PCIe is not the same as PCIe ?

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mysunshines

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I purchased what was labelled as a PCIe SSD storage card , 128 Gig

it doesnt fit my Lenovo motherboard PCIe slot

The device has 8 + 16 pins each side of the connector .
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mini-16-32-60-128GB-SSD-F6M-mSATA-PCIe-SOLID-STATE-HARD-DRIVE-PC-Dell-Lenovo-HP-/263095714962?

my lenovo M91P 4518 MoBo has 7 + 11 pin terminals in its slot and the spec sheet for it says it has 1 x PCIe slot

why dont they fit ?

Is the ebay seller mis-labelling that device or what ?

what am i missing here ?

 
Solution
atomicWAR
There are multiple types of PCIe connections. PCIe on a desktop motherboard for addin cards like GPUs, then there are m.2 slots that are PCIe 4x. these are not the same connector but both are considered PCIe interfaces because of their connection protocol. You however need to pick up a low profile PCIe add-in card for an mSATA drive like this since your drive is not PCIe as listed.... edited from m.2 drive

https://www.amazon.com/SEDNA-Express-Adapter-Profile-included/dp/B00WCZTX68 Edited for mSATA
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atomicWAR

atomicWAR

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There are multiple types of PCIe connections. PCIe on a desktop motherboard for addin cards like GPUs, then there are m.2 slots that are PCIe 4x. these are not the same connector but both are considered PCIe interfaces because of their connection protocol. You however need to pick up a low profile PCIe add-in card for an mSATA drive like this since your drive is not PCIe as listed.... edited from m.2 drive

https://www.amazon.com/SEDNA-Express-Adapter-Profile-included/dp/B00WCZTX68 Edited for mSATA
 
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Solution
atomicWAR

atomicWAR

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So yeah they mislabeled it. You got an mSATA drive not m.2 like I first said. I was going by your description and didn't look at the ebay post. ShadyHamster is correct on it being an mSATA interface. you can also use a SATA to mSATA connector.
 
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BFG-9000

BFG-9000

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That's pretty clearly a mSATA card, which has nothing to do with PCIe at all, except it uses the same connector as the PCIe mini-card used in laptops (installing it in such a slot won't work as the card only understands SATA commands).

The later M.2 standard could transfer over either PCIe (NVMe) or SATA and both slots and cards could be one or the other. Many connectors support both, so you could use either card type, but these don't plug into x1 slots either (M.2 is electrically x2 or x4).

You'd need an adapter to use it but one that converts to normal SATA like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N7H9Y84/ref=asc_df_B01N7H9Y845133517/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B01N7H9Y84&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167126093426&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=240900322900084608&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9061306&hvtargid=pla-315970297588

or attach it to USB like so: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MDJ2M9Z?psc=1
 
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mysunshines

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thanks people.

Yes my options are either send this back to china with a paypal refund application and go to a eSATA SSD or use a mSATA adaptor to fit it to the ESATA cable on my PC as it appears there are no SSD that will fit directly to a PCIe x 1 ?

I have seen the adaptors that fit to a PCIe x 16 but i have only one PCIex16 and that is populated with a graphics card.

eSATA SSD are still beautifully fast compared to HDD so i will just have to tolerate that as a best fit until i upgrade to a newer mobo one day that has more mSATA , PCIe x4 or twin PCIe x 16 so i can use a mSATA SSD , U.2 or M.2 SSD

thankyou :)
 
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BFG-9000

BFG-9000

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There are plenty of PCIe x1 SSDs. Many are simply 3rd party SATA cards with a place to plug in a regular 2.5" SATA SSD, which has the dual advantages of being bootable, and giving you an extra SATA-600 port (both have to share the 500MB/s of PCIe 2.0 x1 though).

Note that many x4 and larger cards require specific NVMe support in the motherboard BIOS to be bootable. In general for anything to be bootable by itself (SATA cards, NICs) it has to have its own BIOS or option ROM. Without this it can only be a secondary drive, usable only after the drivers are loaded.

There are also many simple pin-adapter cables to convert ESATA to SATA so you could use a regular 2.5" SATA SSD.
 
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mysunshines

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thanks BFG

its an interesting point , How can i determine if this 128 Gig mSATA drive would work as a bootable drive to install my OS onto , if i attached it to a PCIe x1 adaptor like this one below ?

https://www.amazon.com/SEDNA-Express-Adapter-Profile-included/dp/B00WCZTX68?tag=tomshardware_forum_vgl-20

My intention was to use the SSD just for the OS which will be Win 7 and Linux mint , and use a HDD for storage of programs and data.

Any suggestions how i can check if that will work as a bootable primary storage drive before i go and buy an adaptor for it ?

PC is a Lenovo M91p 4518

edited ** from googling it appears that i need to enable the Lenovo H430 CSM option (Compatibility Support Module) in the BIOS/UEFI (F1 on power up to enter UEFI). but BIOS might need update too , to enable bootable OS on the SSD.

CSM [Enabled]
Boot Mode [Auto]
Boot Priority [Legacy first]
Quick Boot [Disabled or Enabled, either will work]
Rapid Boot [Disabled]
Boot Up Num-Lock Status [On] (shouldn't matter but included for completeness)
 
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BFG-9000

BFG-9000

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Might work as it's a SATA-600 adapter and may have a BIOS ROM chip in the lower right corner. If so you will see a SCSI device option show up as a bootable option in the motherboard's BIOS after it is installed. If not then it won't be bootable.

Note that native PCIe booting NVMe support was first added to Z97 chipsets for 6th gen Broadwell processors in 2016, and you have a 2nd gen Sandy Bridge from 2011 so had better be really careful about what kind of card you get.

I should point out there is no performance advantage of using the x1 slot instead of the board's own SATA-600 ports. In fact it would be worse as two ports share the 500MB/s x1 connection, but at least it allows you to add two additional SATA devices. If you do not need so many drives then it would be better to convert the mSATA card into a regular 2.5" SSD and use the chipset's integrated controller.
 
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