Overview & Installation
The Sabrent NVMe M.2 to PCI-Express Adapter Card is actually a pretty simple device. When you take it out of the box all you’ll have is a small PCI-Express card with a heatsink on it. Having a heatsink is a great addition as it will keep your M.2 drive nice and cool.
Flipping the adapter card over all we have is a sticker with our serial number on it. You will notice four small screws, which can be removed with the included screwdriver. It is nice that Sabrent included the screwdriver as the screws are extremely small.
Removing the four screws we can easily take the card apart. Inside we actually find three pieces of thermal tape, one of which is pretty thick and the other two are thinner.
Taking a look at the adapter card itself it has a M.2 2280 (80mm) M.2 slot on it. Beyond that there are four small LEDs towards the top of the card. For those wondering you can install M.2 2280, 2260, 2242, and 2230 drives in the M.2 slot. The slot is not compatible with SATA M.2 drives or B-key M.2 drives.
Now it is time to install our drive in the adapter. We will be using the Lexar NM700 which we reviewed recently. Also for those wondering the adapter supports both single-sided and double-sided M.2 drives.
Remove the little locking bolt from the end of the adapter card, then place your M.2 drive in the slot and secure it by reinstalling that locking bolt. After that install thermal tape on your drive if you plan on using it.
Now just put the adapter back together using the four screws you removed previous and you are good to go. The adapter will fit into any PCI-Express slot except an x1 slot. While the card is made to go into an x16 slot it will work in an x8 or x4 slot as the card is only x4 electrical.
