Ah, sorry, I meant the 860 Evo, not the 960 Evo, the 960 is PCIe, the 860 is SATA.

Is the 960 sata? I would think they are both m.2 pcie. On the plug in side, should only have one notch on the connector? Or is the m.2\_2 slot sata?

I haven't tried that, as it's not supposed to be supported, M.2_2 only supports PCIe drives. Is it worth trying? 

The drives are recognized in BIOS if they're used in M.2_1, it's only M.2_2 that has issues

So, what if you put the 960 in the m.2\_2 spot and don't have anything in the m.2\_1 spot? In any case, does the bios see the drives?

B450i bootlooping when SSD is installed in M.2_2 slot