I just built my first gaming PC over the weekend and everything is running smoothly! I noticed I still have one m.2 slot available on my motherboard, and I also have two unused 16x PCIe 3.0 slots. I'm curious if there are any downsides to using one of those PCIe to m.2 adapters, especially since my remaining slots are PCIe 3.0. I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this!
2 Answers
Honestly, I don’t think you need to buy one right now.
There are a few things to consider. First, your motherboard needs to support bifurcation to run multiple NVMe drives from the same PCIe slot. Also, using more PCIe lanes could disable extra SATA ports or other features, so double-check that. Make sure there's enough space, too, so your GPU doesn't get suffocated. If you don’t need more storage right now, though, I wouldn’t rush into buying one, as prices are only going to drop and supply is good.
I wasn't planning to upgrade storage immediately because I bought plenty before my build. Where can I learn more about bifurcation? I don’t currently have anything using a SATA port.
I second this advice! Definitely check your motherboard specs on bifurcation.