Any Tricks to Activate x4 Speed for NVMe SSD on Erica6 Motherboard?

[db2000]

Hello Community!

We just replaced our old desktop with the HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop TG01-2176z Bundle PC for Christmas.  So this configuration has the HP 8906 version SMVB  motherboard with the B550A chipset (aka Erica6).  We originally wanted to upgrade from the Intel 660P 512GB SSD to a 1TB SSD that runs faster than the Intel specs of 1,500/1,000 MB/s for Read/Write, has more than 512GB of storage, and has a higher Endurance Rating than 100 TBW.

With previous help from this Community, we determined that this configuration with the Ryzen 5700G CPU does not support PCIe 4.0 (Gen4) for the M.2 SSD, only PCIe 3.0 (Gen3).  However, now I'm questioning whether the M.2 SSD socket on this motherboard even supports x4 speed or only x2 speed.  I say this because when running CrystalDiskMark on the Intel SSD it shows it running at x2 speed with x4 speed "supported".  When I check the motherboard specs, it only says:

• One M.2 socket 3, Key M, (2280/2242)

There is no mention of x2 or x4 speed support.  And there are no BIOS options for changing from x2 to x4 speed. 

Today I installed a Gen3 Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB SSD.  Unbelievably, it still shows up in CrystalDiskMark running at x2 speed.  I've researched and apparently, this config has 20 lanes of PCIe 3.0:

• One PCI Express Gen 3 x16
• One PCI Express Gen 3 x1
• Two M.2 expansion slots
  • One M.2 socket 1, Key A
  • One M.2 socket 3, Key M, (2280/2242)

I disconnected the SATA hard drive, but SSD remained at x2 speed.  I disabled the integrated graphics on the CPU through device manager, but still x2 SSD speed.  So I'm starting to think that this HP Pavilion GAMING Desktop not only doesn't support PCIe 4.0 for the M.2 SSD, but it only runs at PCIe 3.0 x2 speed!?!?  Don't get me wrong...This machine as shipped is a beast!  But I can see that it's already a generation behind on PCIe for the M.2 SSD and if it truly can only run Gen3 at x2 instead of x4, then that will become the bottleneck that can't easily be upgraded at some point in the future.

So my question is:  Does the wealth of technical expertise in this Community have any suggestions, tips, or tricks to activate M.2 SSD speed of x4?  It would certainly be much appreciated!

[NonSequitur777]

According to https://support.hp.com/ph-en/document/c07094657, your PC has one PCI Express Gen 3 x16 slot, one PCI Express Gen 3 x1, two M.2 expansion slots: one M.2 socket 1, Key A (this M.2 slot is reserved for WLAN) and one M.2 socket 3, Key M, (2280/2242) slot.
As I understand it, “Socket 3” was/is specifically designed for a high-performance PCI- E X4 channel. This should enable a qualified/4X capable M.2 SSD to reach speeds up to 4Gbps.

Also, for proper M.2/SSD NVMe functionality, you need to install your SSD's proprietary NVMe Controller upgrade for optimum performance.

For example, for my Samsung EVO 970 Plus NVMe M.2 1TB SSD:

[EDIT:] And speaking of "tricks", here are a couple of them to speed up your SSD: SSD Slowing Down? 7 Quick Tricks to Make SSD Run Faster! (diskpart.com).  Please ignore the transparent sales-pitch for "AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional".

In addition, in my particular case, it helped to disable "RAID" in BIOS to increase SSD speed.

[EDIT:] -And, lest I forget, switching from "Legacy" to UEFI boot made a difference too.