# PCIe SSD NVME adapters and best/suitable 4th gen NVME drives



## pmountford (Jan 28, 2021)

I'm running out of SSD space but I intend to build a new DAW in 6 months or so. In the meantime I could do with adding a 2 TB to my current aging 4790k based PC that I will then be able to use in a new build later in the year (likely AMD Ryzen 9 or Intel 12th gen). So I presume the best option would be a 4gen NVME drive like this:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...b-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-sb-rktq4-2tb

But would I be able to use a card like this to plug in the my existing DAW?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/akasa-m.2-ssd-to-pcie-adapter-card-cc-008-ak.html

Can you use a 4th gen NVME on a 3rd gen PCIe adapter? Wonder now whether i would physically fit if it has to have heat spreader?

Sorry for the noob question.


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## Proteinshake (Jan 28, 2021)

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ASUS offers different kinds of motherboard accessories including Thunderbolt™ expansion cards, M.2 add-on cards, and fan extension cards give DIY PC users better choices when it comes to building their perfect workstation or gaming rig.




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The rest is just toys. Since I have pretty decent air flow in my workstation, I can even opt for leaving the active fan disabled and since the whole card is the heatsink the temps still are rediculous.

And sure, you can run 4th gen in a 3rd gen PCIe slot, but of course it will only achieve 3rd gen speeds then.


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## Technostica (Jan 28, 2021)

Proteinshake said:


> HYPER M.2 X16 CARD V2｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global
> 
> 
> ASUS offers different kinds of motherboard accessories including Thunderbolt™ expansion cards, M.2 add-on cards, and fan extension cards give DIY PC users better choices when it comes to building their perfect workstation or gaming rig.
> ...


That's overkill if you just want to use 1 drive.
As it's PCIe 3.0 it will be outdated when the OP moves to the new platform as they are looking for PCIe 4.0 drives.
I'd buy a cheap card that supports a single PCIe 3.0 drive.


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## strojo (Jan 28, 2021)

How much SSD space do you need in total?


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## pmountford (Jan 28, 2021)

strojo said:


> How much SSD space do you need in total?


I've got 6 mixed size ssd drives, some might make it to the new build at the start. Initially I was thinking of 1x2tb nvme to tied me over for now but possibly upto 3x2tb over the lifespan of the new build DAW. Are 3 4th gen nvme drives supported? I'm just trying to eat out more life out of what I've got as my initial budget has been spent on other equipment. And AmD 5900x are like gold dust, I might aswell wait to see what's coming around the corner.


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## chimuelo (Jan 30, 2021)

Just retired a rehearsal 4790k. Want an AMD but like Intel, all smoke and no fire.
I’ll get a 5000 but not until they release a desktop w/ Vega GFX.

Just opted for an ASRock server board with the W480/1250P and 64GBs of RAM. Wanted to build something that dropped in prices so I saved a few hundred. Even the Samsung SSDs were cheap.

Really wanted PCI 4/5000 and already have the X570D4U server board.

Prices of pre PCI 3 and Pre 5000/Comet Lake parts were just too good to pass up on.


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## Buz (Jan 31, 2021)

Hmm, normally it makes sense to buy what you need when you need it. But there's a drop in the market anticipated, plus products with the E18 Phison controller (7GB) are heading to retail right this moment. Fyi


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## Dracarys (Mar 1, 2021)

Don't worry about PCIe 3.0 and 4.0. DAW's and kontakt do not care about geeksquad scores. You'll be good witn NVMe ssds for more than 10 years, probably longer.


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