Asus Z97 A - need clarification on SATA III, SATA Express and M2

[Teemsan]

I'm looking for a Z97 board and am considering the Asus Z97 A. If you look at it on Newegg's site, under the specs tab, it lists as having 4 SATA 6 Gbps, I SATA Express and 1 x M2 Socket 3 with M key.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132118

Initially when I looked at this I gave the board a pass thinking "Wow! Only 4 SATA III???? That sucks, and seems odd for a board around that price point".

It's slightly confusing because all other mobo's I"ve looked at with SATA Express will list in the boards spec with the actual highest number of available SATA III ports, and it's meant to be understood that you will just lose two of those with the use of SATA express. Not so with with this Asus board it seems. I'm not sure whether this is an oversight on Newegg's part or just the way Asus is marketing the board, but it almost fooled me I had even posted in the Anandtech forum looking for advice on Z97 boards, and slagged this Asus offering because of the lack of SATA ports - and no one corrected me on it. But then when looking closer at the board later, I noticed customer reviews on Newegg said it had 6 SATA III's, and closer inspection of pictures confirmed this - or does it? ... read on.

From Tweaktown review:

"Turning the corner, you can see our storage port setup, which looks a bit different from normal. We have a total of 7 SATA III ports on offer here, all running off of the Intel Z97 chipset. Along with that, towards the middle of the bunch, you can see we have a single SATA Express port."

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6556/asus-z97-a-intel-z97-motherboard-review/index2.html

From the wording of that you'd think it has 7 SATA III's + the SATA Express.

But the accompanying picture shows from left ...2 SATA III stacked and 2 side by side in grey denoting that they are discreetly used as SATA III only. Next to tthat it shows 3 in darker grey - the first looks like a SATA Express? maybe, then two more regular SATA III connections next to that which I assume are the ones that will be out of use if SATA Express is used. But can that SATA Express in the middle also be used for a standard SATA III? It doesn't look like it but I thought I'd check.

Also I'm a bit confused with how M2 works. I read in another Anandtech explanation of M2 that the technology is designed so it could potentially share with either the PCIE or SATA III lanes - but that currently it is almost exclusively implemented through PCIE. So it is with the Asus Z97 A. But if that's the case, is M2 sharing like SATA Express isharing in that if it uses PCIE technology, then you will lose a PCIE slot if the M2 is connected? Could someone clarify that for me? Thanks

 

[unclemao]

For the m.2 you might lose a sata 3 port from using it and from what i've heard unless you have a motherboard with a dedicated m.2 controller you can't run m.2 and sata express. And also i'm pretty sure that using sata express/ m.2 only disables 1 not 2 sata 3 slots. But just asking why would you even need more than 4 sata 3 ports + 1 m.2 + 1 sata express ? If you need to use that many ports than you must have a pretty insane ssd raid setup.

 

[i7Baby]

Go through this - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mainstream-gaming-z97-motherboard,3824.html

 

[Teemsan]

For the m.2 you might lose a sata 3 port from using it and from what i've heard unless you have a motherboard with a dedicated m.2 controller you can't run m.2 and sata express. And also i'm pretty sure that using sata express/ m.2 only disables 1 not 2 sata 3 slots. But just asking why would you even need more than 4 sata 3 ports + 1 m.2 + 1 sata express ? If you need to use that many ports than you must have a pretty insane ssd raid setup.

My initial read from the way the Asus board was listed led me to believe that it had only 4 SATA III total, then an M2 and SATA express. With the other mobo manufacturers (Gigabyte, ASRock)s I looked at, they showed the total number of SATA III incluiding ones shared, So I logically thought Asus followed suit, and a board listred with 4 would be reduced to 2 with the use of the SATA Express. Look at the link I provided for the Asus Z97 A, then check other boards like ASRock extreme series or Gigabytes UDxH series, and you'll see what I mean. And it is definitely two.SAT III you lose not one. That part I'm clear on. Check i7Baby's link for clarification. Plus I know this now form reading the reviews of other boards.

Also my considerations are for vid editing, not gaming, so storage is a premium for me - and I'm on a budget. I'm currently at 1 SSD plus 3 HDD's plus USB 3's.I know someone who has 25Tb storage - granted it is for raw uncompressed footage and multi NAS. And I intend to add another SSD to run a Raid. In future depending on how M2 goes I may switch over. So minimum 6 are needed especially if I lose two. This is not uncommon. Read the reviews of the Gigabyte and ASRock boards and it's a common complaint about losing two SATA III's - except it is not the board manufacturer's fault as some accuse, it's just how the technology is implemented.

From i7Baby's link above to the Tom's review here

"Problems abound though, including the fact that it can’t be enabled simultaneously with M.2, that both M.2 and SATA-E eat PCIe lanes on a chipset that only offers eight, that both technologies also gobble up to SATA ports on a chipset that has six, " So even with a listed six SATA ports, many consider it a compromise that may not be worth making.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mainstream-gaming-z97-motherboard,3824.html

 

[Teemsan]

Go through this - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mainstream-gaming-z97-motherboard,3824.html

Thanks i7Baby. That's much clearer.

 

[i7Baby]

No worries. It helped me too.