a bit of a noob question i guess: i m buying a new mobo and never understood what m.2 slots can be used for. are they actually pcie slots with a fancy name? so my question is can i plug my UAD-2 Quad pcie card into an M.2 slot? thing is the mobo i want has only 3 pcie slots and one will be used for the GPU, the 2nd one for my audio interface and the 3rd one for an UAD-1 pci card (using pci -> pcie adapter) so unless one can plug the UAD-2 into one of the m.2 slots i m screwed.

 

dude if you are buying a new mobo, you will be ok. almost any of the mobos come with 2+ full pci slots, so no need to use the m.2 ones

https://linustechtips.com/topic/128...will-adding-more-devices-affect-my-gpu-lanes/ link of interest with someone who had a similar situation

 

Last edited: Apr 5, 2022

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but i'm 99.9% certain that M2/NVMe slots are designated for storage devices only. I very much doubt you'd even be able to connect a PCIe card to it in any case - basically, it's a different connection format.

Which motherboard are you looking to use?

 

uhm i mentioned in my OP that i got 4 pci(e) cards. the mobo i want only has 3 pcie slots. so i d need to use one of its M.2 slots for a pcie card. questions remains: is that possible?

 

that sux . i was looking at gigabyte aorus x570s pro. but all modern mobos have no more than 3 pcie slots, so how is one supposed to realize a setup with 4 pcie cards (which is quite common for audio useage)??

 

Er, choose a motherboard with at least 4 PCIe slots? For example, i see that the ASUS AMD Ryzen ROG STRIX X570 F has four slots and the ASUS ROG Strix AMD X570-E has five...

 

couldnt find one with more than 3 pcie slots for ryzen 9 5950x cpu (AM4 socket). can u think of one except for asus products?

 

I've owned/used boards by both Asus and Gigabyte & both are very good... What's your problem with Asus?

 

my retailer doesnt stock asus products

 

Ok, well i see that the Gigabyte AMD Ryzen X570 AORUS MASTER AM4 has four PCIe slots:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/ope...pcie-40-triple-m2-2-way-sli-crossfire-25g-gbe

 

...and the Gigabyte Aorus AMD x570 PRO has five:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aorus-X570...7TSKR5T3/ref=dp_fod_2?pd_rd_i=B07TTP87T9&th=1

EDIT: Note that many motherboards will share a PCIe channel, which means that you can either use it for a M2/NVMe storage device or a PCIe card but not both on that particular channel.

In your particular instance i think the Gigabyte Aorus AMD x570 PRO has the best value/feature set. The 'master' version of referenced above looks pretty much a motherboard aimed at gamers who just love LEDs on everything...

 

Last edited: Apr 5, 2022

problem is aorus x570 series is outdated. x570s is recent and better to overclock afaik

 

...and it also comes with fewer PCIe slots - which increases Gigabyte's profit margin. As for "outdated"... dude, it's the same x570 chipset, so no real diffference under the hood whatsoever.

FYI: https://digitalmasta.com/amd-x570-vs-x570s/

 

Last edited: Apr 5, 2022

ok thx a lot will go for the pro then

 

I'm sure you'll be very happy with your purchase, though i respectfully ask that you hunt-down and slaughter the errant slags at gigabyte (i.e. not me) should you ever have any motherboard problems down the line!

 

If building a new system or upgrading, an affordable choice could be the ASROCK Taichi X570. 3 PCIe 4.0 x16, 2 PCIe 4.0 x1.
https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570 Taichi/

Newegg ($299 US/£291.59)
https://www.newegg.com/global/uk-en/p/pl?d=Taichi+X570

SCAN (£289.99)
https://www.scan.co.uk/search?q=taichi+x570

 

i dont really trust asrock. not sure why though. pls correct me if i m wrong/u made good experiences

 

The Taichi is one of the more stable X570 boards in that class. Just make certain that the BIOS is current and all is well. Also stay within the recommended/supported add-in hardware (memory & ssd QVL). If going with an air cooler, use the CPU matching utility from Noctua or Be Quiet. For an AIO I would recommend something like the Arctic Freezer II (280mm to 310mm).

AMD CPUs work best with tight timings like that used in servers. Just like ECC memory you want to keep a 1-to-1 ratio.

Examples:
14-14-14
15-15-15
16-16-16
18-18-18

Ryzen-Compatible Memory | Supports AMD Ryzen 3000 and higher
https://www.amd.com/en/products/ryzen-compatible-memory/

 

M2 to pcie adapters are both available and affordable:

ADT-Link M.2 NGFF NVMe Key M Extender Cable to PCIE x16 Graphics Card Riser Adapter 16x PCI-e PCI-Express for M2 2230 2242 2260 2280 (50cm) : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

EXPLOMOS M.2 Key M NGFF to PCI-E 4X Adapter Card, 4 PIN Power Cable (2 Pack): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

M2 is just the descriptor for the actual physical connector - an m2 drive can connect using either the nvme or sata protocol.

Since nvme uses the pcie bus to connect, these adapters don't have that tricky a job to do.

Just be aware that the pcie slot will be limited to x4 speed (since that's the max that will be assigned to an m2 slot). Although that won't matter in the case of a UAD card, as it's an x1 device.

This is similar to the way that the usb-c connector type can carry usb and/or thunderbolt, displayport, etc data, it doesn't dictate the kind of device that can connect through it. (Obvs I'm not saying every usb-c port is TB-capable, just that the usb-c designation refers to the physical connector, not a data protocol).

This isn't quite right - it's true that some pcie and m2 slots may share pcie lanes, but installing one type of thing won't prevent the other from working, ie: plugging in an m2 drive isn't gonna stop you from plugging a pcie card into a slot that shares pcie lanes with it.

If you exceed the max number of pcie lanes some or all of the devices may not operate at full speed (eg an m2 drive might step down from x4 to x2 speed) but it's incredibly unlikely to get to the point where something wouldn't function at all.

The manufacturers manual for the particular motherboard will have a diagram/table showing which slots share pcie lanes, and how many lanes are assigned, so you can check to make sure it will be appropriate.


@reverbmuddiesmix - If you do want to try going down the nvme-to-pcie adapter route, just be aware that particularly on windows, UAD cards can sometimes be a bit selective in what they'll "play nice" with in terms of connectivity.

And don't expect any help from UA if it goes wrong - while their customer service team is actually really helpful (I own Apollos and TB Satellites, and have corresponded with them a couple of times) they will be very unlikely to attempt to troubleshoot a very-definitely-unsupported use case.

If I were you, tbh I'd just ditch the UAD1 card, esp with UADx now being a thing.

 

Last edited: Apr 7, 2022

Registered to say it propably will work.

I think it just pcie 4 lanes. For atleast one of the m2 ports. If there are more there might be some working on lower speeds or sharing with pcie lanes and so on