It's been a while since I posted but I'm playing around with my trusty rig a bit, and I'm toying with the idea of adding an additional M.2 drive (or more in RAID0).
 
I run a X 58 3-way classified motherboard with a Xeon @ 4.4ghz, 24 gigs of RAM, 3090 founders edition, 24 gigs of RAM 950Pro M.2 for OS.  This MB has been though allot: 5 gens of GPU (1x970, 2x970SLI, 1080TI, 2080TI 3090FE), 3 CPUs, 2 power supplies, several water cooling loop revisions... It will be a sad day when I retire it.  I'll probably run it for another year or so.   
 
My primary boot drive is a 950 Pro M.2.  I'm looking to add another M.2 drive.  I have always run my 950 Pro on a China special PCIE card but I recently acquired a ASUS HYPER M.2 X16 V2 PCIe 3.0 Card HYPER M.2 X16 CARD (4x M.2) for free.  I haven't received my additional M.2 I ordered yet (Samsung 970 EVO Plus) but I suspect that this motherboard does not support bifurcation (anyone know of a hacked bios) and therefore wont be seeing anything other than the first drive on the card.
 
Anyhow, worst case scenario I can probably just use my other China special PCI e-card and install my second M.2 and a second slot, however, my real issue that I just realized is that even though my PC E M.2 cards are X16 they seem to only be running at X4 capping my band with two around 1500MBs.  My graphics card is installed in the first slot and I have tried the other 2X 16 slots (3 and 4) and still Samsung magician reports them as running in x4 mode (hence my BW cap of 1500)  
 
Am I doing something wrong here? Why are my x16 cards detected at X4?  The 3090FE runs @ X16 just fine.  I'm thinking of buying a Highpoint Technologies Ssd7101A-1 4X M.2 Pcie 3.0X16 Nvme Raid if i can find one used for around $200 and running 3x RAID0 M.2s (just for fun since it does not have the bifurcation limitation)  but if the mobo picks it up as x4 it defeats the purpose. 
 
Thanks for any ideas.
 

 

my m.2 samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 500GB 
says 3X4 
the READ=3376 and WRITE=3172  IOPS=274658 & 216308 
 
I assume that mean 3 lanes of 4 Something MB / GB ? 

KenMcC
my m.2 samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 500GB 
says 3X4 
the READ=3376 and WRITE=3172  IOPS=274658 & 216308 
 
I assume that mean 3 lanes of 4 Something MB / GB ? 

For that old X58 motherboard that is actually an excellent read/write speed. 

KenMcC
my m.2 samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 500GB 
says 3X4 
the READ=3376 and WRITE=3172  IOPS=274658 & 216308 
I assume that mean 3 lanes of 4 Something MB / GB ? 

That's all I want... My read speeds are stuck @ ~1500, even on my 970 EVO Plus 500GB.  What motherboard/slot/config/riser card?  Did you do anything special?  My Samsung Magician says "2x4" I thought "2" meant PCIe2.0.  Are you on a MB with Pcie3?
 
 

oriddlero
Okay, after going down a rabbit hole since I posted this I've come to the following conclusions:
 

• Even if I buy an expensive m.2 pcie raid card that does its own bifurcation, boots my 950pro, and lets me setup 3x raid0 I would still be screwed with X4X4X4X4 @ PCIE 2.0 speeds.  Since x4 PCIe 2.0 speed is capped around 1500MBs there would be no speed gains to be had, so raid 0 would be pointless.
• I think ill just sell this Asus card I got for free and go with 2 separate x16 China Riser Cards, they are only $9 each, I have 2 free x16 slots, and they seem to have the same performance in this board as the more expensive cards I have tried - https://www.ebay.com/itm/274709694757

The only think that is REALLY still bugging me is that the X16 SINGLE card riser is also detected as x4 in Samsun Magician... In every slot. I even tried moving the GPU from slot one to test the slot i know 100% is working @ x16.  Even if I could get these solo riser cards to work at 8x I would be happy.  
 
Tested (in all slots):
 
1. China Riser Card (16x) - Detected as 4x
2. Supermicro AOC-SLG3-2M2 PCIe (8x)  - Detected as 4x
3. ASUS HYPER M.2 X16 V2 PCIe 3.0 Card HYPER M.2 X16 CARDV2 (16x)  - Detected as 4x
 

 
Any ideas?

It's not really the Cards or the Riser-card themselves that is detected as 4x, 
It's the Samsung 950 PRO that is limited to 4x (by design).
 
No matter what motherboard you put it in, it will only run at 4x speed,
all NVMe SSD's are designed this way.
 
Even PCIe NVMe drives (like Intel's Optane drives) are limited to 4x speed.

So what you guys are saying is ALL m.2 drives are 4x and it's the PCIe V2 on my X58 that is my bottleneck? "KenMcC" above who says he is getting 3300 R/W must be on a MB with PCI V3? 
 
My 970 EVO plus is also capped @ 4x ~1500 R/W (so it's not just the 950 pro)
 

oriddlero
So what you guys are saying is ALL m.2 drives are 4x and it's the PCIe V2 on my X58 that is my bottleneck? "KenMcC" above who says he is getting 3300 R/W must be on a MB with PCI V3? 
 
My 970 EVO plus is also capped @ 4x ~1500 R/W (so it's not just the 950 pro)

Yes, it is the X58 Motherboard that is the bottleneck here.
 
1500 MB/s Read and Write is pretty much the maximum for PCIe 2.0 (at 4x) on a X58 Motherboard.
 
 
KenMcC appears to have a Z170 Motherboard (which has PCIe 3.0).
So that is why he gets 3300 MB/s on the Read and Write.

ZoranC
If you care that much about performance figures to be spending that much time and money your goal would be much better served by you stepping up to completely new motherboard with PCIe 4.0.

I plan on it.  I just love my X58, and considering when paired with the 3090FE and Xeon @ 4.4 w/ GSYNC on my LG77OLED it runs any game I throw at it to my satisfaction (currently playing doom @ 4k/120/Max Settings).  Video editing in Adobe Premier and graphics work is all smooth.  I enjoy spending money on hardware pushing the x58 to its limits to keep it alive.
 
Paying for a new system is not my problem, I have been waiting for the right platform to pull the trigger.  When i build a new system I want it to keep me happy for 5 years: Intel, PCIe4, and none of the big core/little core (Atom) BS with (Alder Lake).  I have been tempted over the last year to build a Core i9-11900K / Maximus XIII Hero Rig (W/ Intel PCIe4), but I get the feeling Ill want to rebuild again in ~2 years.  Unless some software or game I want to play comes out that I can't run well on my x58, waiting for the 7nm Meteor Lake CPU might be the ticket for me.

ZoranC

oriddlero
,I just love my X58, ...

 
I understand. All I'm trying to say is that if bandwidth is your goal X58 is your bottleneck.

+1

Better peformance with 6-8 ssd in raid 0 with a old 8x raidcontroller than a nvme in a 2.0 system.

oriddlero
What if i got two, 500GB 950 Pros, could they be setup as a bootable RAID0 in the BIOS or does that only work with SATA drives on this board?  If the raid 0 worked I could maybe get ~3000/3000 since each drive would have its own 4x slot/set of pipes.

 
Even if you managed to RAID them RAID doesn't scale like that (there are plenty of articles/posts around that will show you what I mean by that). Also, by RAIDing them you would be robbing Peter to pay Paul, handling of RAID operations would be inducing overhead on your CPU.
 
I'm afraid you have reached a point of no further returns, no matter how much effort and money you spend X58 will be your limitation.

Of course for speed then the suggestion from the other forums members about upgrading is the best way. You need to decide if you want to go with AMD or Intel. Or wait for Intel's next gen release at the end of this year or AMD's next gen next year.