How many NVMe drives can run on a motherboard while having SATA drives + other questions

[Davidhelp]

I want to upgrade my pc as it is from 2015. I am learning about the newer tech.
I currently have a Intel Core i5 4690K @ 3.50GHz and a Samsung ssd as my 'C' drive with two internal sata 7,200rpm drives plus a 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card and 32.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz

 

Questions:
1) How many NVMe drives can run on a motherboard while having SATA drives plugged in? I see that 3 seems to be common.
I understand it has something to do with 'lanes' and if a SATA drive is plugged in then one of the NVMe ports will not work.

2) Is that still true for the latest motherboards?

3) Also should I be looking at boards with U.2 ports or just buy a card to plug in the future?

4) I would need a new ATX size case that will have these Thunderbolt & USB ports.
Any recommendations?

 

I am looking at this one. Any other recommendations would be welcome.
It has 3 x M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 mode and 4 x SATA 3.0 ports
Also Thunderbolt Header + USB 3.2 Gen 1 header
USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C Connector

Intel® W680 (LGA 1700) ATX motherboard, PCIe® 5.0, DDR5, dual Intel® 2.5 Gb Ethernet, three PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 front panel connector, SlimSAS, SATA 6 Gbps, HDMI®, DisplayPort and VGA
Pro WS W680-ACE｜Motherboards｜ASUS USA

 

Amazon
Amazon.com: Pro WS W680-ACE Intel W680 LGA 1700 ATX Workstation Motherboard,2xPCIe 5.0x16 Slot,DDR5,ECC Memory,2x2.5 Gb LAN,3X M.2 Slots,USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Front Panel,SlimSAS,BMC Header,Thunderbolt 4Header,ACCE. : Electronics

Can use up to a 13th Gen Intel i9 13900K cpu and max 128GB ram

http://Amazon.com: Pro WS W680-ACE Intel W680 LGA 1700 ATX Workstation Motherboard,2xPCIe 5.0x16 Slot,DDR5,ECC Memory,2x2.5 Gb LAN,3X M.2 Slots,USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Front Panel,SlimSAS,BMC Header,Thunderbolt 4Header,ACCE. : Electronics

Location California, USA

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

33 minutes ago, Davidhelp said:

I want to upgrade my pc as it is from 2015. I am learning about the newer tech.
I currently have a Intel Core i5 4690K @ 3.50GHz and a Samsung ssd as my 'C' drive with two internal sata 7,200rpm drives plus a 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card and 32.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz

 

Questions:
1) How many NVMe drives can run on a motherboard while having SATA drives plugged in? I see that 3 seems to be common.
I understand it has something to do with 'lanes' and if a SATA drive is plugged in then one of the NVMe ports will not work.

2) Is that still true for the latest motherboards?

3) Also should I be looking at boards with U.2 ports or just buy a card to plug in the future?

4) I would need a new ATX size case that will have these Thunderbolt & USB ports.
Any recommendations?

1 & 2) I'm not aware of any hard limits on NVMe drives.  The motherboard limitations are down to how the PCIe lanes are physically wired (or if they can be bifurcated, where a PCIe x16 slot for example could be split across 4x NVMe drives, but your GPU is usually in that slot if its capable), where sometimes M.2 slots share with the SATA controller, so only one or the other can be used.

 

You can also get past some of the lane limitations if a card has a PCIe switch to convert a single PCIe slot into multiple M.2 slots, but those cards are much more expensive than the common PCIe to M.2 adapters.

 

You can also do what I have on my home server.  I have an Intel Enterprise NVMe in PCIe x1 to M.2 adapter.  It reduces its speed, but I still get the benefit of its superior IO operations per second.  Older motherboards may not boot from a PCIe adapter, but should accept them as storage fine.

 

3) U.2 is enterprise kit, it can be useful to use old enterprise drives but is generally overkill.

 

4) You can get USB-C brackets to run motherboard connections to a USB-C port on a slot bracket, if your case doesn't have one.  Of course a case with USB-C on the front is much more handy.  I'm not aware of any having Thunderbolt connectivity via the motherboard header however.

[Electronics Wizardy]

38 minutes ago, Davidhelp said:

Intel® W680 (LGA 1700) ATX motherboard, PCIe® 5.0, DDR5, dual Intel® 2.5 Gb Ethernet, three PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 front panel connector, SlimSAS, SATA 6 Gbps, HDMI®, DisplayPort and VGA
Pro WS W680-ACE｜Motherboards｜ASUS USA

 

Is there a reason your looking at w680? You didn't seem to list any features that w680 you would be using, and z790 boards are generally cheaper and support overclocking.

 

40 minutes ago, Davidhelp said:

1) How many NVMe drives can run on a motherboard while having SATA drives plugged in? I see that 3 seems to be common.

This is very board specific. Some do 3, I have a board that will take 5 m.2 drives. Normally the specs page of the board will explain this.

 

41 minutes ago, Davidhelp said:

3) Also should I be looking at boards with U.2 ports or just buy a card to plug in the future?

 

Do you have a u.2 ssd you want to use? Generally you don't need u.2 for almost all desktop tasks.

 

 

[jaslion]

The amount of nvme drives entirely depends on the amount of pcie lanes you have and the configuration of the board.

 

Any reason for the w680? If you're not buying a xeon you dont get ANY extra pcie lanes and this board is just a b760 pretty mucg then.

 

Op what storage devices do you have now? If its a bunch of small nvme's it may be wise to consolidate and sell the old drives as you are now running up the costs to potentially keep small drives that may need an upgrade soon anyway.

 

Do you NEED thunderbolt. As in do you need pcie connectivity over usb c? Or do you just want a fast usb c port?

 

Keep in mind desktop thunderbolt DOES NOT CARRY DISPLAT AT ALL unless it has a display input from the gpu. It also is normally limited to one if it does have an input.

 

The board in question has NO THUNDERBOLT UNLESS ADDING THE ADD IN CARD!!!!

 

So

 

1) It depends on the platform you choose and your EXACT storage config please tell us

2) Depends on the platform, cpu and board config

3) Why do you need an enterprise standard pcie link? These drives costs a thousand a pop minimum for like a 4tb

4) Any atx case will fit it. Thr usb and thundervolt stuff depends on the board. Do NOT expect to have thunderbolt through a front panel connector those cables arent rated for that.

 

Basically we need more info on what EXACTLY you are doing.

[brob]

1 hour ago, Davidhelp said:

Questions:
1) How many NVMe drives can run on a motherboard while having SATA drives plugged in? I see that 3 seems to be common.
I understand it has something to do with 'lanes' and if a SATA drive is plugged in then one of the NVMe ports will not work.

2) Is that still true for the latest motherboards?

3) Also should I be looking at boards with U.2 ports or just buy a card to plug in the future?

4) I would need a new ATX size case that will have these Thunderbolt & USB ports.
Any recommendations?

 

1&2) The number of NVMe drives varies by motherboard as do the number of SATA ports. Motherboards with many m.2 and SATA connectors may disable some SATA ports when certain m.2 connectors are populated.

 

3) U2 is not a common connector on modern desktop motherboards. M.2 dominates.

 

4) If you want a front panel USB-C port you will likely need a new case.

 

1 hour ago, Davidhelp said:

 

I am looking at this one. Any other recommendations would be welcome.
It has 3 x M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 mode and 4 x SATA 3.0 ports
Also Thunderbolt Header + USB 3.2 Gen 1 header
USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C Connector

Intel® W680 (LGA 1700) ATX motherboard, PCIe® 5.0, DDR5, dual Intel® 2.5 Gb Ethernet, three PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 front panel connector, SlimSAS, SATA 6 Gbps, HDMI®, DisplayPort and VGA
Pro WS W680-ACE｜Motherboards｜ASUS USA

 

Unless you have requirements not stated the Asus ProArt Z790 Creator motherboard would meet needs. It has the advantage of onboard Thunderbolt rather than a header requiring an expansion card.

 

[Davidhelp]

I want SATA connections along with the newer NVMe. The board listed has them. Maybe others do too but in the past if you had a NVMe drive and plugged in a SATA drive then the NVMe drive would be disabled. In searches I see boards that support say 5 NVMe drives but missing SATA ports. This might be the answer: https://forum.level1techs.com/t/asus-pro-ws-w680-ace/192319/3

"You can choose to use those four chipset lanes for SATA drives or a fourth Gen4 x4 NVMe drive"

 

It looks then I can use 3 NVMe drives and plug in my 2 internal SATA drives without a conflict.

[brob]

3 minutes ago, Davidhelp said:

I want SATA connections along with the newer NVMe. The board listed has them. Maybe others do too but in the past if you had a NVMe drive and plugged in a SATA drive then the NVMe drive would be disabled. In searches I see boards that support say 5 NVMe drives but missing SATA ports.

 

There is no general case. You must consult a motherboard's specifications to determine the exact configuration.

 

Aside from one NVMe connection supported by PCIe lanes from the CPU modern desktops use PCIe lanes provided by what is traditionally called the chipset. See https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/chipsets/desktop-chipsets/z790-chipset-brief.html

[porina]

How many NVMe do you really need? Smaller capacity drives can be replaced by higher ones, to a point. If you need more than a consumer platform can provide then you'll have to move to the serious workstation ones at great cost, or older HEDT gens.

[Davidhelp]

49 minutes ago, brob said:

I looked over this board you have a link to. I am now seriously considering it. It looks to have better specs then the other board. 

 

More detail here from an owner of the board:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/13kesf0/4_nvme_drives_gen_4_in_asus_proart_z790_creator/?onetap_auto=true&one_tap=true

ASUS USA Official Rep:  Hi thekarledwards, we are happy to advise you. Using all four M.2 slots will not affect bandwidth of the Graphics Card only if M.2_4 slot is occupied as it has shared lanes with SATA 5-8.

 

Total supports 4 x M.2 slots and 8 x SATA 6Gb/s ports*
Intel® Core™ Processors (14th & 13th & 12th Gen)
M.2_1 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280/22110 (supports PCIe 4.0 x4 mode)
Intel® Z790 Chipset
M.2_2 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280 (supports PCIe 4.0 x4 mode)
M.2_3 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280/22110 (supports PCIe 4.0 x4 mode)
M.2_4 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280 (supports PCIe 4.0 x4 & SATA modes)**
8 x SATA 6Gb/s ports**
* Intel® Rapid Storage Technology supports NVMe RAID 0/1/5, SATA RAID 0/1/5/10.
** M.2_4 slot shares bandwidth with SATA6G_5~8. SATA6G5~8 will be suspended once either a SATA or NVMe device is detected at M.2_4.

__________________________________________
 

brob:  Unless you have requirements not stated the Asus ProArt Z790 Creator motherboard would meet needs. It has the advantage of onboard Thunderbolt rather than a header requiring an expansion card.