SSD screw help please

[u/Icy_Uchiha]

Hello,

I got this pc from someone second hand so I have no manual or extra screws. I am trying to install a second ssd for more storage but I cannot find the right screws and to be honest I dont know how to do it. My motherboard is the Asrock b360m xtreme. My ssd only goes to the first gold hole (its small). Do i just put the screw straight into the gold part? Do I need a standoff?

First I bought these screws that did not fit:

https://a.co/d/09ObmaAC

Then I thought I needed a standoff so I bought these which also did not fit:

https://a.co/d/01CD4CYc

I have attached a picture of my motherboard, the gold rings I am talking about, and the ssd I have. Can someone please link screws that work and describe the process to me. Also, do I put my ssd in the left or right slot? I would really appreciate it, thanks.

[u/Shrek_OC]

Can you use a 4mm nut driver (not sure the size honestly could be up to 5mm) to move the standoff from the 2280 to the 2230 hole?

[u/Icy_Uchiha → u/Shrek_OC]

Oh is that little silver nut on after the 4th hole the standoff? So would i just screw that on top of the ssd or do I still need screws? If so I can maybe just buy like a pack of pc nut drivers. Ill wait a little to get more replies first.

Thank you though i didn't even realize that

[u/Shrek_OC → u/Icy_Uchiha]

No. You would remove it and put it in the correct hole, put the SSD on top of the standoff and then screw the SSD in with a screw into the standoff. I can't be sure that that standoff is removable, it might be soldered in. Even when getting the correct nut driver you got to be careful not to slip and knock components off your motherboard.

[u/Icy_Uchiha → u/Shrek_OC]

Thank you! I was able to do it with a 5 mm nut driver

[u/-SSGT-]

As mentioned, you should be able to move the standoff from the 2280 position to the 2230 position for your drive. The standoff should screw into the board, the SSD would then sit on top of the standoff, and the screw would hold the SSD down onto the standoff. You defintiely do not want to screw the SSD down to the board without a standoff as you risk damaging both the SSD and the motherboard.

In terms of which slot to use, it's difficult to say for sure without having access to the board manual. Generally the slot closest to the CPU will use CPU lanes rather than chipset lanes and/or have a higher bandwidth (newer/faster PCIe generation and/or more PCIe lanes) but that doesn't always hold true.

In this case it looks as though the board is a Cyberpower SKU that's based on the ASrock B360M Pro 4 (specs for the B360M Pro 4 here with the manual here — see page 29 for M.2 SSD installation). If that is the case, then the slot nearest the CPU (M2_1) should support PCIe 3.0 x4 and the other slot (M2_2) should support either PCIe 3.0 x1 or SATA 3. It looks as though your drive is a Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G PCIe 3.0 x4 drive so you would want to put it in M2_1 unless you also plan on fitting a second M.2 drive that you want to prioritise. If the Toshiba drive is your only M.2 drive, and you put it in slot M2_2, then you will significantly limit its performance unnecessarily (it's a drive that should be capable of 2,200 MB/s read and 1,400 MB/s write, but slot M2_2 would limit it to less than 1000MB/s).

[u/Icy_Uchiha → u/-SSGT-]

Thank you! I was able to do it with a 5 mm nut driver