Moving boot nvme drive to different slot

spartanz1080 · Jun 13, 2023

I have a 970 EVO 3.0 nvme installed with windows on my z690 board on the top nvme slot so it’s using 4x CPU lanes but I purchased a 4.0 Western Digital SN850x nvme and I’d like to move that to the top slot to use the CPU lanes for best performance. I do have the option as my motherboard has 4 nvme slots to use another 4.0 slot but it will use 4x pcie chipset lanes but I know that reduces performance but I’m not sure by much.

But if i just move my 970 EVO to another nvme slot can I just select it in boot manager and boot into the OS as normal? Or is it not even a big deal to use the SN850x with chipset 4.0 lanes?

Ghot · Jun 13, 2023

spartanz1080 said:
I have a 970 EVO 3.0 nvme installed with windows on my z690 board on the top nvme slot so it’s using 4x CPU lanes but I purchased a 4.0 Western Digital SN850x nvme and I’d like to move that to the top slot to use the CPU lanes for best performance. I do have the option as my motherboard has 4 nvme slots to use another 4.0 slot but it will use 4x pcie chipset lanes but I know that reduces performance but I’m not sure by much.

But if i just move my 970 EVO to another nvme slot can I just select it in boot manager and boot into the OS as normal? Or is it not even a big deal to use the SN850x with chipset 4.0 lanes?

Those SSDs are ALL fast as all get out.
Unless you're going into some benchmark competition... it doesn't really matter where you put them.

Scott · Jun 13, 2023

spartanz1080 said:
But if i just move my 970 EVO to another nvme slot can I just select it in boot manager and boot into the OS as normal?

This shouldn't be a problem.

spartanz1080 said:
Or is it not even a big deal to use the SN850x with chipset 4.0 lanes?

Personally I'd put it in the top slot so it can utilize the CPU lanes. You could also clone or restore a image of your current install and make it your boot drive.

What motherboard do you have? I have a ASUS Z590 that only has one 4.0 slot with a 980 Pro 4.0 NVMe and two 970 EVO's in the bottom two slots.

You can also put in in the bottom 4.0 slot and see how it performs with CrystalDiskMark.

I know this is comparing apples to oranges, but here's what my board does wit the 980 and the 2 970's

spartanz1080 · Jun 13, 2023

Scott said:
This shouldn't be a problem.

Personally I'd put it in the top slot so it can utilize the CPU lanes. You could also clone or restore a image of your current install and make it your boot drive.

What motherboard do you have? I have a ASUS Z590 that only has one 4.0 slot with a 980 Pro 4.0 NVMe and two 970 EVO's in the bottom two slots.

You can also put in in the bottom 4.0 slot and see how it performs with CrystalDiskMark.

I know this is comparing apples to oranges, but here's what my board does wit the 980 and the 2 970's

View attachment 62315

It’s z690 MSI Tomahawk Wi-Fi DDR4
And now I’m a little bit confused I have another 512GB Intel 3.0 nvme in the second chipset lane m.2 slot I don’t think that’s an issue if i just move the 970 evo os drive to the 4th pcie 4.0 chipset slot and put the sn850x in top cpu lane slot but I know sata ports can be disabled and my mobo manual is not clear if there are any that will be disabled because I have 3 sata ssds. There is another 3rd nvme pcie 3.0 chipset lane slot so would it make sense to move the Intel from the second slot to the third since it’s not even a 4.0 drive and just leave the second empty. I don’t care too much about making it my boot drive though.