Does my Aspire A514-52G support pci-express Gen3 x4 or only Gen3 x2?

Ruispeed3d

Hi,
i wanted to upgrade my ssd to one with a bigger capacity, i found that my 256gb m.2 nvme ssd from kingston (model RBU-SNS8154P3/256GJ1), i'm not sure if it's the A1000 or the A2000 model, has a Pci-Express Gen3 x2 interface, the one with two guiding grooves on the pcb that fits inside the slot. The ones i currently see only have one, at least most of them.

 What i wanted to know is if my laptop is compatible with the Gen3 x4 interface, because i read somewhere that plugging in a gen3 x4 ssd in a gen3 x2 only slot might significantly impact the ssd performance.

thank you in advance for any reply or insight on this matter.

JackE

It should be compatible but you should also download and run hwinfo64 freeware to see whether or not the m.2 socket supports G3x4 or G3x2.  The mainboard should have support G3x4 for most A515-52G models.

Ruispeed3d

JackE said:

It should be compatible but you should also download and run hwinfo64 freeware to see whether or not the m.2 socket supports G3x4 or G3x2.  The mainboard should have support G3x4 for most A515-52G models.

Thank you for your reply,
i just downloaded hwinfo and after searching around for a bit i found nothing regarding that interface support. The only section i found was in regard to SATA host controller and it's interface speed supported which is Gen3 6gbps. Is that info any good to help answer my question? If that doesn't help, do you have any idea where to find it within the program?

JackE

The m.2 would be in the Bus folder. PCIe root port. The SATA controller is for the 2.5" HDD/SSD connector

Ruispeed3d

JackE said:

The m.2 would be in the Bus folder. PCIe root port. The SATA controller is for the 2.5" HDD/SSD connector

Thank you, i think i found it. The image attached has all the PCIe Express Root Ports in my pc that hwinfo recognised.

In the port #5 there's a section, on the right panel, that says PCI Express and bellow that it says the version(3.0) and the maximum link width which says 4x.

Am i safe to assume that's the supported interface, which is Gen3 x4 ? 

JackE

Yes. But nvme cards advertised as full speed (r/w about 2-3GB/s) can be finicky especially budget economy brands.