Help: M.2 SSD & Motherboard

[Salvinz]

Hello everyone!  Long time lurker, first time poster.  A quick brief, I'm a PC gamer who is far more comfortable in dealing with software than hardware.  Boxing day will be coming up soon and I'm looking to finally shift towards SSD's.  I've done some reading, however, I am in need of help, specifically around pairing certain SSD's with my motherboard.  I'm uncertain of optimal settings and this is where I need your expertise.  To anyone that's able to point me into the right direction, thank you so much!

 

 

System Specs:

 

CPU:  Intel Core i5-6600K @ 3.50GHz

Motherboard:  Z170A GAMING M5 (Bios 1.60)

Memory:  16384 MB

GPU:  GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

HDD x 2:  Western Digital WD Green 1TB 5400 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"

OS:  Windows 10 Pro

PSU:  Corsair HX 650w

 

Goals:

 

I've just purchased one Crucial MX300 525GB (https://tinyurl.com/ya5jmd9h) and looking into getting another Crucial MX300 525GB or a Crucial MX300 525GB M.2 (https://tinyurl.com/y7hgtb8f).  I'd like to get the M.2 but I'm not sure exactly what I'll be giving up.  Will my GPU be slower?  Will I have to sacrifice both of my 1TB WD's?  I'd much rather have my setup be optimal than be functional at sub-optimal settings.  I did go through my motherboard manual but as I mentioned earlier, I'm not hardware inclined.  Attached to this post is my motherboard manual; I believe the relevant info is on page 34.

 

Thank you so much for any help!  Happy holidays... 

7977v1.0(G52-79771X1)(Z170A GAMING M5).pdf

[Crunchy Dragon]

I personally don't see why you would need 2 SSDs, I'd just get one SSD for some applications and then use the HDD(s) for mass storage. That said, I don't think you'll lose any GPU speed adding a second SSD

[wONKEyeYEs]

As a gamer you don't need M.2 speeds.

Get an SSD.

Samsung for your boot drive.

[Salvinz]

Thanks for the info Crunchy Dragon.  As for my needing two drives, I like to compartmentalize to keep things organized.  Given that, I keep one drive for Windows OS and OS related applications and have the other drive(s) be for gaming, videos etc.

[Salvinz]

3 minutes ago, wONKEyeYEs said:

As a gamer you don't need M.2 speeds.

Get an SSD.

Samsung for your boot drive.

Understood... What if I was looking to install Windows on the M.2 and have the 2.5" SSD for games; would that be possible in my setup?

[wONKEyeYEs]

Sure, I have a similar set up.

On my MB sata ports 5 & 6 are disabled when I use an M.2

so check your MB manual for that.

[Salvinz]

3 hours ago, wONKEyeYEs said:

Sure, I have a similar set up.

On my MB sata ports 5 & 6 are disabled when I use an M.2

so check your MB manual for that.

Thanks for getting back to me wONKEyeYEs!  Looking at my motherboard manual and as I understand it, I can look forward to this setup: 1xM.2 SATA SSD + 4xSATA HDDs?  In essence, I can hook up one M.2 2280, one 2.5" SSD and two HDD's?

[wONKEyeYEs]

Yes, it looks like if you put your sata m.2 in the M2_1 slot for example 

you will have sata ports 3, 4, 5, and 6 available.

 

 

[Salvinz]

Much appreciated!  So now that I'm squared away on that important bit of info, there is a small complication.  More than likely, I'll have to plug the M.2 into the second available slot as the first slot has both the GPU and a giant CPU cooler nearby.  Now, I'm hoping that the second M.2 slot is a twin and I would loose no functionality by plugging into it.  Again, thanks so much for your help so far wONKEyeYEs.

 

Cheers

 

Edit:  I just realized my mistake by looking at the graph again.  Answered my question. 

[dizmo]

20 hours ago, wONKEyeYEs said:

As a gamer you don't need M.2 speeds.

Get an SSD.

Samsung for your boot drive.

M.2 has nothing to do with speed, it's simply a connection.

15 hours ago, Salvinz said:

Much appreciated!  So now that I'm squared away on that important bit of info, there is a small complication.  More than likely, I'll have to plug the M.2 into the second available slot as the first slot has both the GPU and a giant CPU cooler nearby.  Now, I'm hoping that the second M.2 slot is a twin and I would loose no functionality by plugging into it.  Again, thanks so much for your help so far wONKEyeYEs.

 

Cheers

 

Edit:  I just realized my mistake by looking at the graph again.  Answered my question. 

I'd just check to make sure that you lose the same ports. Often if you're using a different m.2 port, different SATA ports will be affected, but you shouldn't lose any. If you're putting only Windows and a few programs on the boot drive I'd look into NVME depending on the size you get. You get small speed improvements, but it's often not much more than a SATA drive at lower capacities.

[wONKEyeYEs]

5 minutes ago, dizmo said:

M.2 has nothing to do with speed, it's simply a connection.

So my SATA SSD can transfer at the same speed as my 960 EVO NVMe M.2?

Wow, I did not know that.

<sarcasm off>

 

[dizmo]

Just now, wONKEyeYEs said:

So my SATA SSD can transfer at the same speed as my 960 EVO NVMe M.2?

Wow, I did not know that.

<sarcasm off>

 

I'll say it again, and hope you realize your error.

M.2 has nothing to do with speed. SATA vs M.2? Yes. You can, however, have either in the M.2 form factor.

[wONKEyeYEs]

Just now, dizmo said:

I'll say it again

Oh, well in that case i concede. . 

[Salvinz]

Appreciate all the info everyone.  Since my original post, I've read as much as I can about this.  As I understand it, getting the Crucial MX300 525GB M.2 as opposed to the Crucial MX300 525GB wouldn't offer any gains, i.e., they're both identical in performance and differentiate themselves in only form factor.  Given that, I've been looking at the Samsung 960 EVO 500GB (https://tinyurl.com/ydggrkfs) as this should offer me actual gains.

 

I'm fairly certain of it's compatibility with my Z170A GAMING M5 (https://tinyurl.com/ybv98vfu) motherboard but I wanted to get a second opinion, just in case I'm missing something.  My understanding so far, M.2 has three keys: B, M or B+M.  B keys offering up to 10GBits/s as opposed to 20GBits/s from the M keys, and the B+M keys are flexible form factors.

 

In my case, the Z170A has the M key and it's 2280, so I shouldn't run into any compatibility issues with the Samsung 960.  If I've missed anything at all, please feel free to correct me.

 

Thanks!