I'm in the market for a new internal SSD for my PC setup. I've got an MSI Tomahawk B550 Max WiFi motherboard and a Crucial P3 Plus 2TB PCIe 4 NVMe M.2 SSD already installed. I'm considering getting a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB PCIe 4 NVMe M.2 SSD, but I noticed that the second SSD slot on my motherboard only supports PCIe 3.0 and is designed for AMD chipsets. My question is, is it worth it to buy the Samsung SSD? If it won't work in that slot, what are some reliable alternatives for increasing my storage? Thanks for the help!
2 Answers
You can absolutely use a PCIe 4.0 SSD in a PCIe 3.0 slot. The catch is that it will run at the slower PCIe 3.0 speeds, but compatibility isn’t an issue at all. Samsung drives are fully compatible with AMD chipsets, which is great.
Thanks for clarifying! I might move my Crucial to the PCIe 3.0 slot and put the Samsung in the PCIe 4.0 slot. I'm not focused on speed, just need additional storage since my setup is getting older.
Honestly, there's little reason to invest in a Gen 4 SSD if you're stuck using it at Gen 3 speeds. It might not be worth the extra cash just for the storage boost, especially since you won't get the performance benefits.
But what if it’s solely for extra storage?
True, but finding PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives is getting trickier, and they aren't that much cheaper than the 4.0 options.
This is the way.