Compatibility with m.2 slot.

Carl DaBeast · August 30, 2019

I have been looking into expanding the storage on my computer as I have some money to splurge on my computer. On my motherboard there are 2 m.2 connectors, however when looking in the manual there is a slight asterisks next to the specs saying that one is SATA and x2 PCIE compatible and the other is only PCIE 3.0 x4 compatible.

I'll be honest, I have no clue what that means and I am concerned if there will be compatibility issues if I buy a m.2 SSD and plug it in.

I already have a 120GB m.2 SSD in one of the slots and it is working fine, but I want to know if the other one isn't compatible with some types of drives or storage speeds.

Also are there any recommended high capacity m.2 SSDs or regular SATA SSDs? I'm looking to replace my 2TB 2.5" HDD with solid state storage (my case doesn't support 3.5" drives). Someone told me about the Intel 660p, but the video LTT did on it made it seem like it wasn't a very good option for storing a lot of data (not entirely sure what is was good for exactly, maybe just a cheaper option).

rcmaehl · August 30, 2019

Carl DaBeast · August 31, 2019

19 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

Thanks @rcmaehl. But this doesn't help much at all. I am aware that there are different keys, but that's not what I was asking. I was asking what the different between 'SATA and x2 PCIE compatible' and 'only PCIE 3.0 x4 compatible' meant.

Also I'm not sure what you picture is really explaining besides the difference between m key and b key m.2 slots. The only notable difference between NVME and AHCI drives seems to be the color. So unless you have some text to accompany the picture to explain something it's really not helpful at all.

hojnikb · September 2, 2019

If one of your slots is already populated with M.2 SATA based ssd, then sticking another M.2 SATA ssd wont work, as it isnt wired for sata. So buy an pcie based m.2 or just a regular 2.5" sata.