Question can a system boot from m.2 drives on one of these m.2 pci express adapters?

GunsMadeAmericaFree

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
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I was looking at an inexpensive lga 1700 motherboard, and noticed that it did not have any m.2 slots. I would be fine with this to start, but would eventually want to add a couple of drives for booting to separate OS installs.

Would something like this:


Eventually allow adding some small m.2 ssd's on a board that doesn't have any m.2 slot? I don't see any reviews for this one, but my understanding is that a board adapter like this would allow for adding such drives without too much expense. Thanks for any insights.
 

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
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Possibly....

It's going to work with SATA and not NNVME/PCI based drives.

You do know you can boot multiple OS from a single physical drive when configured properly. Most use Linux / Windows off the same drive.

Since you're talking cheap MOBO / Intel if you want to expand into multiple M2 drives you'll need a card that does bifurcation on the card itself since most intel boards don't support it in the bios.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CVGZZCS/ - $149 - has a "switch" chip on it allowing 2 drives @ gen3 x4 speed
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HYZY7P2/ - $180 - same chip option but gen3 x8 for faster speeds / full use of drive speed

Another option would be using 2.5" SSD's for alternate boot drives which just need a SATA cable + power
 
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