NVME on PCIe on Gigabyte x570UD 1.0

Question

I bought two NVME of 4TB each that I plugged on a PCIexpress extension card on my motherboard.

Let me name the two newly bought NVMEs:

• NVME1
• NVME2

(see below for more details)

The problem

I can NEVER see BOTH NVME1 and NVME2 working at the same time.

I can ONLY see NVME1 when it's plugged on port1 of the PCIe extension card

or I can ONLY see NVME2 when it's plugged on port1 of the PCIe extension card

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Below I try to clarify the issue, but it might just be confusing :')

In other other words, any NVME plugged anywhere else than on port1 of the extension card will not be seen/recognized by the computer.

For information there are 4 ports on the PCIe extension card -> I tried ALL permutations of ports and NVME -> None of them work, except when any NVME is plugged on Port1 -> then it'll be seen by the computer.

It does not matter whether a NVME is plugged on port 2,3 or 4 -> as long as there's something on port1, only stuff on port1 will be seen.

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What I tried to do

• I tried all possible permutations of NVME1 and NVME2 on the extension card -> only the nvme plugged on port1 is visible/recognized by the computer

• I removed ALL other PCIexpress extension cards. There were two of them: a WiFi card and a USB3 extension card -> removing them did not improve the detection of the additional NVME

• In the BIOS I tried the PCIe express configuration from Auto to 4x4, etc. -> the result is always the same, only one NVME is seen

• All the above attempts have been checked on both Windows 10 Pro and Linux (Linux Mint 5.15.0-82-generic)

Hardware Setup

Plugged on the motherboard

On the motherboard on the dedicated port there is a 1TB NVME, let's call it NVME0

There is a GeForce RTX3080Ti in the "main" PCIexpress slot

And NO other PCIexpress extension card aside from the one with the NVMEs installed on it.

Motherboard

My computer is equipped with this motherboard: Gibabyte x570 UD V1.0: https://www.gigabyte.com/fr/Motherboard/X570-UD-rev-10#kf

The BIOS on the motherboard is up to date with the lastest update F37 from 26/12/2022 (or 12/26/2022 if you're writing your dates wrong :D)

The NVMEs

I bought TWO 4TB NVME here: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/dp/B0B25M8FXX?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

The PCIexpress extension card

The card I plug the NVMEs on was bought here: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0BV7GBXMP?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Questions/remarks

Remarks n.1

I am a little afraid that my motherboard X570UD rev 1.0 cannot be able to accept that much PCIe peripherals/NVME?

Could that be a chipset issue?

Question 1

Have you noticed anything obvious that I might have missed?

Question 2

Do you think the motherboard is incompatible with what I am trying to do?

Thank you in advance for your help

Answer 1

You seem to have run into the data-lanes limitation of your PCIe setup.

Your PCIe 4.0 M.2 expansion card may be able to connect two M.2 drives. But if that card runs PCIe 4.0 at x4 (which is as fast as your slot will allow), and if you have two PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives, then, as M.2 needs x4 speeds, only one drive will be usable on that expansion card at full speed.

You could perhaps get by with two 4.0 expansion cards, one for each 4.0 drive. You could then possibly have two drives with such a setup but they might not reach full speed, especially if both are used at the same time.

It's impossible to know in advance whether two 4.0 expansion cards will work, because these details of the motherboard are not published.

Answer 2

What worked in the end is:

I bought an additional small PCIe expansion card to install the remaining NVME.

So for reference (not an affiliated link) on the motherboard Gigabyte X570 UD rev 1.0, I had to plug:

• This: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0BV7GBXMP?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
• And this: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B07FN3YZ8P?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

In order to be able to have two NVME plugged via PCIe.