Question Do i have enough PCIe lanes for 2 NVMe drives???

daveybrat

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jan 31, 2000
5,725
943
126
So i have an MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon board running a 3700X. My main and only hard drive is a WD Black 1TB NVMe drive. I'd like to add another NVMe drive in the second slot on the board.

So with the video card and 2 NVMe drives i'm assuming i'll be taking up 24 PCIe lanes, do i have enough for that (i don't want my video card to run at x8).
 

damian101

Senior member
Aug 11, 2020
291
107
86
The X470 provides 8 additional PCIe Gen 2.0 lanes, the second M.2 Nvme slot will use those.
The 20 PCIe lanes directly from the CPU are being used by your GPU and the first Nvme drive.
 
  • Like
Reactions: daveybrat

Campy

Senior member
Jun 25, 2010
785
171
116
Ryzen has one x4 M.2 slot directly to the CPU, and the other M.2 are off the chipset like Damian said. Neither will affect the amount of CPU PCIe lanes going to your two main PCIe x16 slots. Your second M.2 slot has a max of PCIe 2.0 x4 bandwidth, and when in use it will disable your third PCIe x16 slot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: daveybrat