This is the Intel 660p NVME drive, I have it installed and it works perfectly. I was under the impression that if the key is on the left of the drive when viewed from the front it is M-keyed, this matches the key on the M.2 socket on my motherboard, however HWInfo64 reports the slot as a "mechanical B key". Is HWInfo64 wrong or have I got my keys mixed up in my head?
Check this link for an explanation on Edge Connectors;
M.2 - Wikipedia
Based on your image, the drive is B-keyed, however if you look at the key on the drive it has an M printed next to it. As I said it all works fine but it is confusing when looking at the drive it seems that the image you show is actually back to front.
I can never remember myself.The M key has 5 pins, the B key has 6. That should be apparent when inspecting the drive. I installed mine last year and recall the same challenges. Check this pic.
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Does this pic provide a better view?
Well, that makes it even more confusing, the bottom image showing the drives and listing the protocols they use seems to show the right hand most drive as a M-keyed PCIe x4, which is the same config as my drive, however you can clearly see from my picture the small connector (which should be the 5 pin) only has 3 pins. Also when compared to the image of connector layouts it should be B-keyed.
The drive I have installed is definitely working at PCIe x4 speeds, CrystalDiskMark confirms that so does copying a large file across (50Gb file) copies at approx. 2Gb's.
Also HWInfo64 tells me the PCIe version is 3.0, maximum link width is x4, current link width is x4.
It is very confusing to me as to why HWInfo64 reports the port as "mechanical key B" but all other evidence would suggest it is M-key.
That's the reason for the question, it seems the information is very contradictory.
The M key is identified by the orientation of the key or notch with respect to pin-outs on the card edge. The M key is notched at pins 59-66 where-as a B key is notched at pins 12-19. see pics attached above and below.
It appears that in your pic pins 67 & 69 are missing, Pin 67 is not used or defined and pin 69 is only required to define a sata SSD. (SSD-SATA drives pull pin 1, pin 21, pin 69 & pin 75 to Ground.) Check this link for edge connector pin-out definitions.
M.2 (NGFF) connector pinout diagram @ pinoutguide.com
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Perhaps part of the confusion here is with orientation. Start by looking into the end of the female edge connector within the laptop. Pin 1 is on the upper left, pin 2 is on the lower left. Odd-numbered pins on top and even-numbered on the bottom. The notch or M key is where pins 59-66 would be if they were there.
When looking at an M2 drive, holding the drive with the edge connector up and the drive right-side-up the M key will appear on the right. Pin-outs on the card edge start at 1 on the left.
Does this help or provide any clarity?
Last edited by W10 Tweaker; 17 Sep 2019 at 09:05.
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