Check if the M.2 slot has a protective cover.
Check if the M.2 slot has a protective cover.
They're skipping the second M.2 port and on their particular motherboard, that second port includes its own cooling component.
The main slot beneath the CPU and the secondary slot right above it (assuming the second is the top one since it's Gen 4 rather than Gen 5) are the only ones with a heatsink. In fact, I can't locate another slot that lacks a heatsink or a fifth slot either. It seems the design has changed—removed the large heatsink covering three M.2 slots, and they can't reinstall it because one of its covered slots already has a built-in heatsink. Now they prefer the look without that protective cover.
That’s the point I got. However, I’m curious about why he isn’t utilizing one of the higher slots for that heatsinked drive.
I was mainly curious about the reason for the M.2 with a heatsink, since the motherboard already provides sufficient coverage for all slots.
I've taken out the large heatsink since one of the drives comes with its own. It's a storage drive I've owned for a while. I'm planning to upgrade my setup.