FlareHyranoss

@Senzelian @RobFRaschke ok gotcha! Unless you both have other things to say! ahah Thanks both for your time/research and help!

Ty very much! Now I can finally put them in the correct order without thinking about issues!

If you could kindly check the picture (imgur was in maintenance just before, now working!). I am planning to slot the m.2 in the appropriate slots present in the motherboard, between those big pci-e lanes for the gpu. While I was using slot sata n.1 and n.3 for sata SDD and a HDD! if that makes it clear for you to enable your more profound judgement!

So, If i understood correctly, I will still be able to use My 850 EVO SSD say on SATA SLOT 3 and the WD BLACK 1TB on SATA SLOT 4 correct? ^^ in addition with those 2x m.2 in their slots in the motherboard.

Sorry I'm Kinda Newbie. I've linked in the post the image of the Board spec/image from website AND how is shown in the manual and the suggested combination. Not sure what you mean by how the board is wired? D: What do you mean "through the chipset" as well? If you don't mind explaining both and helping me out here here to understand everything and get rid of my concerns If you meant whether i am using a PCI-E adapter for it (didn't see any MSI one out there to use one/buy for now, you can suggest one if you want). Atm was planning to insert them in those m.2 slots in the motherboard.

Hi I've seen similar post from few years back here, but reading the manual of my mother and specification in the website confused me so kindly need help with clarification. I've been using a MSI Z170A XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM EDITION (Spec Page) with a Intel 6700k Processor. Here it said in "storage section" 1 x M.2 Key M Socket supports type 2280/2260/2242 storage devices in both PCIE Gen3 x4 & SATA mode yet I have 2x Slots for m.2 in my board. Meanwhile in the Manual (16 & 36 page to find the combo pictures) it says that I have: 2x M.2 ports Supports PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6Gb/s standards, 4.2cm/ 6cm/ 8cm length M.2 SSD cards * M.2, SATA and SATAe ports maximum support 1x M.2 SSDs + 6x SATAs or 2xM.2 SSDs + 1xSATAe HDD + 2xSATA HDDs. Refer to page 36 for M.2 slots with examples of various combination possibilities. Linked below picture of the motherboard blocks and the suggested m.2 combinations. QUESTION: I want to upgrade my M.2 SSD and install a Samsung 970 EVO m.2 1TB SSD. Could anyone tell me If I can use 2x m.2 (together with my previous one) and my normal SATA SSD and HDD without bottlenecking at all the performance of my new m.2 SSD? (not sure if all lanes are used) If is not possible to have BOTH (new and old m.2) at max performance, which of the two m.2 slot is suitable for my new 970 M.2 ssd? Also I have occupied (listed & explained below) the "pseudo" Sata Express ports with just putting my normal SATA III, and in the other one my HDD; will that bottleneck my overall performance of the m.2 or the drives together overall since i am occupying "more lanes"? As of now I have been using on the Motherboard STORAGE WISE: Bottom M.2 slot a Samsung 950 PRO m.2 SSD 256 GB (possibly one day swap it for another 1TB Samsung 970 EVO SSD) SATA SLOT n.1 (apparently Sata Express? please check the image imgur linked above ) 500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD (maybe changing in future with a 860 EVO 1TB) SATA SLOT n.3 (apparently Sata Express? please check the image imgur linked above ) 2TB Western Digital Black I hope you guys can kindly specify which slots on the motherboard I should be using to get the maximum performance out of the drives. OR whether should I just use the new 970 EVO 1TB m.2 (please specify me which slot) to get the best performance out of it. In Addition whether I should change the position of of the sata drives slot connectors to free "lanes" necessary for the m.2 drives. In addition, please kindly clarify if I have misunderstanding about "lanes". Also I'm using only GTX 1080 on the PCI-E 3.0 in a x16 lane (if the info is necessary).