Hey everyone! I'm looking to boost my storage space and could use some advice before I make a purchase. Right now, I have a 500GB Kingston NVMe SSD in the M.2_1 slot on my ASUS ROG Strix B450-F Gaming motherboard. My space is getting tight, and I'm tired of managing files, so I'm thinking about adding a second M.2 drive — the Kingston NV3 1TB or 2TB Gen 4 — into the M.2_2 slot. Before buying, I want to confirm a few things: 1) Since M.2_2 is limited to PCIe 3.0 x2, will that create any noticeable bottlenecks for gaming, coding, or general usage? 2) The NV3 is a Gen 4 drive, and while it should work with PCIe 3.0, are there any downsides? 3) Are there any thermal issues I should worry about with two NVMe drives? 4) Do M.2 SSDs usually come with screws, or should I look for spares from when I built my PC? I'm just trying to get more fast storage without too much hassle. Thanks for any insights!
1 Answer
Most games won’t really take advantage of NVMe speed anyway. As for M.2_2 being PCIe 3.0 x2, it probably won’t affect your performance noticeably for gaming or anything else. The NV3 drive should work fine even if it’s running at Gen 3 speeds. You shouldn't have any thermal concerns with two NVMe drives. Regarding screws, they typically come with the motherboard, so you should be covered there!
Thanks for the info! So you’re saying a regular 2.5" SATA drive wouldn’t really be much better for me?