I'm building my first PC and I have a Pro B850 WiFi motherboard (specifically an ASRock B850M Pro RS WiFi). I see that it supports 3 NVME slots, but it has a Blazing M.2 shield that seems to only support one. Can anyone help me locate the other NVME slots? Is the Blazing M.2 slot the best option for my OS and games? Thanks!
3 Answers
Here’s a link to a visual of your motherboard with the NVME slots marked:
[https://ibb.co/TBP8vxXx](https://ibb.co/TBP8vxXx)
Make sure to use the Blazing M.2 slot for your OS and games because it's designed for better cooling—typically, the other slots might not perform as well as this one.
To help you out, not all Pro B850 motherboard models are the same, so check the exact model you have. Usually, the motherboard manual will show a diagram indicating the location of all NVME slots. It's a good idea to download it from the manufacturer's site if you don't have a physical copy.
It's the ASRock B850M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX. Thanks for the tip, I'll look for the manual!
Definitely check your motherboard manual. Sometimes the additional NVME slots are underneath a heat sink that you'll need to remove to access them. Also, be aware that your PCIE lanes can get shared between devices, so try to avoid splitting lanes between your NVME drives and your GPU.
I'm not familiar with splitting lanes, can you explain that a bit more? I want to avoid any mistakes.
Great, that helps a lot! So, I should definitely prioritize the Blazing M.2 slot for everything important, got it.