SSD Gen4 speed on HP ProDesk 600 G3 SFF (82B4)

[ClusterBuilder]

Hi everyone,

I have an HP ProDesk 600 G3 SFF with an 82B4 motherboard, running BIOS P07 Ver. 02.22 (2018-07-17). I recently installed a Lexar 2TB NM710 SSD (PCIe Gen4 NVMe, up to 4500 MB/s). Since I know the M.2 slot on this motherboard is limited to PCIe Gen3, I expected speeds closer to 3,500 MB/s. However, the max speed I’m seeing is only 1,500 MB/s, and my CPU is certainly not at 100% utilization.

Here are my questions:

1. Is it normal to see such low speeds on this setup? Could the M.2 slot be limited to fewer PCIe lanes (e.g., x2 instead of x4)?
2. Would using a PCIe adapter card for the SSD provide better performance by bypassing the M.2 slot limitations?
3. Are there specific BIOS settings or updates I should check to optimize performance for the SSD? Could switching modes (e.g., from SATA to PCIe) or other configurations help?  I just cannot find the exact BIOS setting to adjust when I look at all available BIOS options.
4. Does anyone know of tools or diagnostics to confirm whether the M.2 slot is operating at its maximum potential?

Thanks in advance for any insights or advice!

[NonSequitur777]

@ClusterBuilder,

Welcome to our HP Community forum!

You posed an interesting question. Background: I upgraded your HP ProDesk 600 G3 SFF's bigger sibling, the MT model, fitted with the 829D motherboard, essentially the same as the SFF version.

My experience with an M.2 NVMe SSD as the primary (boot) drive were pretty good, using a 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus:

Link: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/57351752.

Which is still the best Userbenchmark score (312%) for the HP ProDesk 600 G3 MT platform even after two years as far as I can see: https://www.userbenchmark.com/System/HP-ProDesk-600-G3-MT/54133.

Point being, if you don't mind, run the Userbenchmark test and see what M.2 NVMe SSD score you got, in order to ascertain how well your M.2 drive works in your SFF platform.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[ClusterBuilder]

Tks for your response NonSequitur777,

I forgot to mention that my HP Prodesk was operating on Linux.  I have an identical HP Prodesk running on Windows.  We took the disk from the linux comptuer to the Windows one and ran some tests to measure disk speed. We achieved 3,500 MB/s on Windows. we did a bit of research to find out that the difference in disk speed between Linux and Windows tests likely results from variations in file system types, caching mechanisms, and disk I/O optimizations unique to each operating system. This confirms that the disk and motherboard are functioning as expected.  We can consider that question resolved then.

[NonSequitur777]

@ClusterBuilder,

Outstanding!

Thank you for following up.

Yes, the Linux OS has some pros and cons, and that would indeed explain the lackluster M.2 NVMe SSD performance.

If you can, I think you should still run the Userbenchmark test as it is a great evaluation tool.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777