Using M.2 NVMe SSD with adapter at PCIE 3.0 X16 slot while the motherboard uses DDR3 RAM?

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ttttt
ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
edited March 2024 in 2020 Archives
I am able to use M.2 NVMe SSD as boot drive at the PCIe 3.0 X16 slot by an adapter with my TC-885. The TC-885 is rather new, using DDR4 RAM and it has M.2 slot on the motherboard by default.
Just wonder anyone who tried to just use PCIE 3.0 x16 and M.2 NVMe SSD adapter on older machines that use DDR3 memory without M.2 slot on the motherboard?
Too bad that my DDR3 machine must use a graphics card for display, x16 slot already occupied, so I cannot try that myself.
If it cannot be used as a boot drive on DDR3 machine, is it possible using it as data drive?

Best Answer

  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    Answer ✓
    It had been a month and nobody seemed to care about this topic. However, I would like to report the results here, solving my own problem/question. My ten year old PC uses DDR3 memory and PCIe 2.0 expansion slots, the x16 slot is occupied by the graphics card, no M.2 slot on the motherboard. There was no such thing as M.2 SSD when I bought the motherboard.

    All of a sudden I remember that the motherboard has SLI/crossfire capabilities . Another PCIe x16 (running at x4 speed ) slot is still empty. Shortly after I bought the motherboard, I believed I overpaid at a premium price for the motherboard with such SLI/crossfire feature that I never needed.

    So, I tried to use a PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD to this additional PCIe  2.0 x16 slot with a PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter to test it out.
    Yes, I can use M.2 NVMe SSD to this old PC with the adapter. Windows 10 was able to format the M.2 SSD to NTFS format, and I was able to write data to it. However, the speed of this PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD was halved, because it is a PCIe 2.0 slot, not PCIe 3.0.
    I also tried to install Windows 10 there by restoring a system image and using a Win 10 installation disk. Both cases gave me error messages, basically saying WIN 10 cannot be installed to this M.2 NVMe SSD (PCIe 2.0 x16 slot) location.

    The conclusion is: 
    People can use old PC with PCIe 2.0 slots for M.2 NVMe SSD, but as a data drive only, not as boot drive. This is an advantage for those who have massive data access. The performance will be like a PCIe 3.0 x2 M.2 NVMe SSD, which is still like 8-14 times faster than 5400 or 7200 RPM spinning HDD.




Answers

  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    Answer ✓
    It had been a month and nobody seemed to care about this topic. However, I would like to report the results here, solving my own problem/question. My ten year old PC uses DDR3 memory and PCIe 2.0 expansion slots, the x16 slot is occupied by the graphics card, no M.2 slot on the motherboard. There was no such thing as M.2 SSD when I bought the motherboard.

    All of a sudden I remember that the motherboard has SLI/crossfire capabilities . Another PCIe x16 (running at x4 speed ) slot is still empty. Shortly after I bought the motherboard, I believed I overpaid at a premium price for the motherboard with such SLI/crossfire feature that I never needed.

    So, I tried to use a PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD to this additional PCIe  2.0 x16 slot with a PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter to test it out.
    Yes, I can use M.2 NVMe SSD to this old PC with the adapter. Windows 10 was able to format the M.2 SSD to NTFS format, and I was able to write data to it. However, the speed of this PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD was halved, because it is a PCIe 2.0 slot, not PCIe 3.0.
    I also tried to install Windows 10 there by restoring a system image and using a Win 10 installation disk. Both cases gave me error messages, basically saying WIN 10 cannot be installed to this M.2 NVMe SSD (PCIe 2.0 x16 slot) location.

    The conclusion is: 
    People can use old PC with PCIe 2.0 slots for M.2 NVMe SSD, but as a data drive only, not as boot drive. This is an advantage for those who have massive data access. The performance will be like a PCIe 3.0 x2 M.2 NVMe SSD, which is still like 8-14 times faster than 5400 or 7200 RPM spinning HDD.




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