31 Posts
0
882
NVMe Slot Specs for Precision 3460 SFF
I have just ordered a Precision 3460 SFF with the 256 NVMe Class 35 SSD in the 2230 slot. I would like to find out whether or not this 2230 slot supports a Gen 4 NVMe or not. I know that the two 2280 slots in this machine support Gen 4 NVMes, but I cannot find any info about the 2230 slot.
Anybody know?
Neil Howard
sam55todd
235 Posts
0
October 3rd, 2022 04:00
For Precision 3460 M.2 NVMe storage slot number 1 is CPU-bound (using CPU PCIe lanes) - and 12th gen CPUs do support Gen4 and Gen5 PCIe standard natively (incl. some lower versions for backward compatibility).
NVMe M.2 storage slots numbers 2 and 3 are going via PCH/Chipset W680 which supports Gen4 & Gen3 PCIe standards.
If you're planning to create RAID volume from your drives - then it would be slots 2&3 but not slot 1.
There's another M.2 slot (shorter) used for WiFi card (different slot key), NVMe drive can't be plugged there.
As for 22110/2280/2260/2242/2240/2230 - it's just a length which can be adjusted by changing mounting screw. On this motherboard Dell implements 2230 and 2280 standard (just by moving mounting screw) in two NVMe slots (but not the third).
DELL-Cares
Moderator
Moderator
•
25K Posts
0
October 2nd, 2022 10:00
We tried reaching you on a private message asking for the Service Tag number to ascertain the warranty but did not receive a response. Please feel free to reply to the private message whenever you are available.
jp_jackalope
41 Posts
0
October 3rd, 2022 10:00
Make sure you buy the right screws because for some reason Dell doesn't include them.
nhowardtx
31 Posts
0
October 6th, 2022 13:00
Thank you for your very detailed response. I can confirm everything that you say because the machine I ordered just arrived today and it is exactly as you describe. It is nice that all 3 NVMe slots all support the faster Gen 4 NVMe drives!
I am planning to eventually have 3 NVMe drives installed. I will eventually clone and replace the 256GB 2230 Gen 4 boot drive with a larger 2230 length boot drive. Slots 2 and 3 will have 2TB 2280 NVME non-RAID data drives. I have a separate backup device on my LAN.
I am wondering why the Dell documentation, Technical support chat personnel and Sales chat personnel (except for one fellow out of 3) could not confirm this as well. It seems as if Dell's documentation for this machine is dated. Probably because the product is near EOL and they don't want to update?
Anyway, I was pretty sure that it had 3 x NMVe SSD slots because it was possible to order the machine with 3 NVMe drives. The only thing that I couldn't tell was if the 2230 Slot 1 supported Gen 4. You confirmed that and I thank you!
nhowardtx
31 Posts
0
October 6th, 2022 13:00
Agreed. I have the correct NVMe M.2 screws. I purchased a pack of a dozen of them plus a sheet of thermal pad for an earlier project. Thanks for your reminder!
nisiv
7 Posts
0
April 2nd, 2023 07:00
I just installed a WD SN850x 4TB in one of the other nVME slots on my Precision 3460 and I'm seeing read/write performance WAY below what is expected from this drive. Any ideas onwhy?
nisiv
7 Posts
0
April 3rd, 2023 08:00
So doing some experimentation moving drives around the various M.2 slots, it seems that in slot 1, you get full speed transfer rates but when moving to slots 2 or 3 it drops by almost 75% (from 7500MB/s to 1800MB/s). So the question is why would that be given that the W680 chipset supports PCI Gen 4.