pci-e revision question.

Thank you all for your time taken to respond. I guess I was hoping someone would have firsthand knowledge to offer.

Replacing or discarding a system that still runs Windows 10 very well is a waste in my opinion. I am not trying to land the space shuttle with this old rig. I am going to have an nvme drive sitting on the shelf and to me that is also a waste. Spending $20 on an adapter to be able to use it in an older system is totally worth the investment. Its not like I am buying a new nvme drive to place in an old system. When I upgrade components--if I do--I always try to pass them along to a lessor system--when possible as selling components usually cost more in time than the gain from the sale.

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itsme1 said:

There shouldn't be pci express switch cards for 1 ssd on sale. For several m.2 ssds on the same card it exists, for example for 2 m.2 ssds, each m.2 ssd will have a x4 port, so on a 3.0 x8 card, each ssd is at full speed, on a 2.0 x8 card , each ssd will be half speed.

As I'm not sure a "switch" pci express card doesn't exist, wait for other people.

Yes, quite correct. I have found none. Only dual slot cards--or greater--which makes perfect sense. A dual slot m.2 switch adapter card @ x8 slot on pci-e3.0 with a motherboard or the card supporting bifurcation, would allow two m.2 drives to run at full speeds on that x8 slot. I believe a single drive on said card would also run at full speed on a x8 pci-e2.0 motherboard. Those cards would run me $150+ which I am not willing to pay out for this older system.

This old motherboard does seem to support bifurcation but a card like that would be wasted on this system. I want to buy a 1TB nvme to replace a 250GB one on the newer system. I merely want to get the use out of the drive to be replaced instead of shelving it or selling it, and receive a benefit of a faster drive in an older system. It maybe true: "You still can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.", but shit rolls down hill--buy new parts; roll the old parts to older or lessor machines; HDDs, SSDs, GPUs, soundcards, etc.

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bobkn said:

I was mostly curious as to what your intention was. I wasn't trying to ask for an essay.

Old hardware? I mostly try to talk people out of sinking much money trying to upgrade old systems. That doesn't really apply here, as your expense would only be for an inexpensive M.2 to PCI-E adapter. I've used one myself.

If you weren't using existing parts, I would have suggested that a SATA SSD would be the best choice. It wouldn't benchmark as fast, but it would be compatible without any extraordinary measures, and it would be a major upgrade over a spinner.

I won't offer an insincere apology for offending you.

You refused to read what I wrote and instead offered an opinion of what you think I was asking for.

I specifically mentioned that I was not interested in booting from the drive as I knew people would mention it, detracting from what I was seeking. You ignored that.

I did mention that I was using existing parts. Only a moron would go buy a brand new nvme drive to drop into an 10+ year old system. Read the OP.

An nvme drive will out perform any SSD SATA II drive.

My intent was to find people who possessed firsthand knowledge of what I was asking.

You have not offended me at all. My intent was to not offend anyone, however, I specifically wrote the OP to be clear of what I sought.

Quote from missive: [QUOTE]

With respect, this "old PC" was a gaming rig in its day and it still does things fast enough now. In fact, it always boots even faster than my current main system. If I had to, I could go back to gaming on it were that necessary. This system is much more capable than a browser box or a tax machine. Sure If I want to crunch video data or play AAA modern games, I had better be prepared to wait or do with lesser graphic settings. Way back I had a Revo-drive in it and it ran excellent. I have no intention of dumping this machine just because its old. Adding a fast hard drive extends its usability, period.

I really wish people would more carefully read what is written because the simple point is being missed: "I am looking to add a larger nvme drive to my main PC. Doing so will mean pulling the smaller nvme drive." The overall point is I am going to have an nvme drive sitting on a shelf doing nothing.

I did not ask your opinion on whether I should or should not add a nvme drive to the PC. I asked a very specific set of questions. I appreciate your opinion but it helps me not at all. I simply want to know from someone who has knowledge for fact of what will happen for speeds if the OP is carried out.

What coin? An adapter costs $20 but switched ones cost hundreds. I don't believe I will spend hundreds on this old pc but $20 is nothing. [/END QUOTE]

With respect to the respect it behooves me to respectfully state that I certainly don't fit the stereo-type of old PC haters. In fact, I have a YouTube channel dedicated to resurrecting and restoring old PCs. If you know where I can purchase NVMe sticks @ 20 bux apiece please, by all means, direct me to that link. My understanding is that you had already purchased a larger stick of NVMe and that you already had another stick that you acquired previously. In addition to this it would seem that you are thinking of making yet another expenditure for an additional card to house both NVMe sticks and that you were also considering getting a switchable card for this. You mentioned that you won't be spending hundreds of dollars on this project. I would surmise that you have already come pretty close to doing just that with two sticks of NVMe. One more card should easily put you over $200 is my guess. BUT that aside. You like your mobo. My little daughter has an X58 platform made by GIGABYTE that she won't give up for the world. It's a step up from what you're dealing with but it's close. She runs three different operating systems on three separate SSDs on it because she doesn't want a new system board. Trust me. I got you.

It's your project. I believe I was in support of your hanging onto it in my previous post. My point is that pumping more $ into that unit instead of saving it for a newer system board is not exactly cost effective or practical, and, to be honest, I find it counter productive. That's not just my opinion. The numbers speak for themselves. The good thing about your collecting this hardware is that at some point you will still have the option of using on something that is made for it. You can get some pretty sweet system boards these days for around 300 bux that will run circles around your unit using that NVMe to proper capacity and functionality. Rather than having that other stick sitting on a shelf doing nothing, as you say, why not pop it in a newer system board? I run two PCs at once all day long. One is my gaming rig and the other is my work station. They are both about as different from one another as it gets but they still talk to each other.

You might not have asked for my opinion but you certainly shared yours. That's okay. We are all entitled to our opinions. Seriously. I love those old dual BIOS GIGABYTE jobs too. Good grief I even have a couple of old Dells I refuse to give up. But friend? DDR2 memory? Do you even know what you're missing? No disrespect intended, but in retrospect running NVMe with something this old is just plain nasty. And yes, that is my opinion.

Popyacap said:

(snip)

You refused to read what I wrote and instead offered an opinion of what you think I was asking for.

I specifically mentioned that I was not interested in booting from the drive as I knew people would mention it, detracting from what I was seeking. You ignored that.

I did mention that I was using existing parts. Only a moron would go buy a brand new nvme drive to drop into an 10+ year old system. Read the OP.

An nvme drive will out perform any SSD SATA II drive.

My intent was to find people who possessed firsthand knowledge of what I was asking.

You have not offended me at all. My intent was to not offend anyone, however, I specifically wrote the OP to be clear of what I sought.

Nope. I understood what you wrote. I wondered why you were pursuing that course. A fast SSD would typically be used as a boot drive. I shouldn't have mentioned the hacks required to do that on an older motherboard. That wasn't for your benefit; I assumed that you'd already know.

I did indeed ignore your specific question. I assumed that an adapter would work with a PCI-E 2.0 board, with the caveat that the maximum transfer rate would be half that of 3.0.

If no respondents have done exactly what you wish to do, I wouldn't be surprised. But I wish you luck.

If you expect narrow, precise answers in a forum, you may be disappointed. Those are rare enough from people who are trying to do that. (I wasn't.)

Popyacap said:

Yes, quite correct. I have found none. Only dual slot cards--or greater--which makes perfect sense. A dual slot m.2 switch adapter card @ x8 slot on pci-e3.0 with a motherboard or the card supporting bifurcation, would allow two m.2 drives to run at full speeds on that x8 slot. I believe a single drive on said card would also run at full speed on a x8 pci-e2.0 motherboard. Those cards would run me $150+ which I am not willing to pay out for this older system.

This old motherboard does seem to support bifurcation but a card like that would be wasted on this system. I want to buy a 1TB nvme to replace a 250GB one on the newer system. I merely want to get the use out of the drive to be replaced instead of shelving it or selling it, and receive a benefit of a faster drive in an older system. It maybe true: "You still can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.", but shit rolls down hill--buy new parts; roll the old parts to older or lessor machines; HDDs, SSDs, GPUs, soundcards, etc.

I don't believe, on pci express cards they are physical X4 slots, the end it has X4 m.2 ports, it would take x8 slots for the ssd to work at full speed on your pci express 2.0. I don't believe it's commercially available.

bobkn said:

I was mostly curious as to what your intention was. I wasn't trying to ask for an essay.

Old hardware? I mostly try to talk people out of sinking much money trying to upgrade old systems. That doesn't really apply here, as your expense would only be for an inexpensive M.2 to PCI-E adapter. I've used one myself.

If you weren't using existing parts, I would have suggested that a SATA SSD would be the best choice. It wouldn't benchmark as fast, but it would be compatible without any extraordinary measures, and it would be a major upgrade over a spinner.

I won't offer an insincere apology for offending you.

My intention was clearly outlined from the beginning. I did not force you to read anything, you chose to. You did offer the link to Clover and I appreciate that but I did say in the OP that I am not interested in whether or not it would be bootable, because I knew it would detract from the information I was seeking.

Is it your job to talk people out of things? Sometimes, in certain circumstances, certain upgrades are worthwhile on an old system.

But I am using existing parts--except for the adapter--and this was all made clear in the OP. Yes, a 2.5" SSD would be easier but limited to SATA II whereas even at halved performance, an nvme would be faster. I never said I was buying an nvme for this old PC but merely passing a used one down the line when I upgrade the newer machine.

You didn't offend me at all. If I am going to take the time to clearly illustrate what I am seeking to know--and not know--I expect those who reply to stick to that precisely and not drift around the subject. I posted here because in my experience this site is a cut above most; and someone did respond and parroted what I had read elsewhere, which is good enough for me. Now I know, if I want full speed, I must invest in a 'switch' adapter, which is not worth the cost for a system this old. Buying a cheap basic adapter is the way to go. I appreciate the comments everyone gave but most of them skirted around the point of the post. If I come off as rude, that really is not my intention but I consider assuming to be rude.

If you are offended as I believe you are, that was not my intention but your own fault, as you did not read the OP well enough to be responding to it.

Popyacap said:

(snip)

If you are offended as I believe you are, that was not my intention but your own fault, as you did not read the OP well enough to be responding to it.

The last word (words, many) is yours. If you find what you're looking for, please post that.

Any cheap NVME adapter will reach the maximum theoretical speed of 1700 MB/s on PCIe Rev 2.

I know I will sound crazy. But... If I would want to "top" this old machine for cheap.

Getting 6 cheap 64GB SSds and putting them all on a raid 0 would give 384GB at 3600 Mb/s...

Total cost 136$. Guaranty to work as expected. And 100% bootable.

Just need to find out how to install them in there.

MaloK said:

Any cheap NVME adapter will reach the maximum theoretical speed of 1700 MB/s on PCIe Rev 2.

I know I will sound crazy. But... If I would want to "top" this old machine for cheap.

Getting 6 cheap 64GB SSds and putting them all on a raid 0 would give 384GB at 3600 Mb/s...

Total cost 136$. Guaranty to work as expected. And 100% bootable.

Just need to find out how to install them in there.

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