Question Asus ROG Maximus XI Extreme M.2 questions

[PhaseRebirth]

My M.2 drive is the Samsung 970 PRO NVMe (2280 design from what I read). My Maximus Extreme XI has 2 M.2 slots. M.2_1 supports PCIe 3.0 x4 and Sata mode M key design. M.2_2 supports PCIe 3.0 M key design. Both of these fit the 2280 design for my 970 PRO but I’m not sure if these take bandwidth from my sata ports. I’m also not sure which one would take best advantage of the 970 PRO. I am a bit new to the M.2 game here so go easy on me and I thank anyone stopping by to help me. This has been a nice community to me throughout the years.

 

[velocityg4]

Both state x4 support. Throughput should be the same. The SATA/NVMe combo slot will disable SATA port 2 when occupied. It makes no mention of the NVMe only slot. I'd assume it doesn't disable any SATA ports. I see no mention in the manual of the NVMe slots running at reduced speed in any configuration. I checked as some motherboards will reduce one of them to x2 in certain setups. This one doesn't. Instead it will drop PCIex16_3 slot from x4 to x2 if SATA 6G is enabled.

 

[PhaseRebirth]

Both state x4 support. Throughput should be the same. The SATA/NVMe combo slot will disable SATA port 2 when occupied. It makes no mention of the NVMe only slot. I'd assume it doesn't disable any SATA ports. I see no mention in the manual of the NVMe slots running at reduced speed in any configuration. I checked as some motherboards will reduce one of them to x2 in certain setups. This one doesn't. Instead it will drop PCIex16_3 slot from x4 to x2 if SATA 6G is enabled.

Thank you, this makes me more satisfied with this motherboard. I’ve also seen motherboards that do reduce the sata bandwidth when using a PCIe M.2
Btw when I go into my bios would I use AHCI for the 970 pro?

 

[velocityg4]

Thank you, this makes me more satisfied with this motherboard. I’ve also seen motherboards that do reduce the sata bandwidth when using a PCIe M.2
Btw when I go into my bios would I use AHCI for the 970 pro?

AHCI is for SATA drives. NVMe drives are a separate setting. See section 1.6.13 of the manual.

 

[PhaseRebirth]

AHCI is for SATA drives. NVMe drives are a separate setting. See section 1.6.13 of the manual.

Oh my god you are the best! I’ll take a look at the manual once I’m off work.

 

[Aus-ling]

Hi I have a similar issue. I have a spare Samsung 860 EVO SSD 2TB - M.2 SATA Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology (MZ-N6E2T0BW). I just want to know if i can use it. I can't see anywhere where the m key isnt able to be used of not.

Thanks