7

Knowing I had a spare PCIe slot, I purchased this SSD

4TB Samsung 990 EVO

SAMSUNG 990 EVO Plus SSD 2TB, PCIe Gen 4x4, Gen 5x2 M.2 2280, Speeds Up-to 7,250 MB/s, Upgrade Storage for PC/Laptops, HMB Technology and Intelligent Turbowrite 2.0, (MZ-V9S2T0B/AM)

enter image description here

But it doesn't seem to fit either of the two slots labelled as PCIe that my motherboard seems to have. This is my motherboard

MSI PRO B660M-A

MSI PRO B660M-A WiFi DDR4 MATX Motherboard - Powerful Performance, Reliable Connectivity & Sleek Design, M.2 Shield Frozr, PCIe 4.0, USB 3.2 Gen2, Wi-Fi 6 & Bluetooth 5.2, Core Boost, Memory Boost

enter image description here

Giacomo1968
  • 58,727
Rohit Gupta
  • 5,096

3 Answers3

36

The best socket for that drive would be the one under the heatsink next to the upper PCIe slot. It is connected directly to the CPU instead of going through the chipset, and it has cooling provided, which helps prevent the SSD throttling under heavy use.

Motherboard photo with upper M.2 location indicated

See page 16 of the instruction manual for the pictures—the relevant text of the instructions to install the SSD is

  1. Loosen the screws of M.2 Shield Frozr heatsink.
  2. Remove the M.2 Shield Frozr and remove the protective films from the thermal pads.
  3. Insert your M.2 SSD into the M.2 slot at a 30-degree angle.
  4. Rotate the EZ M.2 Clip to fix the M.2 SSD.
  5. Put the M.2 Shield Frozr heatsink back in place and secure it.

I would add to step 3: wiggle the SSD a little bit to make sure it is fully seated and then lower it to the clip. If it doesn't want to seat properly, take it out and try again.

Andrew Morton
  • 3,935
9

The first candidate would be the dedicated the M.2 connector on the motherboard, which is the connector on rhe right of the following part of the motherboard picture from the question:

Mortherboard zoom-in on M.2 connector

If the dedicated M.2 connector is already in use, then you will need an adapter such as the StarTech x4 PCI Express 3.0 to M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD Adapter to be able to fit the M.2 SSD into a PCIe slot on the motherboard:

x4 PCI Express 3.0 to M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD Adapter

Chester Gillon
  • 1,573
7

The connector of your SSD is called M.2 which uses the PCIe bus1. You should plug your SSD here :

motherboard

1 The motherboard slot (and the SSD connector) is a M Key type which is generally used by NVME drives.

user2747390
  • 311