UGREEN 70504 CM302 M.2 NVMe and SATA to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter Card

Overview

The UGREEN 70504 (model CM302) is an expansion card that lets a desktop PC use two M.2 solid state drives (SSDs) when the motherboard has no spare M.2 slot. Its M-key slot takes a PCIe NVMe or AHCI drive and runs through the PCIe slot; its B-key slot takes a SATA (NGFF) M.2 drive and connects to the motherboard with a separate 7-pin SATA cable. It suits desktops, workstations and network video recorder (NVR) or server builds that need more fast storage, or anyone reusing M.2 drives from old laptops.

Is it right for you?

• Suits a desktop with a free PCIe x4, x8 or x16 slot.
• Choose it if you have both an NVMe drive and a SATA M.2 drive to fit; for a single NVMe drive, a simpler single-slot card does the job.
• To boot from the NVMe drive, the motherboard BIOS must support NVMe boot; otherwise it works as a data drive.

Key features

• M-key slot for one PCIe NVMe or AHCI M.2 SSD, up to 32 Gbps on PCIe 3.0 x4.
• B-key slot for one SATA M.2 SSD, up to 6 Gbps through a 7-pin SATA connection.
• Supports 2230, 2242, 2260 and 2280 drive lengths.
• Fits PCIe x4, x8 or x16 slots; backward compatible with PCIe 2.0 and 1.0.
• Gold-plated contacts, with standard and low-profile brackets for different case heights.

What else you need

A desktop with a free PCIe x4, x8 or x16 slot and one or two M.2 SSDs. For the SATA slot you also need a 7-pin SATA data cable and a free SATA port on the motherboard.

Installation

The job involves opening the PC, fitting the drives to the card, fitting the card in a PCIe slot with the right bracket, and running a SATA cable from the card to the motherboard for the SATA drive. Anyone comfortable fitting expansion cards can do it; otherwise ask a PC technician.

Before you buy

• SSDs are not included.
• The SATA M.2 drive’s data does not travel through the PCIe slot: it needs the 7-pin SATA cable to a free motherboard SATA port.
• Booting from the NVMe drive depends on the motherboard BIOS supporting NVMe boot.