Hey everyone! I'm dealing with a bit of frustration here. I recently bought a Lexar NM790 M.2 SSD to upgrade my storage since I've run out of space, and I was excited to use my unused M.2 slot on my MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX motherboard. However, it seems my motherboard isn't recognizing the SSD at all. I've tried some troubleshooting steps but nothing has worked so far. Now, I'm considering a PCIe adapter as a cheaper and easier alternative to getting a whole new motherboard.
I've learned that I need an NVMe-supported adapter and not one that only does SATA. My motherboard supports PCIe 2.0 x16, but I'm a bit confused if that will actually work well with the SSD. Can anyone help me figure out what to look for when choosing a PCIe SSD adapter? Do you think my motherboard will be sufficient for this setup? Thanks for any advice!
1 Answer
It sounds like the issue might be related to your M.2 slot rather than the SSD itself, especially since it's not appearing in Disk Management or the BIOS. If your previous M.2 SSD had the same problem, there might be a compatibility issue with your motherboard. However, if you're determined to try a PCIe adapter, just make sure to select one that explicitly supports NVMe, as you mentioned. Otherwise, the performance will indeed take a hit depending on the PCIe generation the adapter uses. Just keep in mind that even with an adapter, if the motherboard doesn’t recognize the drive initially, you might have the same issue.
Yeah, that's a good point. I had a similar experience with my M.2 drive and my board. Sometimes it's just a bad slot or drive. But if you're getting a PCIe adapter, make sure it's rated at least for PCIe 3.0 to get better speeds.