What does the Nitro AN515-52 support in the M.2 slot?

BurntBrummy · August 2021

Various forums on the web suggest that my Nitro 515-52 has an M.2 slot that will support SATA or PCIE NVME SD drives. However, when I run HWINFO it reports that the PCIE root hub has 1x width (both current and max) which I believe gives a theoretical max speed of 8GB/s. Assuming a SATA SSD runs at 6 GB/S in the same slot, would it be better to go for a cheaper SATA drive for the marginal performance loss? Orfffff....several sites, including this one, suggests that the slot is in fact a 4 channel slot and I've even seen screenshots of benchmarked SSD Drives giving max speeds for that x4 drive. It might be that different versions of the 515-52 have different architectures, but this seems unlikely. If anyone has knowledge or experience of this model, or is able to interpret my ramblings above into something a little clearer, I'd be grateful.
Footnote - If I go for either SSD, how much quicker (boot time etc) would it be over the current 5400rpm HDD?
Thanks muchly.

batmalin · August 2021

That`s right, in the scematic of your MB i see 4 lanes for M.2 PCIe, so you are good to go with NVMe drive

batmalin · August 2021

This is a Samsung driver issue and not a problem as you are reaching the speeds, search for 980 SSD and win 10 driver in google and you can see that there is an issue with the driver(there are some workarounds thou).

batmalin · August 2021

Screenshot please. It is 100% x4 but I can`t comment your findings until I understand what exactly you are pointing.

BurntBrummy · August 2021

Thanks for your interest Batmalin. Attached

is the HWINFO Screenshot, which seems to show a linkwidth of 1x, whilst I've seen screenshots of other AN515-52s with 4x on the same line.
Grateful for any advice.

batmalin · August 2021

This one is used for the lan card controller and it is not related to M.2 port. Expand the second one under PCI Bus#0

BurntBrummy · August 2021

Hi Batmalin, The second line under PCI Bus #0 expands to: "PCI Express x16 Bus #1". Below that is the 16-channel PCIE connection for the GTX 1050 graphics card.
Is it possible that the number of channels is only shown if a relevant device is connected. For example the x16 graphics card is shown as PCIE 3.0 x16, but the vacant M.2 slot doesn't show (or shows as 1x) as there is no device connected yet?

I'm really keen to upgrade to an M.2 drive, so really grateful for your help.

batmalin · August 2021

May I see the screenshot of that Bus fully expanded?

BurntBrummy · August 2021

Sure thing...

BurntBrummy · August 2021

I also found this exchange on the HWINFO site which seems to suggest that if no drive is physically installed, then HWINFO won't report it: https://www.hwinfo.com/forum/threads/any-way-to-detect-nvme-even-if-nvme-drive-is-not-installed.3121

batmalin · August 2021

That`s right, in the scematic of your MB i see 4 lanes for M.2 PCIe, so you are good to go with NVMe drive

BurntBrummy · August 2021

Cool, thanks for your help. Samsung drive due to arrive today.

batmalin · August 2021

Great, post the benchmark of the drive when installed.

BurntBrummy · August 2021

It's not arrived yet :-( Whilst waiting..... Would you clone the existing HDD (for which I'll need a carrier I think), or would you create a win10 installation USB, remove the HDD, fit the M.2 and do a clean install? I can backup personal files to an external HD that I have, before making the change.

batmalin · August 2021

You can clone while both are in the laptop, that`s how I did it

BurntBrummy · August 2021

Hi Batmalin, here's an update: Drive arrived - Samsung 980 500GB - was installed and set as boot drive. Old 1TB HDD formatted and re-installed as data disk, all traces of OS removed. According to Device Manager all components are working, but Samsung NVME driver won't install, it says that I need to connect the drive (clearly it's connected) and Device Manager lists the drive as working correctly. Device Manager lists the Storage Controller as also working properly, but it's a generic windows 'Storage Spaces Controller'. When I check my 980 SD in Samsung magician it tells me that the device is connected to Magician by an unsupported driver, which it lists as an intel driver and asks that I use a Microsoft or Samsung NVME driver. The Samsung driver (ver 3.3) won't install, telling me that a NVME drive isn't connected. Magician then reports the presence of the drive, but will only benchmark. It won't read out health or temp, the various performance functions aren't available, nor can I check for NVME update.
It sounds to me, like the wrong driver is installed, but I can't find one that will replace it, either on the Samsung site, or via Win update. HWINFO is still not reporting an M.2 drive anywhere on its report. There are no obvious drivers available through Win Update.
I am getting approx 3,200 Mb/s and 2,300 read and write, so it seems to be working well, but could be better.

Any thoughts?

batmalin · August 2021

This is a Samsung driver issue and not a problem as you are reaching the speeds, search for 980 SSD and win 10 driver in google and you can see that there is an issue with the driver(there are some workarounds thou).

BurntBrummy · August 2021

Thanks, I tried some of the workarounds, but Windows wouldn't let me upgrade the drivers, saying that the best drivers were already installed. I'm guessing that id I uninstall the drivers on the SSD which is now my Boot drive, I'll end up having to start from scratch?
I'd like the Magician software to work, but until Samsung sort out the driver for the 980 I'll probably just wait.
Thanks for your help, it's been appreciated.