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SkierBosche
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February 19th, 2020 15:00
Aurora R10, adding NVMe M.2 SSD via a PCIe adapter
(NOTE-THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT 970 EVO PLUS)
I am planning to add this SSD:
Samsung 970 EVO PLUS SSD 2TB - M.2 NVMe
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MFZXR1B/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_BeEtEbKCT8MTX
To my Aurora R10 Ryzen Edition using either one of these adapters:
Lycom DT-120 M.2 PCIe to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MYCQP38/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
or
M.2 NVME to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter with Aluminum Heatsink Solution (used successfully by others on R7's)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JJTVGZM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Plugged into the PCI-Express x4 slot (SLOT3)
Will it work?
Note that I already have the factory M.2 NVMe 2TB card on-board plugged into the solid-state drive slot (M.2 SSD).
If you extrapolate from this thread, yes it should work:
... if the PCIe-Addin card is 100% compatible and 100% operational.
However, a good SATA-3/600 SSD is usually fine for large games and other things you might store on a D-Drive.
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Posted February 29th, 2020 20:00
Posting in reply now to confirm this works just fine. Simple, easy setup.
SkierBosche
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Posted July 15th, 2020 12:00
I can but results will not be meaningful as I do not have a before/after.
The PCIe NVMe memory is indeed slower than the NVMe M.2 slot memory, but again, that is not apples to apples.
I have yet to peg the GPU on this box either, even when rendering video.
But, moot really as this is the only place I can expand to more NVMe memory on this machine.
It will be meaningful because we know what the speeds should typically be. So we can see the speed loss.
I have an opportunity to get a 2nd nvme at a really good price. Your results will tell me to buy the 2nd nvme or instead an regular ssd/sata drive. Thanks.
SkierBosche
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Posted July 15th, 2020 13:00
Using Blackmagicdesign's Disk Speed Test:
The 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB - M.2 NVMe attached to a PCIe adapter gets 1305 MB/s WRITE, and 1455 MB/s READ
The OEM 2TB M.2 NVMe attached to a NVMe slot gets 1891 MB/s WRITE, and 3028 MB/s READAh, I think I figured out why your speed got slowed. It's explained on page 8 of the manual: https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/alienware-aurora-r10-desktop_users-guide_en-us.pdf
The R10 cuts the speed of the x4 PCiE slot #3 (#2 is obstructed by the GPU) in half, so only 2 of the 4 lanes transmit data.
I believe you should be able to increase your speed to 3K+ write via PCIE by dropping your adapter and SSD down to the bottom GPU slot, which will allow full bandwidth.
johnbowzer
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Posted December 28th, 2020 14:00
Since I ended up figuring out how to get this second M.2 SSD using the PCIe adapter card working, I will share what I did to get it recognized and working.
With the second SSD/Adapter plugged into the second GPU x16 slot4, there was no way it could be accessed via Disk Management or anything else. Like it did not exist. Tried everything I could think of, or find online.
Solution:
I have a bootable Win10 on a USB stick.
I took out the ssd/adapter from the x16 slot4, and uninstalled the ssd from it.
I took out the stock m.2 ssd from the m.2 port, and put in the new one.
I plugged in my usb stick, and powered up. It booted using the usb, as that now became the default 'Windows Disk' in the UEFI BIOS set up.
I loaded Windows Disk Management and it recognized the m.2 SSD, which it did not before, so I set it up as usual as a standard volume, no drive letter yet.
Then I exited Windows and powered down.
I swapped back in the stock m.2 ssd to the m.2 port.
I reinstalled the new m.2 sdd back onto the PCIe adapter again, and plugged it back into the second x16 gpu slot4.
I booted up and it booted using stock m.2 ssd.
The second ssd/adapter was now recognized in Windows Disk Management, and I gave it a drive letter.
Windows Explorer also sees the new disk.