I plan to have two m.2 drives. One with Windows, one with Linux. I’m hoping to only use Linux, but I’ve had issues in the past trying to switch to Linux. Either way, I think I would prefer to have the Linux drive in the ‘primary’ slot.
I am running an AMD CPU AM5 processor, which has 24 PCIe5 lanes, but both of the drives are actually PCIe4. The motherboard has three m.2 sockets. The first one is Gen 5, the second one is Gen 4 and the third one is Gen 4 but shares with a Gen 4 PCIe4 slot I do not intend to use, so I’m cool using it for a drive, but it does go through the chip set.
So I figured I would put the Linux drive in the second slot and the windows drive in the third slot. But because Windows is an actual operating system (go with me in that one). I thought maybe it should maybe NOT go through the chipset but instead be in slot 2 and the Linux drive should be in slot one. Slot one should be backwards compatible and since it has 24 lanes, it shouldn’t affect the GPU, right?
So which configuration should I use?
Thank you in advance. I hope to get feedback before Lemmy deletes this, which they always do. Never knew how to use Reddit either.
Unless you’re a heavy power user and counting cycles, I don’t think it’s going to matter to you. Going to m.2 for both of my OSes was like adding lightning to the whole system, and now that I’ve converted all other drives except one to SSD, storage is the least of the bottlenecks. The one thing (that you may already know) is to install Windows first, since it assumes and wants to be the only OS. Also makes the booting setup easier, although there can still be issues and compromises on the menu. Once things get settled you can do like I do and have Linux be the default boot and use F8 or whatever to get to Windows when you want.
But as far as maxxing out things, if anything I’d look to see which slot is likely to run the hottest because of airflow and location, and put the less run OS there (assuming Windows). I haven’t noticed any high temps with mine (as in too high, they do run HOT), but every setup is different.
I put two identical drives in my build - that was a mistake. I can never tell which is which. :) I’m sure I’ve had each OS on each drive, and if there was a difference in performance - I’ve never noticed it.
I’d put the Linux drive first as you’ll probably migrate to using only that over time. Let windows share. But I honestly don’t think you’ll notice any difference.
Yeah, but it’s not like it’s a lot of work. If I have to put them somewhere, I might as well put them in right, no?
Also, I have a 2TB and a 4TB drive so I’m covered there.
With the specs provided, it won’t matter where you put them, from a performance perspective.
I’d avoid the slot that shares with another slot, but that’s just because it’s easy to forget about so if you do put something in the shared slot, you’ll unintentionally lose performance for both things.
But ease of access may be most important factor here. The one that’s easiest to access is the one you probably want to leave free. That way it’s not as much work to install the new drive, if you ever get a third.
If you plug the drive into the last m.2 slot which is on the chipset you’ll most likely lose some functionality (sata ports, usb, etc). What gets lost depends on your board. The m.2 slots connected straight to your CPU are also generally faster than the chipset ones.
