Aorus GA-AX370 Gaming 5 - M.2 SSD placement

[Spaceman Si]

Hi,

I want to add an M.2 NVMe disk to the M2F_32G socket on my AX370 board.

When I bought the system, it had been pre-built, and there is a GTX 1070 graphics card in the PCIEX16 slot.  The size of the card means that it obscures the M2F_32G socket and the board space an M.2 card would occupy.

I am thinking of getting a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1Tb card.

Q1:  Am I right in thinking that there would be enough space for the M.2 card to sit under the graphics card? 

Q2: If there is space to fit, is there any concern there about heat?  It would seem to be in a position to be cooled by the GTX1070 fans, but I don't know if being covered by the card is going to lead to unmanageable heat problems.

I would have thought / hoped that the motherboard designers had foreseen that GPU cards would obscure the M.2 area, and therefore my concerns are unfounded, but I don't want to order an M.2 card without checking!

thanks in advance,

Simon

[absic]

Hi there Simon,

an M.2 card will fit under the GPU easily, unless you want to add a large cooler block on top of it.

I ran my older AX370 - Gaming 7 with an M.2 without any heat issues, for over 3 years. Just make sure there is good airflow, through the case and you should be fine.

[Spaceman Si]

Hi Absic,

that's really good to hear, thanks very much for the reassuring information!

There is great air circulation in the case, and none of my sensors are giving me any hot readings. The PCIx16 slot vicinity sensor, which is where the M.2 would be close to, is 32C.

• CPU average 32C
• PCIx16 vicinity average 32C
• GPU average 29.9C
• GPU hot-spot average 50.7C

I'll get that M.2 drive ordered     

I'll update the thread with how it goes, in case it's of interest to anyone in the future.