Aurora R8, install additional M.2 drives

Theoretically it should work.  But, I've seen enough strangeness with Dell's motherboard and UEFI BIOS design that there's room for doubt.  If you can buy the PCIe adapter card and drive from a vendor with a good return policy, then I say give it a try. Let us know how it pans out if you decide to go that route.

---

@comdias wrote:

Aurora R8 

The motherboard has only one slot, 

---

Right. So, use only that one slot ... for a nice M.2/PCIe/NVMe-SSD. Only have one of those NVMe-SSDs in system.

Search forum for user that tried what you propose and is having trouble booting now.

---

@comdias wrote:

Hi guys,

I have an Aurora R8 and was wondering if it is possible to expand it with an additional M.2 drive.

---

You can add as many M.2 NVMe SSDs to a system as you have PCIe lanes available.  (Even more with specialized hardware that doubles up on lanes - effects concurrent drive use performance, of course.)

The one potential problem, as amstel78 pointed out, is a possible bug in Dell's BIOS.

---

@comdias wrote:

[...] I found a PCIe adapter that could do the job.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DYHYLM9/

Would that work?

---

Should be fine.  Any adapter with only a single M.2 NVMe SSD slot should work.  (The additional M.2 SATA on the that card shouldn't create any issues, as it doesn't use any PCIe lanes.)

Note I believe you can only have one NVMe driver in the system.  For example, either Microsoft's that comes with Windows or Samsung's.  Generally not a problem, though.

---

@Tesla1856 wrote:

---

[...] Only have one of those NVMe-SSDs in system.

---

Used to be my misconception as well.  I've had no issues running multiple M.2 NVMe SSDs on one system.  Same idea as running multiple SATA drives on a system.

---

@Techgee wrote:

---

---

@Tesla1856 wrote:

---

[...] Only have one of those NVMe-SSDs in system.

---

Used to be my misconception as well.  I've had no issues running multiple M.2 NVMe SSDs on one system.  Same idea as running multiple SATA drives on a system.

---

Just a suggestion.

Admittedly, there are two issues that must be over-come before it will work. I know of another, so that's three.

There is simply no good reason make the effort. There is no valid-config that requires it. These are not workstations.

---

@Tesla1856 wrote:

---

---

Just a suggestion.

Admittedly, there are two issues that must be over-come before it will work. I know of another, so that's three.

There is simply no good reason make the effort. There is no valid-config that requires it. These are not workstations.

---

I agree that setting up a system with M.2 NVMe SSD(s) can involve working through lots of configuration settings and figuring out how to get it all to work.  This can be daunting, confusing and frustrating.  Like anything, once you understand how to do it it's not too bad, but it does involve a lot more technical aspects than most people want to deal with.

The reason I've made the effort on my machines is it's worth the increased performance for me.  Additionally, my personal policy once a new tech (NVMe in this case) has been out a while and is stable with a reasonable cost is I don't buy the old tech (SATA) anymore.

I'm done buying SATA SSDs for Windows/OS drives and active data drives.  For my use, SATA SSDs are only for storing backups or archiving inactive files I still want online.  I don't have any spinning HDs anymore, but if I did I'd only use them for archiving larger files like videos and pics, where it can make sense.

With the Aurora R8 and 2 M.2 NVMe SSDs, you should see up to 3500 MB/s copying between drives and up to over 1000 MB/s copying to an external M.2 NVMe SSD USB enclosure.

I don't have the new Aurora R8, but I can copy files between my ten year old Dell's multiple M.2 NVMe drives at up to 1700 MB/s.  I can even copy files between them and an external M.2 NVMe USB 3.1 Gen 2 drive enclosure at up to 800 MB/s.  This is much better than SATA II or III.

Got the Riptop per your suggestion and a Samsung 1TB drive. Works like a charm. Plugged in, used disk partition tool to allocate the space. Literally took me 15 minutes or so.

M2 is not a drive specification AND you cannot have 2 PCI-E m2 devices.

More than one M2 requires Adapter and Special Setting

in bios to allow the lanes to be divided up for more than 1 M2.

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboard-Accessories/HYPER-M-2-X16-CARD-V2/

You do not get 4 or more slots with X16 or even X8 bandwidth.

So if you have more than 1 M2 it needs to be on the same "SLOT"

Yes. I have 2 NVMe PCIe M2 drives (samsung) installed in my R7 and I can boot from either the x4 or lower x8 PCIe slot.  Booting from the PCIe slot is not my default configuration, but boot manager allows me to select either drive on startup and I have confirmed that my secondary drive does work as a boot drive no matter where which slot it's connected to and regardless of whether the primary boot drive is connected to the M2 slot.  I have my GPU connected to the top x8 slot.

REPLYING TO: 

@r72019:  Thanks for the reply. That was music to my ears. My R8 hasn't shipped yet, and I was worried that a 2-SSD configuration might not work.  Now I can relax. 

Almost none of below in grey is true and I can't make sense of it.

In the simplest case, as long as you add no more than one M.2 NVMe SSD per motherboard PCIe slot everything is straightforward with multiple M.2 NVMe SSDs.  Needs at least x4 PCIe lanes per motherboard slot and a PCIe M.2 NVMe adapter card for each slot if it isn't a dedicated M.2 slot.

In a more complicated scenario, multiple M.2 NVMe SSDs per motherboard PCIe slot (usually a x8 or x16 lane slot) are possible and require no special configuration or software.  I'm not talking about a RAID card, but using a simple (but expensive) PCIe switch card.  The system sees each NVMe SSD directly, and not behind something like a RAID controller.

I'm running up to 4 M.2 NVMe SSDs in one motherboard x8 PCIe slot in another system with a PCIe switch card.  Requires no drivers, no software, no configuration, no BIOS settings except the normal selection of a NVMe device if you want to boot from it.  If you're familiar with unmanaged ethernet Network Switches - same idea, just with PCIe.  (As long as no more than 2 SSDs are sending data at the same time, I get full NVMe bandwidth for the PCIe version through the x8 lanes.)

        M2 is not a drive specification AND you cannot have 2 PCI-E m2 devices.

        More than one M2 requires Adapter and Special Setting

        in bios to allow the lanes to be divided up for more than 1 M2.

        https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboard-Accessories/HYPER-M-2-X16-CARD-V2/

        You do not get 4 or more slots with X16 or even X8 bandwidth.

        So if you have more than 1 M2 it needs to be on the same "SLOT"

M2 is not a drive specification AND you cannot have 2 PCI-E m2 devices. More than one M2 requires Adapter and Special Setting

Huh? Please elaborate. M.2 is a specification regarding form factor and bus size.  Additionally, it's already been shown in this thread that more than one M.2 drive can exist within an R7 or R8 without fiddling with the BIOS (not that you could anyway... hello Dell?).

NVME is specification

M2 is the connector not the specification\

B keyed M2 drives are SATA

M key only is AHCI PCI-E