Where do I plug in?

[Desmond Mai]

Hi I am currently putting in my hard drive and ssd. Which ports I plug into? I will link a picture below. Thanks

[WhyThereIsAPieOverHead]

all ports are ok

unless you have a m.2

if you have m.2 and plugged to that ultea m.2 slot

 

[WhyThereIsAPieOverHead]

Just now, WhyThereIsAPieOverHead said:

all ports are ok

unless you have a m.2

if you have m.2 and plugged to that ultea m.2 slot

 

then plugging to sata_1 will not work( in my case

why not search in ASRock website for it??

[mariushm]

Usually, it makes no difference.

 

AM4 motherboards have two SATA connectors coming from the CPU , and several SATA connectors coming from the chipset. All would have the same speed, but in some conditions and under certain circumstances, the SATA connectors coming from CPU may have slower latency or you may have other benefits (for example if you have a m.2 ssd using nvme, transfers between sata hard drive and m.2 ssd may be a bit faster or may use less cpu resources, because both devices are connected directly to CPU instead of having data routed through the chipset) So you may want to favor those two SATA connectors.

 

If you insert a M.2 SSD which uses SATA to communicate with the PC, the motherboard may disable two SATA ports, usually the ones labeled SATA4 and SATA5 (the last two SATA ports). There's a small text near the connectors, so you can easily identify them. So, just in case you'll install a cheap m.2 SSD at a later time, you may want to avoid plugging your SATA cables into those two ports which may be disabled at some point, saves you the trouble of moving cables around later.

 

Check in your motherboard's manual (it's also on Asrock's site), it will say if some ports may become disabled or not, and it may say which ports are connected to CPU and which are connected to chipset.

 

 

[Desmond Mai]

1 minute ago, mariushm said:

Usually, it makes no difference.

 

AM4 motherboards have two SATA connectors coming from the CPU , and several SATA connectors coming from the chipset. All would have the same speed, but in some conditions and under certain circumstances, the SATA connectors coming from CPU may have slower latency or you may have other benefits (for example if you have a m.2 ssd using nvme, transfers between sata hard drive and m.2 ssd may be a bit faster or may use less cpu resources, because both devices are connected directly to CPU instead of having data routed through the chipset) So you may want to favor those two SATA connectors.

 

If you insert a M.2 SSD which uses SATA to communicate with the PC, the motherboard may disable two SATA ports, usually the ones labeled SATA4 and SATA5 (the last two SATA ports). There's a small text near the connectors, so you can easily identify them. So, just in case you'll install a cheap m.2 SSD at a later time, you may want to avoid plugging your SATA cables into those two ports which may be disabled at some point, saves you the trouble of moving cables around later.

 

Check in your motherboard's manual (it's also on Asrock's site), it will say if some ports may become disabled or not, and it may say which ports are connected to CPU and which are connected to chipset.

 

 

So I should plug it into the bottom 4 ports I circled?

[mariushm]

 So you should read the manual the motherboard came with, or download the manual from the website and see what's what. Stop being so lazy.

 

Learn to not blindly trust anyone on the internet, and read the answers and try to understand them...

[Desmond Mai]

4 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Usually, it makes no difference.

 

AM4 motherboards have two SATA connectors coming from the CPU , and several SATA connectors coming from the chipset. All would have the same speed, but in some conditions and under certain circumstances, the SATA connectors coming from CPU may have slower latency or you may have other benefits (for example if you have a m.2 ssd using nvme, transfers between sata hard drive and m.2 ssd may be a bit faster or may use less cpu resources, because both devices are connected directly to CPU instead of having data routed through the chipset) So you may want to favor those two SATA connectors.

 

If you insert a M.2 SSD which uses SATA to communicate with the PC, the motherboard may disable two SATA ports, usually the ones labeled SATA4 and SATA5 (the last two SATA ports). There's a small text near the connectors, so you can easily identify them. So, just in case you'll install a cheap m.2 SSD at a later time, you may want to avoid plugging your SATA cables into those two ports which may be disabled at some point, saves you the trouble of moving cables around later.

 

Check in your motherboard's manual (it's also on Asrock's site), it will say if some ports may become disabled or not, and it may say which ports are connected to CPU and which are connected to chipset.

 

 

Wait according to this, is it tell me to plug it in where I circled in the picture? Sata3_1. And sata3_2

[Stormseeker9]

SATA port 3&4 will be disabled if using NVMe.

[paddy-stone]

31 minutes ago, Stormseeker9 said:

SATA port 3&4 will be disabled if using NVMe.

Pretty sure SATA ports don't get disabled if using NVME, as NVME is using PCI-e lanes directly to CPU. It's the SATA m.2 drive being used that disables 1 o2 2 SATA ports, usually the lowest ones.

[Stormseeker9]

2 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Pretty sure SATA ports don't get disabled if using NVME, as NVME is using PCI-e lanes directly to CPU. It's the SATA m.2 drive being used that disables 1 o2 2 SATA ports, usually the lowest ones.

Okay. M.2 NVMe drive then. And if you read above manual it does state when using m.2 SATA port 3&4 wont work as sharing lanes (or visa Versa)

[paddy-stone]

3 minutes ago, Stormseeker9 said:

Okay. M.2 NVMe drive then. And if you read above manual it does state when using m.2 SATA port 3&4 wont work as sharing lanes (or visa Versa)

AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Summit Ridge and Pinnacle Ridge)
- 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE2: x16 mode; PCIE4: x4 mode)*
AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Raven Ridge)
- 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE2: x8 mode; PCIE4: x4 mode) (If you use Athlon 2xxGE series APU, PCIE2 slot will run at x4 mode.)*

- 4 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slots
- Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™**
 

*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
If M2_1 is occupied, PCIE4 will be disabled.

**This feature is only supported with Ryzen Series CPUs (Summit Ridge, Pinnacle Ridge and Raven Ridge).

 

So SATA ports only get disabled on that board, if the other SATA port that shares lanes is occupied. Doesn't mention ANY SATA ports being disabled if ultra m.2 is used.... basically because NVME uses pci-e lanes not SATA. And even if the second m.2 is being used SATA ports aren't disabled.

[Stormseeker9]

52 minutes ago, Desmond Mai said:

Wait according to this, is it tell me to plug it in where I circled in the picture? Sata3_1. And sata3_2

@paddy-stone literally says it there.

[paddy-stone]

1 minute ago, Stormseeker9 said:

@paddy-stone literally says it there.

That's the second m.2 slot, not the ultra m.2 slot that NVME usually uses. You CAN use an NVME in that port but it would operate at only 2x pci-e lanes.

[paddy-stone]

https://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/B450 Pro4/index.asp#Specification

 

And according to the info online, it's as I said...

Quote

AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Summit Ridge and Pinnacle Ridge)
- 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE2: x16 mode; PCIE4: x4 mode)*
AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Raven Ridge)
- 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE2: x8 mode; PCIE4: x4 mode) (If you use Athlon 2xxGE series APU, PCIE2 slot will run at x4 mode.)*

- 4 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slots
- Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™**
 

*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
If M2_1 is occupied, PCIE4 will be disabled.

**This feature is only supported with Ryzen Series CPUs (Summit Ridge, Pinnacle Ridge and Raven Ridge).

 

[paddy-stone]

6 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

And even if the second m.2 is being used SATA ports aren't disabled.

I got that part wrong as I didn't see that m.2 2_2 was mixed in with the SATA lanes *

I am still correct about the ultra m.2 port though, which most people use for NVME drives.

[Stormseeker9]

1 hour ago, paddy-stone said:

That's the second m.2 slot, not the ultra m.2 slot that NVME usually uses. You CAN use an NVME in that port but it would operate at only 2x pci-e lanes.

ooooooh. lol, My bad. misread that part - never heard of ultra m.2 by the way. 

[mariushm]

uuughh

 

Board has two M.2 connectors.

Each M.2 connector has two ways of transferring data : either through SATA or through pci-e lanes (nvme).

 

m.2 connector 1: 

* receives pci-e lanes from CPU and SATA from chipset  (speed pci-e x4 v3.0 - ~ 4 x 970 MB/s maximum speed)

* if SATA SSD is inserted in connector,  ports SATA3_3  and SATA3_4 will be disabled.

 

m.2 connector 2

* receives pci-e lanes from chipset and SATA from chipset (speed pci-e x4 v2.0 - 4 x 500 MB/s maximum speed)

* if SATA SSD is inserted in connector,  ports SATA3_3  and SATA3_4 will be disabled.

* if you use a nvme SSD in this slot, then the second pci-e x16 slot will be disabled (it's electrically x4, connected to chipset, the 4 lanes are routed to the m.2 connector instead of slot)

 

SATA3_A1 and SATA3_A2

* these sata ports are created by an extra controller ASMedia ASM1061, which is connected to the chipset using a pci-e x1 link

* since it's a pci-e x1 v2.0 link (as chipset only creates pci-e v2.0 lanes), the maximum speed (in total, for both connectors) is 500 MB/s, so you want to use the other ports before you use these ports.

 

So plug your hard drive in SATA3_1 or SATA3_2, SATA3_3 or SATA3_4.  If you think you're at some point going to install a SATA SSD in the M.2 connector, avoid using SATA3_3 or SATA3_4.

Your optical drive can go anywhere, because it's never gonna get  close to even 100 MB/s. You could plug it into the ports created by the Asmedia chip, but since you have other available ports, you'd be better off using those.

You could even go in the BIOS and disable the additional Asmedia controller (which would disable the SATA3_A1 and SATA3_A2) in order to probably save around 1-2 seconds of boot time and maybe a few MB of memory in Windows (because you won't install drivers and crap for it). If you need more ports, you can simply go in BIOS and enable the controller and when you go in Windows, you'll simply load the driver from Asrock's website and those sata ports are enabled. 

That's why it says in the manual  "To minimize the boot time, use AMD SATA ports (SATA3_1~4) for your bootable devices. " - because without any drives connected to the AsMedia controller, you can disable in the BIOS and therefore you get faster boot time.

 

Clear enough?

 

 

[paddy-stone]

55 minutes ago, Stormseeker9 said:

ooooooh. lol, My bad. misread that part - never heard of ultra m.2 by the way. 

Ultra m.2 is just another way of describing the ones that NVME can use... in this case they are probably both labelled "ultra", but might not because of second m.2 only using chipset pci-e lanes.