board?
Why not buy bigger drives if you need more capacity over many smaller drives?
Why do they all need to be NVMe? Are all your workloads using high sequential speeds and niche levels of throughput?
Boards are designed to accommodate what most people need. Most people don't need half a dozen drives with speeds they don't use daily.
Solaries3@reddit (OP)
Every x870e board I've seen has 2-3 slots, 4-5 if you want to reduce your PCIe lanes on your GPU.
Over the years, as NVMe drives got bigger and faster, I've gotten up to 5 and my current MB can support that without impacting anything else negatively. So I'm left being forced to effectively downgrade to 3, which would require either deleting a bunch of shit or buying new, larger and more expensive drives.
-UserRemoved-@reddit
Why do you need so many drives? What is your workload?
If you need so many drives and so many PCIe lanes, why not use HEDT platforms?
Do you need the sequential speeds of NVMe? For what workloads? If you don't, why isn't Sata SSD an option?
Solaries3@reddit (OP)
It's definitely about trying to limit the need to buy new drives alongside the new CPU and MB, to keep costs down.
Another user recommended looking at x670 chipsets and I think they're probably right.
rizzzeh@reddit
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-X870-TOMAHAWK-WIFI/Specification