I'm helping a friend put together his PC, but he accidentally ordered a motherboard that lacks an NVMe SSD slot. I'm looking for a way to boot Windows and run games from an external SSD reader instead of the internal drive. Is this feasible, or are there better alternatives?
4 Answers
I attempted to boot an NVMe drive via USB, but I couldn't adjust the boot order in the BIOS to prioritize that drive. It can be quite tricky, so be prepared for some potential hurdles.
The best course of action here is to get a motherboard with the proper port. Alternatively, you could use a SATA-based drive. Running a Windows To Go session over USB isn’t ideal in the long run.
Are there even any modern motherboards that lack an M.2 slot these days? Also, a solid solution would be to use a PCIe to M.2 adapter. Socket this into one of the PCIe slots on the motherboard, and it should work perfectly for you. Might be a hassle but worth considering!
Booting your entire operating system from a USB connection can be really slow and problematic. I strongly suggest your friend looks into getting a motherboard that includes an NVMe slot instead. This will help deliver much better performance overall.
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