I'm planning to expand my setup with additional NVMe drives, but I'm facing some limitations. My motherboard only has one M.2 slot, so I'm considering a PCIe to NVMe adapter card. My motherboard supports 1x8/2x4 PCIe configurations. Specifically, I have an A520m DS3H rev 1 and need 3 more NVMe slots. However, I'm struggling to find a 4-slot adapter that doesn't require 4 PCIe lanes. If I were to buy a 4 M.2 slot adapter and populate only 3 drives, will this setup run smoothly or cause any issues?
2 Answers
The A520 chipset can manage PCIe 3.0 X6 and funnel it into a PCIe 3.0 X4, which gives you some room. But if you’re only using three drives on a 4-slot adapter, it should still work as long as you don’t overload it with too much traffic at once. Just make sure you're ready for potential speed limitations between the drives depending on your workload.
You definitely need an adapter that has a PLX chip if you're going to use four slots. Those adapters can be pricey but they essentially act like mini motherboards by managing the lanes effectively. Just so you know, the link I found shows a solid option that can handle multiple drives efficiently.
I remember seeing a similar adapter out there! They really help coordinate the lanes properly, especially for setups with lots of NVMe drives.
Exactly! Configuring it as x8 for the first slot and then splitting the others as you mentioned can work, especially in unRAID. Just keep an eye on performance during heavy use!