M.2 SSD

[Tangent5]

I'm looking at getting a M.2 SSD and was going to get the A-Data SP900 M.2 128 GB M.2 2280 to use as a boot drive for windows 10.  My only concern is that this will disable some SATA ports.  I am planning on getting a MSI H170A PC Mate motherboard.  It has 4 6GB SATA ports, one of which I want for attaching a HDD. How will I know which SATA ports will be disabled when the time comes to build the computer?

[2FA]

There is a manual tat tells you this...

[Alice in game]

I checked the manual and the product webpage and did not find where they talk about the M.2 slot... and the  MSI H170A have 6 SATA if you add the 2 connectors of the SATAe connector.

[kirashi]

43 minutes ago, Tangent5 said:

I'm looking at getting a M.2 SSD and was going to get the A-Data SP900 M.2 128 GB M.2 2280 to use as a boot drive for windows 10.  My only concern is that this will disable some SATA ports.  I am planning on getting a MSI H170A PC Mate motherboard.  It has 4 6GB SATA ports, one of which I want for attaching a HDD. How will I know which SATA ports will be disabled when the time comes to build the computer?

31 minutes ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

There is a manual tat tells you this...

28 minutes ago, Alice in game said:

I checked the manual and the product webpage and did not find where they talk about the M.2 slot... and the  MSI H170A have 6 SATA if you add the 2 connectors of the SATAe connector.

I also checked the product webpage, and under the Detailed Tab on the Specifications Page, you'll find everything you need:

 

 

On-Board SATA

• Intel® H170 Chipset
• 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports* (2 ports reserved for SATA Express port)
• 1 x M.2 Key M Socket supports type 2280/2260/2242 storage devices in both PCIE Gen3 x4 & SATA mode*

- Supports PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6Gb/s standards, 4.2cm/ 6cm/ 8cm length M.2 SSD cards
- Supports PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe Mini-SAS SSD with Turbo U.2 Host Card** 
• 1 x SATAe port (PCIe 3.0 x2)***
• Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology for Intel Core™ processors.

* SATA1~2 ports will be unavailable when installing the M.2 SATA interface module in M.2 slot. SATA3~4 ports will be unavailable when installing the M.2 PCIe interface module in M.2 slot.
** The Turbo U.2 Host Card is not included, please purchase separately.
*** SATAe port is backward compatible with SATA.
 

[intelCore]

3 minutes ago, kirashi said:

-snip-

 

Any idea why this motherboard disables SATA3-4 ports when the M.2 interface uses PCIe?

[kirashi]

6 minutes ago, intelCore said:

Any idea why this motherboard disables SATA3-4 ports when the M.2 interface uses PCIe?

Because it needs those particular PCIe lanes in order to take advantage of PCIe-based M.2 drives.

There are M.2 drives that only operate at SATA speeds, and there are M.2 drives which operate much faster using PCIe lanes.

Most motherboard manufacturers save cost by not running dedicated PCIe lanes just for a PCIe M.2 device because not everyone is going to use one.

[xentropa]

51 minutes ago, intelCore said:

Any idea why this motherboard disables SATA3-4 ports when the M.2 interface uses PCIe?

Those particular pcie lanes are connected to the southbridge controller which shares bandwidth with sata, usb etc.

 

Northbridge pcie lanes are reserved for video cards.

[Alice in game]

10 hours ago, kirashi said:

I also checked the product webpage, and under the Detailed Tab on the Specifications Page, you'll find everything you need:

 

 

... They have the brilliant idea to have more than one motherboard with the same numbers. I checked the "Gaming pro" and not the "PC mate"...

[intelCore]

On 13.4.2016 at 5:58 AM, xentropa said:

Those particular pcie lanes are connected to the southbridge controller which shares bandwidth with sata, usb etc.

 

Northbridge pcie lanes are reserved for video cards.

So it depends on whether the M.2 slot uses PCIe lanes from the PCH or the processor directly?

[xentropa]

5 hours ago, intelCore said:

So it depends on whether the M.2 slot uses PCIe lanes from the PCH or the processor directly?

System-wise yes.  Performance... maybe.

[intelCore]

1 minute ago, xentropa said:

System-wise yes.  Performance... maybe.

I don't think performance is too different from PCH PCIe lanes or processor PCIe lanes. Just a guess though.