I have a TC-780-ACKI5 with i5-7400, 12GB RAM, running onboard 630 graphics, and using the stock 2TB spinner HD. I want to ditch the spinner and upgrade to an M.2 SSD. Apparently, the onboard M.2 slot is limited to PCIe 3.0 x2, is this correct? And the M.2 SATA format is recommended, although it seems some have successfully installed an M.2 NVMe SSD.
There are readily available PCIe 3.0 x16 adapter cards to allow an M.2 SSD to install into a PCIe x16 slot. I want to use the graphics card slot for this PCIe 3.0 x16 adapter card with an M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD, and continue to use the onboard graphics. Is this possible? Will the SSD be recognized? And can the onboard graphics remain enabled?
If successful this may allow the SSD to run at 3.0 x4 speeds instead of 3.0 x2 speeds. I believe the graphics PCIe connection is directly to the CPU, instead of through the H110 Express motherboard chipset (PCH), which would allow for more (4) PCIe lanes to be used for the SSD. I believe the onboard M.2 slot is PCIe 3.0 x2 routed through the chipset (PCH), so only 2 PCIe lanes.
Will installing this PCIe x16 adapter card in the graphics slot automatically disable the onboard graphics? If so, is there a way to enable the onboard graphics when the adapter card is installed in the graphics slot? I read this onboard graphics enable adjustment is possible in a Gigabyte bios, but don't know if it is possible in my Acer.
https://support.punchtechnology.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360011378818-How-to-enable-integrated-CPU-graphics-in-addition-to-a-discrete-GPU
[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]
