are M.2 SSD pcie adapters plug and play?

[hiyall]

is it just as easy as installing the M.2 and then plugging it into the pcie and then setting the boot options and done?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

It will depend on your Motherboard. Older boards that lacked M2 NVME support generally can't boot to an M2 that's in a PCIE slot cause the BIOS can't see it.

Why would you want a PCIE adapter?

How many M2 SSDs do you plan to use?

What Motherboard do you have?

[_I_]

make sure to get adapter and drive that are compatible

m.2 cards and slots come in different flavors

e key = wifi card
m key = nvme
b key = sata

bios may not see the pci-e sata adapter and its drive

[Set-115689]

The pcie card might also interfere with other components.

might not be able to boot from it.

[𝕳𝖟 𝕸𝖊𝖍𝖉𝖎]

yes

[CZI]

You may need to configure in BIOS screen.

[WarBucks]

I stuck a 12 dollar one in a haswell era MSI z97 PC Mate with its newest bios version and changed a few settings worked with no trouble. The ssd was some Pioneer 1TB for like 80 dollars. great for the kids who use it.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yea Z87 or Z97 is probably about the oldest system you can get a PCIE M2 adapter to work on. Results will vary based on actual Motherboard though.

Older systems it won't work on.

[PopinFRESH]

M.2 is a form factor which as noted by _|_ has a few different keying versions and supports different protocols.

As such I'd say no, an M.2 PCIe AIC/adapter isn't plug & play. Some adapters will only support specific data transfer protocols (e.g. NVMe, SATA, etc.) which you'd need to ensure your M.2 SSD uses a compatible protocol. If you are looking at an adapter that has multiple M.2 connections, such as an Asus Hyper M.2 X16, you will also need to consider if your motherboard supports PCIe bifurcation and the PCIe slot you are planning to install the card in supports x16 cards electrically (e.g. its an actual X16 slot with 16 PCIe lanes wired).

If you want to be able to use an M.2 SSD that is an NVMe drive for your boot/OS drive you'll need to ensure your system is configured for UEFI (rather than legacy BIOS) and you'll also likely need to have the storage driver for your motherboard's NVMe support handy on a USB drive to load during Windows installation, assuming you are using Windows.

Originalmente postado por Bad 💀 Motha:

Yea Z87 or Z97 is probably about the oldest system you can get a PCIE M2 adapter to work on. Results will vary based on actual Motherboard though.

Older systems it won't work on.

You can use an M.2 PCIe AIB to use an NVMe SSD on a system older than Z87, however, it won't be supported to boot from it. For Intel systems you'd be able to use one pretty much as far back as boards using the 945G chipset which were the first boards using Intel's EFI firmware. To use an NVMe drive as a bootable SSD you're correct that was between the Z87/Z97 chipset based boards. I don't believe there were any Z87 boards that actually supported NVMe and IIRC all of those boards that had an M.2 slot on Z87 were key b for SATA M.2 SSDs. Z97 was when NVMe boot support was added.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Still no reply from the OP.
As I asked "what motherboard" in my first post as that will tell us what would possibly be compatible. But yes I don't see much point to using it unless you can boot from it.

[Set-115689]

If the op puts their parts in pcpartpicker it might give them some warnings at the bottom or it might not.

[PopinFRESH]

Originalmente postado por Bad 💀 Motha:

Still no reply from the OP.
As I asked "what motherboard" in my first post as that will tell us what would possibly be compatible. But yes I don't see much point to using it unless you can boot from it.

Originalmente postado por Set-115689:

If the op puts their parts in pcpartpicker it might give them some warnings at the bottom or it might not.

Agreed, the answer to the OPs question is pretty much no. The better question the OP should ask is "Given my system, what would be a good SSD for X use" and provide the details/specs of their computer and what they are wanting to accomplish.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originalmente postado por Set-115689:

If the op puts their parts in pcpartpicker it might give them some warnings at the bottom or it might not.

That is hardly accurate as that can change with a simple BIOS update as far as this sort of thing goes. Plus putting old parts like Z97 for example in PCPartPicker is no longer relevant due to the hardware age.

Best bet for questions like this is a forum section online that has info or experts who could answer questions about your exact motherboard model.

[hiyall]

Originalmente postado por Bad 💀 Motha:

Still no reply from the OP.
As I asked "what motherboard" in my first post as that will tell us what would possibly be compatible. But yes I don't see much point to using it unless you can boot from it.

M5A78L-M LX PLUS
its actually a SATA M.2 and not pcie M.2

[Bad 💀 Motha]

This should help.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/cant-find-m-2-nvme-ssd-in-boot-priority.3611913/

I goggled that mobo and on some other threads it was stated that it works the same as in the above thread for your mobo. Long as it's a pcie m2 sata speed and not nvme.

I wouldn't waste my time with pcie m2 adapter if the mobo doesn't support nvme since it would be no better then just using an actual 2.5 inch sata ssd. Like Samsung 870 EVO or WD Blue sata models for example. M2 won't be any faster if it's just sata speed type

[hiyall]

Originalmente postado por Bad 💀 Motha:

This should help.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/cant-find-m-2-nvme-ssd-in-boot-priority.3611913/

I goggled that mobo and on some other threads it was stated that it works the same as in the above thread for your mobo. Long as it's a pcie m2 sata speed and not nvme.

I wouldn't waste my time with pcie m2 adapter if the mobo doesn't support nvme since it would be no better then just using an actual 2.5 inch sata ssd. Like Samsung 870 EVO or WD Blue sata models for example. M2 won't be any faster if it's just sata speed type

i think it will work. i tested it in my PC and wouldnt work on the PCIE m.2 slot but worked in the secondary m.2 slot which supports SATA and PCIE and also the m.2 SSD has the 2 notches on it indicating its SATA