Storage upgrade options

C

Chubster

Member
Morning all. Currently have a ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS motherboard and looking to upgrade my M2 drive and the SSD. I believe I'm correct in saying it has 6 SATA ports and 2 M.2 ports. I think i know which SSD drive i can get but confused with the M.2. Could someone recommend one that will 100% fit. PCI express 3.0 or 4.0 ?

Currently has a 250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe in it but im not sure what other slots i have free

And are both the ssd and m.2 drives "plug and play"

Many Thanks
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Chubster said:
Morning all. Currently have a ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS motherboard and looking to upgrade my M2 drive and the SSD. I believe I'm correct in saying it has 6 SATA ports and 2 M.2 ports. I think i know which SSD drive i can get but confused with the M.2. Could someone recommend one that will 100% fit. PCI express 3.0 or 4.0 ?

Currently has a 250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe in it but im not sure what other slots i have free

And are both the ssd and m.2 drives "plug and play"

Many Thanks
Click to expand...
can you post the full spec from your orders page
 
C

Chubster

Member
Sure

Case
PCS P209 ARGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 240 Series RGB High Performance Liquid Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Ok asuming that the OS is on the 970 Evo Plus and if you've got the budget for it here is what i would advise you do:

  1. replace the 970 with a 500GB firecuda 530 and clean install windows to this using the instructions that I'll post below
  2. treat yourself to a 1TB intel 670p for your gaming drive
If you can't do both at the moment then do #1 now and #2 at a later date

You can find both of these on the update configurator, just go to your order page click on your order, scroll down and click the upgrade this order button.

Instructions for clean install of W10 (if you've upgraded to W11, then let me know)

Download a new copy of Windows using the Media Creation Tool to an 8GB (min) USB.
Boot that USB and choose a Custom Install.
Delete all UEFI partitions on the system drive (EFI System, Recovery, MSR Reserved, Primary).
Select the unallocated space that results and click the Next button. The installer will create the correct partitions and install Windows.
Run Windows Update repeatedly, even across reboots, until no more updates are found.
You may need/want to download and install the latest graphics driver from the Nvidia/AMD website (they change so regularly the latest version isn't always in the Windows libraries).

This is also worth a watch
 
JUNI0R

JUNI0R

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Chubster said:
Morning all. Currently have a ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS motherboard and looking to upgrade my M2 drive and the SSD. I believe I'm correct in saying it has 6 SATA ports and 2 M.2 ports. I think i know which SSD drive i can get but confused with the M.2. Could someone recommend one that will 100% fit. PCI express 3.0 or 4.0 ?

Currently has a 250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe in it but im not sure what other slots i have free

And are both the ssd and m.2 drives "plug and play"

Many Thanks
Click to expand...
Heya! What are you trying to get from upgrading the system? Are you short on space? Do you want the system to run faster? Also what's your budget for the upgrade?

Motherboard wise, the Prime B550 has 2 M.2 slots, with the top one (between the CPU and GPU) being Gen 4. Assuming you've got Windows on the 970 EVO I wouldn't bother upgrading the OS drive to a Gen 4 drive, it's a large outlay in cost to upgrade something that is still incredibly quick. If we were speccing new then maybe we'd go for Gen 4, but to me it doesn't make sense as an upgrade, to me anyway.

If you're running short on space on the OS drive, then going for a 500GB drive wouldn't be a bad idea (That's what we tend to recommend from the outset), plus that'll help with the speed of the system. Or if you're running short on game space, adding a 1TB Gen 3 drive into that 2nd slot will give you plenty more space and is a super simple upgrade!
 
C

Chubster

Member
Martinr36 said:
Ok asuming that the OS is on the 970 Evo Plus and if you've got the budget for it here is what i would advise you do:

  1. replace the 970 with a 500GB firecuda 530 and clean install windows to this using the instructions that I'll post below
  2. treat yourself to a 1TB intel 670p for your gaming drive
If you can't do both at the moment then do #1 now and #2 at a later date

You can find both of these on the update configurator, just go to your order page click on your order, scroll down and click the upgrade this order button.

Instructions for clean install of W10 (if you've upgraded to W11, then let me know)

Download a new copy of Windows using the Media Creation Tool to an 8GB (min) USB.
Boot that USB and choose a Custom Install.
Delete all UEFI partitions on the system drive (EFI System, Recovery, MSR Reserved, Primary).
Select the unallocated space that results and click the Next button. The installer will create the correct partitions and install Windows.
Run Windows Update repeatedly, even across reboots, until no more updates are found.
You may need/want to download and install the latest graphics driver from the Nvidia/AMD website (they change so regularly the latest version isn't always in the Windows libraries).

This is also worth a watch
Click to expand...
Excellent, thanks so much for the detailed response, really appreciate it.

Id like to upgrade my main gaming storage, currently the ssd to 2tb. Do i have enough slots (is that the right word) to add a 2tb m.2 drive and keep the existing ssd for personal stuff?
 
C

Chubster

Member
JUNI0R said:
Heya! What are you trying to get from upgrading the system? Are you short on space? Do you want the system to run faster? Also what's your budget for the upgrade?

Motherboard wise, the Prime B550 has 2 M.2 slots, with the top one (between the CPU and GPU) being Gen 4. Assuming you've got Windows on the 970 EVO I wouldn't bother upgrading the OS drive to a Gen 4 drive, it's a large outlay in cost to upgrade something that is still incredibly quick. If we were speccing new then maybe we'd go for Gen 4, but to me it doesn't make sense as an upgrade, to me anyway.

If you're running short on space on the OS drive, then going for a 500GB drive wouldn't be a bad idea (That's what we tend to recommend from the outset), plus that'll help with the speed of the system. Or if you're running short on game space, adding a 1TB Gen 3 drive into that 2nd slot will give you plenty more space and is a super simple upgrade!
Click to expand...
Space really but faster is always good

I run MSFS and DCS and also Photoshop and Lightroom. Operating system and a few other bits are on the M.2 drive and that currently has 153GB free space.

SSD is my main storage and that currently has 460gb of free space but monthly MSFS updates and addons eat into that. Si im looking to add a larger drive, if i can get a quicker one then great, then keep the existing SSD drive for my PS and LR stuff.

Budget wise is not really a problem with in reason.
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Chubster said:
Excellent, thanks so much for the detailed response, really appreciate it.

Id like to upgrade my main gaming storage, currently the ssd to 2tb. Do i have enough slots (is that the right word) to add a 2tb m.2 drive and keep the existing ssd for personal stuff?
Click to expand...
yeah if you've got the budget replace the 1TB that I specced in 2 with the 2TB version of the 670p, if that's all that you can afford now then do 1 at a later date
 
JUNI0R

JUNI0R

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Chubster said:
Is there a way of telling which m2 slot PCS used without physically getting the pc out ?
Click to expand...
You should just be able to look in and see. I've drawn some crappy red squares where the drives might be. The top one being the PCIe Gen 4 one

1638119996262.png
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Chubster said:
Hi everyone....

I'm looking to upgrade my storage, I assume I can just chose bigger capacity to what I already have, so a larger m2 drive and ssd drive.

Would I be better replacing the ssd for an M2 drive though ?

M2 drive is currently used for OS with the SSD for everything else.

Case
PCS P209 ARGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2300MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 240 Series RGB High Performance Liquid Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002
Click to expand...
Was there anything wrong with the previous advice?


Martinr36 said:
yeah if you've got the budget replace the 1TB that I specced in 2 with the 2TB version of the 670p, if that's all that you can afford now then do 1 at a later date
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top