New M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD installation question

B

BT81

Enthusiast
Hey :)

So, I've a X570 motherboard with x1 PCIe 3.0 1tb SSD installed (Samsung)
Having recently bought Red Dead 2 with it's huge install size, it's encouraged me to get another NVMe drive....

Knowing the X57 motherboard will support x2 PCIe 4.0 SSD's - I bought a 1tb WD Black SN850 with heatsink.

So. What do I do with the new SSD? Just add it to the other slot I have available. Do I swap it around with the existing PCI3.0 SSD and have the boot drive on it? If so how?
Or do I not care, as I'll probably not notice the difference in speed?
 
SimonPeters116

SimonPeters116

Well-known member
After having a look on Samsung and WD sites, the WD drive is a double the speed of the Samsung.
Sooo, if it was me, I'd make the new WD drive my boot drive, although how I'd go about doing that I'm not too sure. That would reduce boot times, I think. But I'd expect to do a clean install of Windows onto it, then do the updates, then copy over whatever else I wanted from my Samsung drive onto my boot drive. Probably do it by swapping the Samsung out and the WD in, without the Samsung, to do the Windows install.
Then I'd wipe the Samsung, and reinstall Red Dead 2, plus any other games and programs which would benefit from fast loading.
Backing up everything on my Samsung before doing anything, obviously ;)

That reads more confusingly than I thought it did, when I was writing it :rolleyes:
This is how I think I'd do it. But I'd wait for someone else to confirm, if I was you.

So, back up the Samsung.
Swap Samsung out, WD in.
Install Windows onto WD, update etc.
Refit Samsung, and copy across anything you need on your Boot Drive.
Wipe Samsung, and reinstall as a fast loader drive. No Windows, so no confusion/conflicts between 2 Windows installations.
 
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sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
You can put the cards in whichever slots you like. There may be some minor gain to be had from putting it in the CPU-connected M.2 slot (almost certainly the top one), but the difference is marginal. I'd just put it in the available slot.
 
SimonPeters116

SimonPeters116

Well-known member
sck451 said:
You can put the cards in whichever slots you like. There may be some minor gain to be had from putting it in the CPU-connected M.2 slot (almost certainly the top one), but the difference is marginal. I'd just put it in the available slot.
Click to expand...
CPU connected slot ?? 😲
I didn't even realize there was such a thing.
My reasoning for Samsung out, WD in, wasn't for that reason, because I didn't know that could be a reason for a start. It was to ensure that Windows would be installed on the correct drive.
I don't know how close together the slots for these drives are, so I'd make sure the heatsink doesn't foul up access to the other slot. I'd put the WD drive into the slot where it would stay.
Do you know if they're hot-swap able? Because if they are, I'd then refit the Samsung hot.
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
SimonPeters116 said:
CPU connected slot ?? 😲
I didn't even realize there was such a thing.
My reasoning for Samsung out, WD in, wasn't for that reason, because I didn't know that could be a reason for a start. It was to ensure that Windows would be installed on the correct drive.
I don't know how close together the slots for these drives are, so I'd make sure the heatsink doesn't foul up access to the other slot. I'd put the WD drive into the slot where it would stay.
Do you know if they're hot-swap able? Because if they are, I'd then refit the Samsung hot.
Click to expand...
Yes, you can change them around. The most difficult thing you might have to do is change the boot order in the BIOS, but I think it'll detect the drive, rather than the slot. But I haven't done it in a while and can't quite remember.

The way it works is that one drive (and the main PCIe slot) is connected directly to the CPU. The others are connected to the chipset, which is then connected to the CPU. This can result in bandwidth being shared between PCIe devices, SATA devices and even some USB ports. Theoretically this could cause poorer performance if all were being used simultaneously. But that "theoretically" is doing a lot of work. You'll probably never notice the difference. If it's easy to swap them about, do: otherwise, don't worry about it.
 
B

BT81

Enthusiast
The drive arrived today - It can set in the wrapper until I have half a day spare I think….

I was thinking as suggested.


  1. Back up - Can’t think I have too much, as most photos and the like are on OneDrive.
  2. Take out the Samsung
  3. Install the WD 850x
  4. Install windows on the 850x
  5. Put the Samsung back in
  6. Spend hours loading Cyperpunk/Halo/Spider-Man/Red Dead etc!
  7. Reinstall and update everything else

Or….I just put the 850x in the slot I have available and not worry ;-)
 
SimonPeters116

SimonPeters116

Well-known member
BT81 said:
All on the same SSD at the moment
Click to expand...
That slows down Boot-up using these "small" :rolleyes: mega fast drives.
I remember big HDDs being in Mega Bytes.
When Giga Byte drives first arrived, the magazines were suggesting you would never use that much space, but it was nice to have. Now 500 Gig can be said to be small and we're filling TeraByte drives.
Anyway, back on track. These small, mega fast drives. You use one for your boot drive, preferably nothing else.
That gives you very fast boot-up. And if you need to do a clean reinstall of Windows, you don't have to worry about anything else, because that's the only thing on that drive.
Games, and other programs that want fast loading, you install on your 2nd small, maybe not quite as small or fast, drive.
Data, Office type programs, and other files, which loaded fast enough from HDD, you put onto a standard SSD or HDD.
Back-ups and the like go onto RAID array HDDs, preferably not internal. Or maybe I'm just old n cautious :D
But although HDDs can fail, they usually fail gradually. SSDs are either great, or dead.

I was reading in here somewhere, a fella was complaining about his computer slowing down, boot-up was now up, to 15 seconds 😲 I admit I was a bit disappointed when I installed Windows 10 on an SSD. My boot time was only about 15 seconds quicker, at a minute, than it had been booting Windows 7 from an HDD. But at the same time, I was quite pleased with only a minute booting up time.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
SimonPeters116

SimonPeters116

Well-known member
BT81 said:
The drive arrived today - It can set in the wrapper until I have half a day spare I think….

I was thinking as suggested.


  1. Back up - Can’t think I have too much, as most photos and the like are on OneDrive.
  2. Take out the Samsung
  3. Install the WD 850x
  4. Install windows on the 850x
  5. Put the Samsung back in
  6. Spend hours loading Cyperpunk/Halo/Spider-Man/Red Dead etc!
  7. Reinstall and update everything else

Or….I just put the 850x in the slot I have available and not worry ;-)
Click to expand...
Well, I expect you could do that instead. But you wouldn't get any benefit from the new, quicker drive.
You'd have more, fast access storage space, and that would be it.

Is that Samsung drive the only physical drive you have?
I personally would be concerned about that, especially with it being an SSD.
HDDs are the old, slow, tech'. But they are reliable, and if they start to fail you usually get some warning.
SSDs are essentially souped up RAM, with the ability to retain data with no power. If they fail, they work, and then they don't, no warning. And everything on them is gone. You're backed-up in The Cloud, but that's rather slow.
You said, "6. Spend hours loading Cyperpunk/Halo/Spider-Man/Red Dead etc!". From One Drive?
And you store everything on that 1 drive? 😲
Nope, I would definitely not be happy with that arrangement.
 
B

BT81

Enthusiast
Turned out. Super easy!

Downloaded some free Clone software

1. Put the new NVMe in the spare slot on the motherboard
2. Used the clone software to ‘clone the data /boot drive from the existing 3.0 NVMe to to new 4.0 NVMe
3. Swapped them around so the new ‘faster’ NVMe is next to the CPU
4. Formatted the older NVMe

The only issue I actually had - on the spare NVMe slot on the Tuf x570 motherboard - there isn’t somewhere to screw the NVMe in place. You use the boards heat sink to put it in place
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
BT81 said:
Turned out. Super easy!

Downloaded some free Clone software

1. Put the new NVMe in the spare slot on the motherboard
2. Used the clone software to ‘clone the data /boot drive from the existing 3.0 NVMe to to new 4.0 NVMe
3. Swapped them around so the new ‘faster’ NVMe is next to the CPU
4. Formatted the older NVMe

The only issue I actually had - on the spare NVMe slot on the Tuf x570 motherboard - there isn’t somewhere to screw the NVMe in place. You use the boards heat sink to put it in place
Click to expand...
I think there's a spare M.2 screw in the bag of spares that came with your PC, but it's tiny and may have got lost. Either way, sounds like you're sorted: well done!
 
SimonPeters116

SimonPeters116

Well-known member
Do you still have your Windows, all programs and all data on the same drive still?
Just moved from your Samsung to your new WD?

If it was my computer, I'd move everything, except Windows, back onto the Samsung.
Very fast boot drive, and still pretty fast games and data drive.
I'd also fit another standard SSD and back-up everything onto that. Still keep my OneDrive back-up in case of a major disaster.
If either of your NVMe drives fail, it's a few minutes to copy everything needed onto a replacement drive. No hurry to do that, I'd expect a new drive to last quite a few years. But on the other hand, I wouldn't leave it too long either. I am older, perhaps a bit paranoid, and been using PCs since the early, very unreliable days. Multiple back-ups has been drummed into me for so long, it's automatic. I've also had on-line storage sites decide, after many years, that actually they can make money from this and start charging. Will Microsoft start charging for One Drive? I don't know that they will, nor do I know they won't.
 
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