Samsung 950Pro M.2 + SATA Z170A Confusion!

[Volksdevil]

Hi all,

I'm getting really miffed at trying to understand the following...

• MOBO: MSI Z170A Gaming M7.
• M2_2 Slot: Samsung 950Pro M.2 NVME.
• SATA Port 1: Samsung 850Pro SSD.
• SATA Port 2: Seagate SSHD.
• GPU: Single MSI GTX 1080.

I was browsing my UEFI which has a 'Board explorer' showing all the I/O ports etc.

For my SATA ports with the above config, I noticed the following 'Naming' convention for them. (See six pics below)

• SATA Port 1 = M.2/SATA
• SATA Port 2 = M.2/SATA
• SATA Port 3 = SATA6Gb/s
• SATA Port 4 = SATA6Gb/s
• SATA Port 5 = M.2/SATA
• SATA Port 6 = M.2/SATA

 

Now...I bought this MOBO on the premise that I could use the M2_2 slot without losing ANY use of ANY of the SATA ports. And this is shown in an image from the manual.

I simply want to know why the SATA ports are named differently as shown above...It's just bugging me.

 

Using CrystalDiskMark I get good benches on the drives.

950Pro - 2100 / 950 reads/writes

850Pro - 550ish reads/writes.

 

I've been told so much conflicting information that I'm just confused as hell. Everything from...I can only use one or the other (M.2 ports Or SATA ports), I can only use 'X' amount of SATA ports, I will lose performance/speed etc etc and even that the image from the MSI MOBO manual is incorrect! which would piss me off tbh.

 

Can anybody tell me what the hell is going on? I've asked MSI Support but had no reply.

 

• The image from the manual, where I've added a red box showing my M.2 config (950Pro plugged in M2_2 Slot)

 

• Images from my UEFI showing the differently named SATA ports which is confusing me...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sakkura]

Looks like the M.2_2 slot would take away a couple of SATA ports IF you used an M.2 SATA drive in that slot. Since you're using a PCIe M.2 drive, it's not an issue.

 

SATA ports 1 and 2 are then named M.2/SATA because of that possible sharing thing.

 

You could test it by plugging the two 2.5" SATA drives into those two ports, while the 950 Pro is in that M.2 slot. If they all show up, MSI's manual is right and everything is in order.

 

Edit: Oh, looks like you already have them plugged in there. Case closed, everything's fine.

[John Pombrio]

It is a lot more complicated than you may think. BTW, I had no idea about this until I read your post. Yes, using the M.2 port on your board does disable SATA ports and in a very complex fashion. I am lucky in that I have a Z97 ASUS mobo with no M.2 port and I am using a PCI-E ASUS Hyper M.24X card. Using a PCI-E card does not disable any SATA ports. Read this  link and see if you can figure it out

 

 

http://techreport.com/review/29072/gigabyte-z170x-gaming-7-motherboard-reviewed/2

[NumLock21]

SATA ports 3 and 4 are not affected by the M.2. The chart shows it being available across the chart.

[Volksdevil]

See this is the confusion I'm having. Completely different views on it. John, the M.2 drive I have is PCIE/NVME, so are you saying that because it's plugged into an M.2 slot rather than directly into a PCIE slot that it makes a difference?

 

I haven't come across any manufacturer (MSI) documented info that suggests I will lose SATA ports with my config. Only the above first image that says I won't lose SATA ports.

 

The link mentions Gigabyte specific M.2 ports, and that a PCIE M.2 will not cause the loss of any SATA Ports...Which is the only part of that page that closely corresponds to my setup. The rest is mentioning SATA M.2 and SATAe.

 

Numlock...But my SSD's plugged into SATA 1+2 ports don't seem to be affected, going off my CrystalDisk benchmarks. I've evn done a Userbench (One of many) here where you can see the drives... Clickety click.

[Volksdevil]

36 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Looks like the M.2_2 slot would take away a couple of SATA ports IF you used an M.2 SATA drive in that slot. Since you're using a PCIe M.2 drive, it's not an issue.

 

SATA ports 1 and 2 are then named M.2/SATA because of that possible sharing thing.

 

You could test it by plugging the two 2.5" SATA drives into those two ports, while the 950 Pro is in that M.2 slot. If they all show up, MSI's manual is right and everything is in order.

 

Edit: Oh, looks like you already have them plugged in there. Case closed, everything's fine.

I'm hoping this is the general consensus. Basically that MSI haven't configured the names of the ports to be specific enough to detect between SATA and PCIE type M.2 fitted drives? So a generic name is given to the ports?

 

I hope I've explained my thinking on that correctly...

EDIT: But yet the difference of ports 3+4 Still don't match up to the image from the manual :-/ 

[Sakkura]

The name just indicates what it can overall result in depending on what you're plugging in. It's not actively detecting anything and changing the names.

 

Ports 3+4 will always be available no matter what M.2 or other stuff you plug in, so they're just named SATA.

 

On your system, since you have two SATA drives plugged into ports 1 and 2 and working, you can confirm that the M.2 drive is not deactivating those ports. And that's the only way it would affect them - either the ports work, 100%, or they don't work at all.