making MSI M.2 XPANDER-Z GEN accessory card to work with MSI x570S Ace Max motherboard

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Lokite

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Apr 18, 2023
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Hi, I have this accessory card that came with my m/b. I'm trying to increase my sata ports by installing two Vantec M.2 5 Sata port card on the MSI Expander card. When I boot into Win 10, none of my hard drives connected to the two M.2 Sata port card is showing up in Windows. Does anyone have any experience in making this type of setup to work. I've talked to MSI and tech support has no solution for this problem. Is there any differences in terms of only recognizing SSD drives only and not expansion cards? Thanks
 
Given that card doesn't use bifurcation AFAIK, it may have a PLX chip on it. Lord knows if said chip/drivers support SATA ports. Which slot do you have it in?
 
The Xpander card is installed on the second PCI-E slot as per MSI instructions. This slot runs off the cpu bandwith. No drivers is need. In the manual, MSI assume you will be installing two additional SSD drives, no mention of installing Sata ports card in a M.2 configuration. Vantec also does not need any additional drivers to make it work. I have use said M.2 Sata ports expansion in a M.2 slot on my m/b. It works.
 
Lokite said:
The Xpander card is installed on the second PCI-E slot as per MSI instructions. This slot runs off the cpu bandwith. No drivers is need. In the manual, MSI assume you will be installing two additional SSD drives, no mention of installing Sata ports card in a M.2 configuration. Vantec also does not need any additional drivers to make it work. I have use said M.2 Sata ports expansion in a M.2 slot on my m/b. It works.
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Yes, but the card itself splits an x8 to two x4- there are ways to do that (use bifurcation on the motherboard BIOS, a PLX chip on the card, etc) - the question is if THOSE choices are compatible with more SATA ports or not, or only with an NVME pass-through device. I've never tried this - and there are drivers, they're just built into the OS 100% natively (kernel level).
 
Hi, just to update. I got the accessory card to work after I received a replacement card from MSI. It was auto-recognized. Both SSD drives and m.2 Sata port card will work. This card also work on my Asus Dark Hero m/b and Asus Crosshair Vll m/b. Thanks for the help.
 
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