[SOLVED] 2 samsung 970's in asus z390f

ShadowOfEnvy85

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Apr 11, 2014
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theres 2 slots in the motherboard for m.2 ssd's.
i'm debating on buying 2 500gb 970 evo plus drives as theyre cheaper than a single 1tb,

however, i've just notices this on the motherboard specs list:

1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (both SATA & PCIE mode)*1
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)

does this mean that one drive will be limited from the motherboard or will both be able to run at max speeds.
 
Solution
No both drives will run at PCIE 3.0 X4, I run 2 NVME drives at full speed on the older Z270F version of that board. However using the bottom M.2 slot will disable SATA ports 5 and 6, so if you have any SATA drives in those ports you will need to move them to different SATA ports on the mobo.

You may need to manually enable X4 mode in the advanced onboard devies config menu in the BIOS if it doesn't apply that automatically.

You may want to check out the ADATA SX8200 Pro, I have the 1tb version. It's every bit as fast as the 970 evo for a more reasonable price. I've had mine for about 3 months now, works flawlessly.

Dunlop0078

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No both drives will run at PCIE 3.0 X4, I run 2 NVME drives at full speed on the older Z270F version of that board. However using the bottom M.2 slot will disable SATA ports 5 and 6, so if you have any SATA drives in those ports you will need to move them to different SATA ports on the mobo.

You may need to manually enable X4 mode in the advanced onboard devies config menu in the BIOS if it doesn't apply that automatically.

You may want to check out the ADATA SX8200 Pro, I have the 1tb version. It's every bit as fast as the 970 evo for a more reasonable price. I've had mine for about 3 months now, works flawlessly.
 
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Solution

falcon291

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No both drives will run at PCIE 3.0 X4, I run 2 NVME drives at full speed on the older Z270F version of that board. However using the bottom M.2 slot will disable SATA ports 5 and 6, so if you have any SATA drives in those ports you will need to move them to different SATA ports on the mobo.
No, it is not true, if you disable SATA ports 5 and 6, then your NVMe drive would run x4 speed, if not its speed would be x2. So if have more than 4 SATA drives it is something you need to think about.

I have just checked the mainboard manual.
 

falcon291

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What is not true? You just said pretty much the same thing I did.
No you wrote that using the bottom M2 slot disable SATA ports 5 and 6. I am saying that you can continue to use them, using the second M2 drive in x2 mode. By the way x2 mode is default, and x4 mode had to be set. I know because each BIOS update, I had to set it back again.
 
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falcon291

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Actually, you're both incorrect.

From Asus (assuming this is the correct board):

"*1 When the M.2_1 Socket 3 is operating in SATA mode, SATA port 2 will be disable. "

I think we are both aware of that but why would we run a PCI-X M2 drive in SATA mode? So it was not something we were thinking about.