Gigabyte H410M is a budget friend motherboard for those who want to build the latest Intel Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7 processor. With LGA 1200 socket you can use an array of the latest Intel CPUs on this micro-ATX form factor motherboard. An NVM or M.2 drive is a portable Hard drive designed to consume less space and provide high performance. It offers you a much higher read and writes speed compared to a regular SATA HDD. Similar to this we also see SSD with SATA connections that also deliver good read and write speed. But when talk about M.2 drives they are small and sits directly on the motherboard. If you have any plans to buy Gigabyte H410M S2H V3 then do not forget to read this article till the end. The motherboard has a compatibility issue with some M.2 SSD drives, which was not detected in its previous version.
Kingston A400 Not Detected on Gigabyte H410M S2H V3
I bought Gigabyte H410M S2H V3 recently to build an 11th Core i3 10400F system. It had an 8GB RAM and Kingston A400 SSD that comes in two versions. One is a regular SSD with a SATA cable connection and the second is an M.2 form factor. In simple words, Kingston A400 M.2 is an SSD drive. This is unsupported by the board, before this, I had purchased H410M S2H V2 which worked really well with Kingston A400 M.2 SSD. This can be a little confusing to figure out because here V2 works well and V3 does not detect the drive. After speaking to Gigabyte Support I found that Gigabyte H410M S2H V3 only supports M.2 PCI-E SSD. Thankfully my vendor has smart enough to understand my issue and gave me Gigabyte H410M S2H V2. Kingston A400 M.2 works flawlessly on this motherboard model.
What is the difference between M.2 SSD & M.2 PCIE SSD?
SATA and PCI-E are interfaces, a type of connectors. The main difference lies with performance. M.2 is designed to support both SATA and PCIe for storage devices. M.2 SATA SSD’s will use the same controller that is used by a regular hard drive with a SATA connection. While M.2 PCIe SSD will use a controller that is designed to support the PCIe protocol. So if you are buying a motherboard with M.2 PCIe SSD support them then M.2 SATA SSD is not going to work on them. One of the examples of M.2 PCIe SSD is CRUCIAL P1 500GB 3D NAND. The drive specs specifically define it as a PCIe M.2 SSD.
So remember whenever you are buying an M.2 hard drive check your motherboard’s compatibility first. I had struggled a lot to figure out this before because for an end-user it is not that simple to find such a minute compatibility flaw. That too when both the motherboard belongs to the same series just the version is different.
So whenever you are buying a motherboard and plan to put an M.2 hard drive go through the specs first. There are chances the specific M.2 controller your board has may or may not be compatible with the M.2 drive. It can be really complicated to return the product or claim a warranty under this scenario. One of the safest ways is to go with SATA drives if you are not confident to pick the right M.2. A sacrifice on speed, but an alternative to avoid hardware failures. Or else you can connect with us on FB if you have any doubts about hardware-related issues. One of our hardware expect will help you in solving your problem.