The Samsung is excellent as a PCIe 4 drive. Sabrent Rocket 4 plus is also excellent and has a 5 year warranty. Both cards read about  7 Gbs. The Rocket has heat sinks available to deal with heavy use.

Thank you for the input.  Regarding the heat sink, I was planning to use the second SSD slot on the motherboard and it is okay to use a heat sink when using this slot?  I also read that several people suggest purchasing a NVMe Adapter M.2 PCIe Card Adapter as keeping the NVMe drive off the motherboard will result in much lower temps.  

I hate it when they use the same numbers for different systems.

R13 desktop storage specifications 

The specifications link Vanadiel provided is not for the Aurora R13 desktop.  His link is for specifications for the Alienware 13 R3 laptop.  I'm assuming that all Z690 boards have PCIe 4.0 or even 5.0

Thanks all for the feedback and confirming the Gen 4 support.  That being said, I am planning to go with the Samsung 980 PRO 2TB NVM3 drive and use the slot located on the motherboard.  

The Samsung specs states "To ensure stable performance, the 980 PRO uses nickel coating to help manage the controller’s heat level and a heat spreader label to deliver effective thermal control of the NAND chip".   

Do this mean I shouldn't need to add a heat sink for the drive?  I am newer to using NVMe drives and appreciate anyone's experience and/or opinions.  

Mine came with a large heatsink attached to it, but the 980 Pro is a better drive.

Mine is a Corsair MP600 Core. Practically you are not going to see the difference between 7000 and 5000 MB/s.

Did a second NVMe drive work in the system?  I'm a little confused because the R13 desktop storage specifications states it only supports two configurations.  One NVMe or NVMe and one 3.5-inch hard drive...  This can't be correct??  The motherboard has 2 NVMe slots, one 3.5 bay and one 2.5 bay?  Please confirm - My system arrives tomorrow.  Thanks!

It's very confusing, since the board has the following interface connections:

- 3 x SATA 6 Gbps connectors (8, 9, 10)

- 1 M2 slot (7)

- 1 M2 slot (15)

R13 Board Layout 

According to the specifications, it only supports one of these configurations:

One M.2 2230 solid-state drivePCIe Gen3/Gen4 x4 NVMe, up to 64 Gbps Up to 256 GB

One M.2 2280 solid-state drive PCIe Gen3/Gen4 x4 NVMe, up to 64 Gbps Up to 2 TB

One 3.5-inch hard drive SATA AHCI 6 Gbps Up to 2 TB

According to the connectors on the board, it should support:

3 x SATA 6 Gbps drives.

1 x M2 drive 2280

1 x M2 drive/card 2230

It's possible some of these are shared with other lanes, or somehow are not usable.

I am not sure, maybe someone with an R13 could shed some lights on this.

Mine arrives on 12/3 as well so I have not yet installed the drive.  I can't imagine that both NVMe slots are unable to be used simultaneously as that would make no sense.  I will let you know after this weekend. 

1 M2 slot only accepts 2230 form factor, while the other accepts up to 2280 form factor.

You typically use the 2230 for add-on cards like a wireless card, although the manual says it supports drives up to 256 GB. 

If for some reason the motherboard slot configuration does not work, wouldn't an NVMe PCIe card solve the situation (e.g. like this Amazon.com: AMPCOM M.2 NVME SSD to PCIe 4.0 Adapter Card, 64Gbps SSD PCIe4.0 X4 Adapter for Desktop PC , PCI-E GEN4 Full Speed : Electronics)?

They don't always work, some do and some don't, on previous models.

I am also not sure if the motherboard slots allow for bifurcation, although a single X4 should work without the need for bifurcation.

Ah ok, that is good to know. I am pretty sure all the drive ports can be used, but I have to go by the official specification sheet.

Both NVMe slots on the MOBO accept either 2230 or 2280 NVMe cards. Whoever wrote up the specs was a clueless rookie.

Cards mounted on the MOBO do run very hot when there is a heavy and persistent load on the system. A SATA SSD will run much cooler, but much slower. So a SATA SSD would be a good place for backups.

Good to hear.  My plan is to use my 2TB NVMe as my gaming drive and a 4TB SATA SSD as my backup drive.  According to FedEx, I should have the R13 delivered today and will share my experience (FPS, temps, etc.) once I am up and running.