Does anyone have any experience how well m.2 pcie expansion card work? With the current prices of nvme it’s not that expensive get 4tb m.2 drives. Outright speed isn’t the most important, so it not big deal if some pcie lanes have to be shared. My ‘worry’ is that when I upgrade my computer it might not recognize the m.2 adapter. That’s why I’m thinking 4tb 2.5" sata SSDs are probably a safer option, like the Samsung QVO 4tb drive. I’m not running the OS on it, it’s just for general data storage.
For me this mean I can finally ditch the old 4tb WD drive I have and go pure SSD (I have a NAS for backup of course). I know I can get a 8tb and 10tb 3.5 drives for the same roughly the same price, but I’m not a datahoarder or anything so don’t need that amount of storage. That’s why the idea of going pure SSD in appealing.
Just hoping to see some ideas thrown around, and see what you guys think.
Adapter cards for one PCIe M.2 SSD are completely passive and work on every motherboard with PCIe. If the card has multiple M.2 slots, you need either a PCIe switch on the card or a motherboard that supports PCIe bifurcation.
I upgraded an old machine that doesn’t have PCIe 3.0 or M.2 slots with a Samsung 950 Pro in an adapter card and I haven’t noticed any issues - the SSD only runs at PCIe 2.0 speeds, but that’s fast enough for me.
Sometimes plugging a PCIe card into one slot will cause fewer or no lanes to be allocated to another slot, so you should check your motherboard’s manual before buying a new card.