M.2 question

[DotComBubblegum]

Hi everyone,

 

I have ASUS Z-170 A Mobo recently purchased.https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0126R2LBK/ref=od_aui_detailpages02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has a M.2 slot on it and I would like to use it but I am not sure what kind of M.2 drive I need ? There are PCI-e and NVMe based M.2 drives, can I slot in any of there or is it just NVMe that I can use ?

 

Thanks in advance !

[GirlFromYonder]

3 minutes ago, DotComBubblegum said:

Hi everyone,

 

I have ASUS Z-170 A Mobo recently purchased.https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0126R2LBK/ref=od_aui_detailpages02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has a M.2 slot on it and I would like to use it but I am not sure what kind of M.2 drive I need ? There are PCI-e and NVMe based M.2 drives, can I slot in any of there or is it just NVMe that I can use ?

 

Thanks in advance !

PCI-E and NVMe is the same thing. they both use 4 pci express lanes. What you want to look at is if it is sata or NVMe. 

 

The speed of the sata who be same as a sata 3 ssd while the nve will be atleast twice the speed. But with more speed comes a higher price. 

 

Like i have a sata m.2 in my build. quite a waste of a M.2 slot but i wanted less cable clutter

[DotComBubblegum]

Just now, DeezNoNos said:

PCI-E and NVMe is the same thing. they both use 4 pci express lanes. What you want to look at is if it is sata or NVMe. 

 

The speed of the sata who be same as a sata 3 ssd while the nve will be atleast twice the speed. But with more speed comes a higher price. 

 

Like i have a sata m.2 in my build. quite a waste of a M.2 slot but i wanted less cable clutter

So both sata and nvme would work if I plug them in to the m.2 slot on my mobo ?

[GirlFromYonder]

Just now, DotComBubblegum said:

So both sata and nvme would work if I plug them in to the m.2 slot on my mobo ?

yes. but check if it shares bandwith. It could be plugging in a sata drive disables some sata ports and a nvme drive disables a pci express slot

[DotComBubblegum]

Just now, DeezNoNos said:

yes. but check if it shares bandwith. It could be plugging in a sata drive disables some sata ports and a nvme drive disables a pci express slot

besides that I have only 1 other SSD plunged in to Sata ports so I don't mind losing some of those. And as for PCi-e slots, would that impact that performance of my graphics card ?

[Katsunaka]

6 minutes ago, DotComBubblegum said:

besides that I have only 1 other SSD plunged in to Sata ports so I don't mind losing some of those. And as for PCi-e slots, would that impact that performance of my graphics card ?

Only if you don't have enough PCI-E lanes.

 

Skylake has 20 PCIE lanes. 16 for gpu usage(1 or 2 GPU), and 4 left over for an M2 based SSD.

Think of them as lanes of the highway. 16 are used by the graphics card, leaving 4 left over for the m2 drive.

 

Your M2 slot is right below the white Asus logo on the bottom right. Something like a Samsung 950 Pro is about what you'd be looking for. Although there are cheaper options. 

 

 

 

 

[ybriK]

6 hours ago, DotComBubblegum said:

Hi everyone,

 

I have ASUS Z-170 A Mobo recently purchased.https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0126R2LBK/ref=od_aui_detailpages02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has a M.2 slot on it and I would like to use it but I am not sure what kind of M.2 drive I need ? There are PCI-e and NVMe based M.2 drives, can I slot in any of there or is it just NVMe that I can use ?

 

Thanks in advance !

PCIe and SATA are the physical ports you connect your storage devices (other hardware for PCIe aswell) to. NVMe is a standard that's going to be replacing AHCI to allow more bandwidth/queues for faster data transfer.

 

What you want is a PCIe based M.2 storage so that it goes beyond the SATA limited 500MB/s~ R/W, not that it will make a difference in general PC use but in heavy picture/video editing and other heavy storage access work it will make a difference.

[AlphaPolack]

The Data express ports are disabled when the m.2 slot is occupied.

(SATA6G_1 & SATA6G_2)

[DotComBubblegum]

7 hours ago, AlphaPolack said:

The Data express ports are disabled when the m.2 slot is occupied.

(SATA6G_1 & SATA6G_2)

so based on the picture above and the socket I see there.

 

This m.2 would fit it https://www.amazon.de/Samsung-MZ-V5P256BW-Solid-V-NAND-Controller/dp/B015SOI392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471934745&sr=8-1&keywords=m.2+ssd  and

this ssd would not fit it https://www.amazon.de/Samsung-250GB-850-EVO-SATA/dp/B00TGIVZTW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1471934745&sr=8-4&keywords=m.2+ssd  .

 

Is that right ?

 

 

 

[AlphaPolack]

They BOTH fit. 

 

The 950 Pro is a NVMe standard drive (2400MB read / 1400MB write)

 

The 850 Evo is a SATA 6GB standard drive

(550MB read / 520MB write)

 

My reply was to bring awareness of which SATA6G ports that would be disabled if you were to use the m.2 slot.

[DotComBubblegum]

11 minutes ago, AlphaPolack said:

They BOTH fit. 

 

The 950 Pro is a NVMe standard drive (2400MB read / 1400MB write)

 

The 850 Evo is a SATA 6GB standard drive

(550MB read / 520MB write)

 

My reply was to bring awareness of which SATA6G ports that would be disabled if you were to use the m.2 slot.

Thank you !!!