For Precision 3460 M.2 NVMe storage slot number 1 is CPU-bound (using CPU PCIe lanes) - and 12th gen CPUs do support Gen4 and Gen5 PCIe standard natively (incl. some lower versions for backward compatibility).NVMe M.2 storage slots numbers 2 and 3 are going via PCH/Chipset W680 which supports Gen4 & Gen3 PCIe standards.If you're planning to create RAID volume from your drives - then it would be slots 2&3 but not slot 1.There's another M.2 slot (shorter) used for WiFi card (different slot key), NVMe drive can't be plugged there.As for 22110/2280/2260/2242/2240/2230 - it's just a length which can be adjusted by changing mounting screw. On this motherboard Dell implements 2230 and 2280 standard (just by moving mounting screw) in two NVMe slots (but not the third).
I have just ordered a Precision 3460 SFF with the 256 NVMe Class 35 SSD in the 2230 slot. I would like to find out whether or not this 2230 slot supports a Gen 4 NVMe or not. I know that the two 2280 slots in this machine support Gen 4 NVMes, but I cannot find any info about the 2230 slot. Anybody know? Neil Howard
NVMe Slot Specs for Precision 3460 SFF