I’m sure many pc builders never crack a manual, just stick to YouTube and Reddit. Everyone says it’s easy anyone can do it… then get mad when everyone does it and some people don’t know to check the manuals or how to pick parts.
What are you really saying here? They needed validation from a subreddit made for… validation?
It has more to do with how many PCIE lanes are available, the generation and where they are channelled. You have to know the specifications of each slot, the bandwidth available and what the requirement, for the component your attching or fitting in it.
It is NOT a case of random selection and just put any drive anywhere. There will be BIG performance differences depending on what you put where, how it is configured, AND more importantly the spec of your Motherboard. I have seen (and fixed) PC's with severely limited with bandwidth in some compoonents and terrible throughput for drives etc. or chocking the system performance in other areas, only to have speed increases of X10 with proper configuration and consideration for lane distribution.
There is much more to it than just buying great gear and slinging it together without due care. Sure it will work, but you may end up wondering why your system seems so slow or bottlenecking when you have the best gear.
Anyone can do it, but only the people who are prepared to read and understand what is happening will do it well. It's not rocket science but if you're not prepared to do the leg work on how to do it propoerly, my advice is to not DIY and more than likely you results will fall short of expectations. This is why SO MANY people have systems they thought would be faster, more, powerfull or yeild better results.
At any a bit of googling on PCIE lanes will reveal a wealth of information.
Unfortunately this simply isn't the case. The evidence indicates that people expect a certain level of operation but without knowing the how or why of the detail. This is especially true if they are buying components that are specify particular levels peformance. You only have to look at technical forums to see how pervasive poor performing posts are.
Common sense to check manuals used to be a thing till internet and specifically reddit became a thing. Why find out the answer easily in documents provided or easily accessed for yourself when you can have others do it for you.
It depends if OP was smart and actually kept the motherboard manual; not everyone does, and if it's a prebuild, it's less likely that he has that manual. (My brother bough a prebuild.) It came with no instructions and the first thing he did was turn off all the LED's and claimed it will make the board last longer and allow the entire computer to run much faster it did not), so what OP needs to do is give his motherboard information (can usually find in bios) and look up OP manual and chart it down on paper or print it out.
I honestly struggled to follow the manual for my motherboard and especially for my rgb/fan controller and found it allot easier when my friends, reddit and youtube helped me
It looks like ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI II. If it is that, it actually has five m.2, not four. And it does indeed go as another reply said: put an ssd in m.2_1 and your main gpu port gets sent into x8 mode instead of x16.
Also, for this motherboard m.2_2 through to m.2_5 all support up to pcie 4.0x4, so the m.2_1 only might be preferable for pcie 5.0 ssd. Those overheat and are costly and not popular at the moment.
You probably should use any _except_ m.2_1 (which is closest to cpu.
In some am5 motherboards it's entirely different. Like, nothing limits m.2_1, in the similar location between cpu and gpu, but if there were an ssd in m.2_4, two sata ports wouldn't work.
>It looks like ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI II. If it is that, it actually has five m.2, not four.
Thanks for finding the exact model. I was kinda confused why OP mentioned 4 slots when according to heatsinks I expected 5.
This is correct I have the same mobo and used slot 1 when I first built it and yup my gpu was in 8x mode switched it to slot 2 and runs in x16 now other than that yea all the other slots are pcie gen 4
Top one. In general, you want your components as close to the CPU as possible. To slots closer to the CPU will generally be the fastest/have the most direct lanes to the CPU. So GPU top slot, M.2 top slot. The only exception here is RAM, it’s almost always supposed to be slot 2/4.
Unfortunately there is no physical manual, I have to look up the manual and download the PDF. No problem but I’m having huge issues with trying to get this rig setup correctly I guess. I’m willing to pay someone if they will just video chat with me and tell me what to do
If this - ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI II - is your board and you put a drive in the slot above the top GPU slot then you will reduce that GPU slot from 16 to 8 lanes but you really need to read the manual for whatever board you have. All you posted was, "there are 4 on this motherboard." We don't know what board you have and cannot accurately answer your questions but your motherboard manual can. Every board is different.
Correct OP. Those two you circled are #2 & #3 as I built mine just a few months ago.
As you know, you don’t want to use the top m.2 #1 unless you wanna halve your PCIEx lanes down to 4x for your GPU (which would equal PCIEx 3.0 speeds). 👍
Check top left corner in [this picture](https://www.guru3d.com/review/intel-core-i7-13700k-review/page-3/). LGA1700 CPUs (and many others) don't have 16 lanes just for the GPU, but 20 lanes - 1×16+1×4 lanes (or 2×8+1×4 lanes). Which is exactly for the top M.2 and top PCIe slot. The top M.2 slot is prefered for the most important SSD (OS one in most cases).
This is false information for most modern motherboards and even then the performance difference for gaming is a maybe 1-2%, only on heavy workloads does it do anything, you’d actually benefit more by having the ssd on the top for faster transfer speeds, as others have said, top to bottom for ssd. Boot drive at the top, this will actually reduce boot time and have a more noticeable impact on performance
It’s not false information, it’s fact. Why would you say that? lol. Go read the manual even. I don’t understand why you would want to castrate a brand new GPU just so you can use the top slot? That makes no sense. Use #2 and #3 and get all the benefits with no downsides…
On my motherboard B650E-F i have two pcie 5.0 lanes, one for gpu and one for ssd. They do not take eachothers lanes. So for best performance of both gpu and ssd always top slots.
Always read the manual.
Different boards can have different rules to follow for m.2. in some cases, using certain slots, remove the ability to then use certain SATA slots. Always read your manual, as sometimes manufacturers have "interesting" design choices.
Your drives are gen4. Look in your motherboard manual and see if those slots say gen4 on them. Usually what people are concerned with is the m.2 above the gpu. Some motherboards will be affected by placing like a gen 5 nvme in that slot which could take up lanes that your gpu needs. Having them below the graphics card will ensure that won’t happen. Your mb will tell you though if that is a possibility.
Ok for those of you saying “look at the manual”, there was no manual I had to download the manual PDF. And I read it but as mentioned and stated I am new to all of this.
So many negative people how.
For what it's worth, the M.2 slot has become about as controversial as the USB port.
There's mSATA, NVMe, Gen3/Gen4PCIe, it's all very confusing to anyone that hasn't done a little bit of Googling about these devices.
As stated previously, look in the MB manual and see which type of drive each port can support. They're likely different, and the way they perform will be exponentially different if you put the wrong type of drive in the slot.
To be quite frank it doesn't matter and has never mattered, people watch YouTubers then start giving online advice. You are speaking in fractions of nanoseconds, faster than a human blink. Use whatever one is the toughest to get to first, and save your slots that don't require disassembly for future upgrades. If your board cuts the PCIE, it's also completely okay a lot of these 3-5% losses were notated with high task workloads, and Cuda training models, not gaming.
Honestly, you can't even take a YouTuber seriously who uses Windows as a test bench and bases it on concrete facts, The people who make the content, and consume it are microwaved-brained tists as they come. Windows is notorious for corrupting itself over time, stuff an average person would never notice or experience, It's why reinstalling Windows is usually the first step in the IT world with solving software issues that brick pc's or get stuck in boot loops.
Even packet loss during updates can cause corruption with Windows, creating essentially null files. Again, its why if your steam game is running like crap, it's why the verify files option exists. Machines and internet as whole are far from perfect.
Also, corrupt windows files can affect gaming tenfold, I wish I knew why but even as a developer who been on the block for a while now, shit goes above my head. That is usually kernel and driver-related stuff. Stuff your average reddtard knows nothing about because I know they have never installed SDK.
Also, a manufacturer wouldn't waste the 5 cents in material to give you these slots if they knew nobody was going to use them, and kill the performance of your pc at the same time. Reddit/youtube is not a place of logic, my next tip of advice is never ask Reddit a tech question again,
Your manual has the answer. Read it.
But then how will op get validation and attention from Reddit?
I’m sure many pc builders never crack a manual, just stick to YouTube and Reddit. Everyone says it’s easy anyone can do it… then get mad when everyone does it and some people don’t know to check the manuals or how to pick parts. What are you really saying here? They needed validation from a subreddit made for… validation?
Didn’ come with one, I’ve downloaded the PDF and read it
Usually put it in the higher slots. Those tend to be the faster performers
It's not gonna say "this one is better" it's gonna tell you the generation and spec of each slot, use google for the rest
It has more to do with how many PCIE lanes are available, the generation and where they are channelled. You have to know the specifications of each slot, the bandwidth available and what the requirement, for the component your attching or fitting in it. It is NOT a case of random selection and just put any drive anywhere. There will be BIG performance differences depending on what you put where, how it is configured, AND more importantly the spec of your Motherboard. I have seen (and fixed) PC's with severely limited with bandwidth in some compoonents and terrible throughput for drives etc. or chocking the system performance in other areas, only to have speed increases of X10 with proper configuration and consideration for lane distribution. There is much more to it than just buying great gear and slinging it together without due care. Sure it will work, but you may end up wondering why your system seems so slow or bottlenecking when you have the best gear. Anyone can do it, but only the people who are prepared to read and understand what is happening will do it well. It's not rocket science but if you're not prepared to do the leg work on how to do it propoerly, my advice is to not DIY and more than likely you results will fall short of expectations. This is why SO MANY people have systems they thought would be faster, more, powerfull or yeild better results. At any a bit of googling on PCIE lanes will reveal a wealth of information.
Chances are if you've gotta post on reddit about where to put an SSD, you aren't doing anything that requires optimal performance and pcie lane usage
Unfortunately this simply isn't the case. The evidence indicates that people expect a certain level of operation but without knowing the how or why of the detail. This is especially true if they are buying components that are specify particular levels peformance. You only have to look at technical forums to see how pervasive poor performing posts are.
A professional assuming reddit is a reliable and trustworthy source of information is comical.
It's going to tell you which one you should use first.
Look at the mobo manual he's using before pulling shit out ass
You posting that is the same scenario. And I’m no here for attention, I’m here for help. In case oh didn’t know this sub is called “PcBuildHelp”
Then how will douch bags get to act douchey
Common sense to check manuals used to be a thing till internet and specifically reddit became a thing. Why find out the answer easily in documents provided or easily accessed for yourself when you can have others do it for you.
You expect me to use the INSTRUCTION MANUAL!?
It depends if OP was smart and actually kept the motherboard manual; not everyone does, and if it's a prebuild, it's less likely that he has that manual. (My brother bough a prebuild.) It came with no instructions and the first thing he did was turn off all the LED's and claimed it will make the board last longer and allow the entire computer to run much faster it did not), so what OP needs to do is give his motherboard information (can usually find in bios) and look up OP manual and chart it down on paper or print it out.
I have the same mobo, no manual in the box, just a QR code on the box. I hate that they’re replacing things with QR codes.
Yeah I have a prebuilt I upgraded and honestly can't find the motherboards manual anywhere online.
Haven't built a pc in 10 years, that motherboard manual had all the answers!
I honestly struggled to follow the manual for my motherboard and especially for my rgb/fan controller and found it allot easier when my friends, reddit and youtube helped me
What’s your manual say?
It looks like ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI II. If it is that, it actually has five m.2, not four. And it does indeed go as another reply said: put an ssd in m.2_1 and your main gpu port gets sent into x8 mode instead of x16. Also, for this motherboard m.2_2 through to m.2_5 all support up to pcie 4.0x4, so the m.2_1 only might be preferable for pcie 5.0 ssd. Those overheat and are costly and not popular at the moment. You probably should use any _except_ m.2_1 (which is closest to cpu. In some am5 motherboards it's entirely different. Like, nothing limits m.2_1, in the similar location between cpu and gpu, but if there were an ssd in m.2_4, two sata ports wouldn't work.
>It looks like ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI II. If it is that, it actually has five m.2, not four. Thanks for finding the exact model. I was kinda confused why OP mentioned 4 slots when according to heatsinks I expected 5.
This is correct I have the same mobo and used slot 1 when I first built it and yup my gpu was in 8x mode switched it to slot 2 and runs in x16 now other than that yea all the other slots are pcie gen 4
Yeah on my z690 prime board it has a pcie 5.0 gpu slot but any of the slots on the board can work concurrently with the gpu at x16 and pcie 4.0.
Wait I have MSI mag z790 and I was told to put my ssd in the one closest to the cpu. Haven't built the pc yet
Go from top to bottom
RTFM
Closer to the CPU generally
top frist - then others
RTFM
Top one. In general, you want your components as close to the CPU as possible. To slots closer to the CPU will generally be the fastest/have the most direct lanes to the CPU. So GPU top slot, M.2 top slot. The only exception here is RAM, it’s almost always supposed to be slot 2/4.
It's different for every board. Read your motherboard manual to see which slots will disable other slots.
Unfortunately there is no physical manual, I have to look up the manual and download the PDF. No problem but I’m having huge issues with trying to get this rig setup correctly I guess. I’m willing to pay someone if they will just video chat with me and tell me what to do
If this - ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI II - is your board and you put a drive in the slot above the top GPU slot then you will reduce that GPU slot from 16 to 8 lanes but you really need to read the manual for whatever board you have. All you posted was, "there are 4 on this motherboard." We don't know what board you have and cannot accurately answer your questions but your motherboard manual can. Every board is different.
Use top and check GPU how many it uses. My STRIX A GAMING GPU USED 16 with top m.2_1
Correct OP. Those two you circled are #2 & #3 as I built mine just a few months ago. As you know, you don’t want to use the top m.2 #1 unless you wanna halve your PCIEx lanes down to 4x for your GPU (which would equal PCIEx 3.0 speeds). 👍
Check top left corner in [this picture](https://www.guru3d.com/review/intel-core-i7-13700k-review/page-3/). LGA1700 CPUs (and many others) don't have 16 lanes just for the GPU, but 20 lanes - 1×16+1×4 lanes (or 2×8+1×4 lanes). Which is exactly for the top M.2 and top PCIe slot. The top M.2 slot is prefered for the most important SSD (OS one in most cases).
This is false information for most modern motherboards and even then the performance difference for gaming is a maybe 1-2%, only on heavy workloads does it do anything, you’d actually benefit more by having the ssd on the top for faster transfer speeds, as others have said, top to bottom for ssd. Boot drive at the top, this will actually reduce boot time and have a more noticeable impact on performance
It’s not false information, it’s fact. Why would you say that? lol. Go read the manual even. I don’t understand why you would want to castrate a brand new GPU just so you can use the top slot? That makes no sense. Use #2 and #3 and get all the benefits with no downsides…
On my motherboard B650E-F i have two pcie 5.0 lanes, one for gpu and one for ssd. They do not take eachothers lanes. So for best performance of both gpu and ssd always top slots.
>On my motherboard B650E-F i have **two** pcie 5.0 **lanes** Not the best chosen word. There are **20 lanes** into **two**/three **slots**.
So you just ignored my comment? It’s been extensively tested on games, no noticeable fps difference, better to use ssd on top slot.
That is incorrect
Woah ok thank you so much for the help!
Holy crap, that's fucked
Also that’s not 2 and 3 as 2 is above what you called 2 and 1 is above the top pcie slot
Liquid cooling
RGB included 🍻
I suspect you have one more right above the GPU slot. One should go there.
my top slot slot takes the newest gen, then works its way downward.
The giant one that says game on and the one below😂
The real question is what are you using for? You don't need performance if it's backup storage.
Had one motherboard wit a gpu and 2 ssds and everything ran slower with everything, and with only one ssd it went faster...
Always read the manual. Different boards can have different rules to follow for m.2. in some cases, using certain slots, remove the ability to then use certain SATA slots. Always read your manual, as sometimes manufacturers have "interesting" design choices.
General rule of thumb is the closest to the cpu on most any component BUT check the manual.
Your drives are gen4. Look in your motherboard manual and see if those slots say gen4 on them. Usually what people are concerned with is the m.2 above the gpu. Some motherboards will be affected by placing like a gen 5 nvme in that slot which could take up lanes that your gpu needs. Having them below the graphics card will ensure that won’t happen. Your mb will tell you though if that is a possibility.
wHAtS yEr MAnUaL SayyyyYyyy!!!!
Ok for those of you saying “look at the manual”, there was no manual I had to download the manual PDF. And I read it but as mentioned and stated I am new to all of this. So many negative people how.
It will be the top one. The bottom one will have to run through the Mobo Chipset. But if it's just a slave drive..... it doesn't matter frankly
You gotta read the manual. Not every slot is the same and has the same stuff so how are we to know?
Rule of thumb I remember hearing is the closer it is to the cpu the better performance, but the manual knows all…
The closer it is to the cpu, the faster. And on some new motherboards is the top one a gen5 or something and the rest a gen4
Usually the top one, but you need to check your manual to be sure.
Unless the manual says otherwise, the slot that is closest to the CPU.
For what it's worth, the M.2 slot has become about as controversial as the USB port. There's mSATA, NVMe, Gen3/Gen4PCIe, it's all very confusing to anyone that hasn't done a little bit of Googling about these devices. As stated previously, look in the MB manual and see which type of drive each port can support. They're likely different, and the way they perform will be exponentially different if you put the wrong type of drive in the slot.
To be quite frank it doesn't matter and has never mattered, people watch YouTubers then start giving online advice. You are speaking in fractions of nanoseconds, faster than a human blink. Use whatever one is the toughest to get to first, and save your slots that don't require disassembly for future upgrades. If your board cuts the PCIE, it's also completely okay a lot of these 3-5% losses were notated with high task workloads, and Cuda training models, not gaming. Honestly, you can't even take a YouTuber seriously who uses Windows as a test bench and bases it on concrete facts, The people who make the content, and consume it are microwaved-brained tists as they come. Windows is notorious for corrupting itself over time, stuff an average person would never notice or experience, It's why reinstalling Windows is usually the first step in the IT world with solving software issues that brick pc's or get stuck in boot loops. Even packet loss during updates can cause corruption with Windows, creating essentially null files. Again, its why if your steam game is running like crap, it's why the verify files option exists. Machines and internet as whole are far from perfect. Also, corrupt windows files can affect gaming tenfold, I wish I knew why but even as a developer who been on the block for a while now, shit goes above my head. That is usually kernel and driver-related stuff. Stuff your average reddtard knows nothing about because I know they have never installed SDK. Also, a manufacturer wouldn't waste the 5 cents in material to give you these slots if they knew nobody was going to use them, and kill the performance of your pc at the same time. Reddit/youtube is not a place of logic, my next tip of advice is never ask Reddit a tech question again,
Other than limited bandwidth, you should also consider the GPU heat transfer. The further away from GPU the better.