Is there a way to determine if my m.2 slots are running x2 or x4 lanes? - ph315-52

lecoques100

I own a helios 300 ph315-52 and for some odd reason, I cannot determine if the second m.2 slot is running x4 or x2 lanes. I checked crystal disk info. It does not show the transfer mode being used. 
I checked crystaldisk mark and these are results. It is clear that the factory installed m.2 ssd is running x4 lanes however, the second m.2 slot is slower 

I also checked hwinfo64 (I am having difficulty in interpreting the data) and for some reason, it does not also tell if the nvme slots are running x2 or x4 


I actually returned the original adata 1tb drive and got a replacement unit immediately. The results were still the same. This tells me that either the m.2 slot is not running x4 lanes or I got another faulty drive

brummyfan2

Hi,
I think you have 4 lanes enabled in your laptop, but if you want to check and confirm, run HWiNFO64, expand Bus, expand PCI Bus, highlight each PCI Express Root ports and check in the right pane.

lecoques100

Hi. I cant seem to locate a root port that has a dropdown for an nvme drive as shown here. I expanded all the dropdowns 
I have only observed that all of my drives have their host controller be Intel 82801HBM ICH8 - SATA RAID 0/1 Controller as shown

I dont know if the raid controller is the reason why any hardware diagnostic tool that I use cannot detect what lanes are being used

brummyfan2

Hi,
Yes, HWiNFO64 is not useful for your model, you could be right in saying that the RAID0 set up may have caused the lower speed, also the first slot is only for NVMe and the second is for NVMe/SATA, anyway, you can compare the speeds others getting in userbenchmark.
Acer Predator PH315-52 Performance Results - UserBenchmark
UserBenchmark: Acer Predator PH315-52 Compatible Components

lecoques100

is there a way to change it to x4 lanes if it were to be x2 lanes only?

brummyfan2

No, I don't think you can change it from 2lanes to 4lanes.

lecoques100

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/609611/predator-helios-300-ph315-52-54kc-xpg-sx8200-installed-and-only-getting-half-read-speeds/p2?fbclid=IwAR2UPrF6bU8NQJ7pxz3R_DeNY1-oaFsdyGhnaIrsBxlrcgte3BxsEL8a0to

in this forum thread, we had the same issues and bought the same drive but different size but the hwinfo64 in his unit shows the lanes used.

brummyfan2

The user not using SATA RAID controller, he is using ADATA NVMe Controller.

lecoques100

So in conclusion, I have a SATA RAID controller which may or may not be the reason why there is a bottleneck. Because of this, the second m.2 slot only running at 2 lanes and I cannot change the device controller so that both m.2 slots run at 4 pcie lanes. I bought the adata drive knowing that both m.2 slots support pcie x4. This is really frustrating since I expected at least 2900 read speed.

HeliosEnthusiast

I'm came here to justlecoques100 said:

So in conclusion, I have a SATA RAID controller which may or may not be the reason why there is a bottleneck. Because of this, the second m.2 slot only running at 2 lanes and I cannot change the device controller so that both m.2 slots run at 4 pcie lanes. I bought the adata drive knowing that both m.2 slots support pcie x4. This is really frustrating since I expected at least 2900 read speed.

I created this account to specifically reply that I have a ph315-51-78np which's a different model than yours, but had the same results as you on crystal disk info. I went to bios and realized that "SATA mode" was set to RST with Optane, and since I don't have an Optane drive in my M.2 slot, I switched this setting to AHCI and crystal disk info showed me the info I needed.
(My reading speed also increased by 1.3% too, but that's marginal and could be a normal variation; worth noting that my internal drive isn't M.2 NVME SSD, but M.2 SATA, and my laptop is said to be NVME capable too)

HeliosEnthusiast

HeliosEnthusiast said:

I'm came here to justlecoques100 said:

So in conclusion, I have a SATA RAID controller which may or may not be the reason why there is a bottleneck. Because of this, the second m.2 slot only running at 2 lanes and I cannot change the device controller so that both m.2 slots run at 4 pcie lanes. I bought the adata drive knowing that both m.2 slots support pcie x4. This is really frustrating since I expected at least 2900 read speed.

I created this account to specifically reply that I have a ph315-51-78np which's a different model than yours, but had the same results as you on crystal disk info. I went to bios and realized that "SATA mode" was set to RST with Optane, and since I don't have an Optane drive in my M.2 slot, I switched this setting to AHCI and crystal disk info showed me the info I needed.
(My reading speed also increased by 1.3% too, but that's marginal and could be a normal variation; worth noting that my internal drive isn't M.2 NVME SSD, but M.2 SATA, and my laptop is said to be NVME capable too)

Edit: ...but had the same results as you on hwinfo64...