Optimal NVMe Install Location

[GO DAWGS!]

Bought my first NVMe drive (WD - BLACK SN850X 2TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe) and was wondering where the best slot to install it would be (1, 2, or 3), or if it even matters?

Also, I have a 1TB Samsung 2.5" SSD. Which drive would you recommend to use as the OS drive? This build will be primarily for gaming.

Thanks for your help!

My motherboard is an ASUS B650E-F AM5 motherboard. Diagram below.

 

[Deleted member 229121]

Boot off the NVME since it's your only one, put it in the very top slot closest to the CPU.
You can put whatever games are your less favorite on the SATA SSD and use the NVME for you OS and games as well.

You could also pickup a cheap 500GB NVME to boot off too, but that's an additional purchase so I'll just stop there lol.

 

[Eskimonster]

Slot 1, so it dont "sit" under the GPU. unless your getting a pcie5 nvme.
i use nvme similar to slot 1 for Os, and a second nvme similar for slot 2 for games.

 

[chrcoluk]

From what I understand AMD 7000 series chips have 24 direct lanes, and looking at your screenshot suggests both you M2_1 and M2_2 are fed directly from the CPU.

M2_1 will probably be an oven so I suggest M2_2.

 

[Mussels]

M2_1 is the fastest as it's direct to the CPU. 4x 5.0, works fine with slower drives.
Heat is usually not an issue from the GPU.

M2_2 is from the chipset, and a 4x 4.0 lane

M2_3 takes bandwidth from that bottom slot - it's 16x physically but 4x electrically, so it's one or the other. Run a 4x device there OR the NVME.



I always suggest the CPU slot as it's got higher speeds and lower latency than the chipset slot(s)
Because the chipset slots share bandwidth with everything else, heavy load in various ways will slow down the NVME performance

 

[GO DAWGS!]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your help.

 

[Mussels]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your help.

It's worth checking, it's far more confusing on other boards.