Adding SSD to Gigabyte B450M DS3H Motherboard

[dss_cottage]

This is a little backward. A teenager is supposted to help his technically inept grandfather. However, I'm remotely trying to help my grandson add SSD capacity to his computer.

Here's what were dealing with:
-Gigabyte B450M DS3H Motherboard
-one 500GB NVMe SSD installed
-he want's to increase the storage capacity to at least 1TB.

I helped him remotely build the system but I'm not sure about the capacity to add SSD storage.
-the MB has only one M.2 slot so he could easily swap out the 500GB SSD for a 1TB SSD
-however, I seem to recall that there are two brackets on the backside of the MB on which to mount a 2.5" SSD that would allow him to add a 2.5" SSD and get 1.5TB capacity.

My problem is that I'm not 100% sure if there are indeed two brackets to mount a 2.5" SSD and I can't find anything in the MB manual or any picture of the backside of the MB on line. (old guy's memory!)

Therefore, I have two questions....
1. Does anyone know for sure that these two brackets exist?
2. In the event that he decides to merely swap out the 500GB drive for a 1TB drive, we'll need to clone the original SSD to the new one. I've looked for a USB to M.2 NMVe cable to connect the new drive to the computer for cloning but I can only find external drive enclosures that do that. They are also fairly expensive and the young lad is paying for this himself. Does anyone know of an inexpensive USB to M.2 NMVe cable that can be used to clone the drive?

[dss_cottage]

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see any way to edit my original post and I realized that I asked a really stupid question. Therefore, please excuse my stupidity and ignore the original post. Instead I'd like it to read.....

This is a little backward. A teenager is supposted to help his technically inept grandfather. However, I'm remotely trying to help my grandson add SSD capacity to his computer.

Here's what were dealing with:
-Gigabyte B450M DS3H Motherboard
-one 500GB NVMe SSD installed
-he want's to increase the storage capacity to at least 1TB.
-the MB has only one M.2 slot so he could easily swap out the 500GB SSD for a 1TB SSD

However, he will need to clone the old SSD onto the new one.

I've looked for a USB to M.2 NMVe cable to connect the new drive to the computer for cloning but I can only find external drive enclosures that do that. They are also fairly expensive (at least $40) and the young lad is paying for this himself. Does anyone know of an inexpensive USB to M.2 NMVe cable that can be used to clone the drive?

Again, sorry for the misinformation in the original post.

[northwind]

If I'm not mistaken, your board supports M.2 drives, not NVME (two different things).

If I'm right, that means that you can buy something like this: https://www.alltimeoffers.gr/tehnologia ... -2260-2280 for $5, plug your M.2 to it, connect directly to sata port on your motherboard and go from there.

[northwind]

PS. There's no such thing as a 'stupid question'

[fzabkar]

If I'm not mistaken, your board supports M.2 drives, not NVME (two different things).

https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/mb_b450m-ds3h-v2_e.pdf

Storage Interface

1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SATA and PCIe 3.0 x4/x2 SSD support)

4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors

[dss_cottage]

If I'm not mistaken, your board supports M.2 drives, not NVME (two different things).

If I'm right, that means that you can buy something like this: https://www.alltimeoffers.gr/tehnologia ... -2260-2280 for $5, plug your M.2 to it, connect directly to sata port on your motherboard and go from there.

Thank you for your reply and thank you for being kind in response to my initial stupid question.

No matter how long I deal with computers, there is always much more to learn. My storage experience ranged from 5.25" floppy disks back in the day to 2.5" SSD. I had never dealt with an NVMe SSD until I helped my grandson build his gaming rig. It turns out I have much to learn.

I wasn't aware of the type of adapter that you suggested but I believe it only works for B&M Key edge SSD. I think that I have found one that works with the M edge connecter of the Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD that we want to add.
Here is the adapter:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07YFW ... GF3B&psc=1

I'm still doing my research to make sure that I haven't missed anything. If anyone thinks that this adapter won't work, I'd appreciate the advice.

[fzabkar]

Is there any reason why you are avoiding 2.5" SATA SSDs?

[dss_cottage]

Is there any reason why you are avoiding 2.5" SATA SSDs?

My grandson uses the computer for gaming. The case that he chose had one M.2 connector and an akward arrangement for adding 2.5" SATA SSDs. If I understand correctly, the NVMe SSDs use the PCIe bus and are much faster than the SATA SSDs.

[fzabkar]

I think you will get much better advice in a forum more suited to hardcore gamers.

Tom's Hardware is a good place to ask (I am a member there):

https://forums.tomshardware.com/forums/storage.8/