M.2 and SATA

DotComBubblegum · February 17, 2016

Hi People,

I will buy MSI Z170A Gaming Pro mobo, it has m.2 slot and I would like to use it. I have heard about some issues that m.2 and SATA has, Something in terms of m.2 disabling SATA connectors?

Is this still an issue with Z170's or just the older mobo's ?

Thx in advance

February 17, 2016

So M.2 comes in two controller types, SATA and PCIe. If you're using a SATA M.2, you'll loose one of your standard SATA ports.

Keep in mind that some boards don't support both PCIe and SATA based M.2 drive. Check before you buy.

Sakkura · February 17, 2016

The chipset only has a certain number of PCIe lanes and HSIO ports, so depending on how the motherboard manufacturer sets up the board, some ports may share the same lanes/ports on the chipset such that only one or the other can be used. You have to check each individual motherboard since it depends how the manufacturer distributes things.

Z170 does provide a pretty healthy amount of PCIe lanes and HSIO ports, so it's rarely a significant problem.

Hunter7263 · February 17, 2016

21 minutes ago, DotComBubblegum said:

Hi People,

I will buy MSI Z170A Gaming Pro mobo, it has m.2 slot and I would like to use it. I have heard about some issues that m.2 and SATA has, Something in terms of m.2 disabling SATA connectors?

Is this still an issue with Z170's or just the older mobo's ?

Thx in advance

Simply put using the m.2 will disable SOME of the sata ports because they share certain connections. Its not some error or problem. Read the manual it will tell you exactly what ports will be disabled. I know for the msi gaming m5 board using each of the m.2 will disable 2 of the sata ports so you may lose 4 of the 8 or 10 ports but its really not a big deal.