ATX/Micro ATX motherboard w/ M.2 support recommendations

[QwerkyPengwen]

I am looking for a motherboard that will support an M.2 stick for storing the OS leaving the HDD for extra storage and the SSD for main applications. I would like a recommendation for both Intel and AMD in order to keep my options open. Also, the price should not exceed $150 so that we can keep it within the realm of reasonably affordable.

Not entirely looking for a solution but to open a general discussion that will have a nice list of different motherboards at different price ranges and different specs for others to come look at and hopefully find something for themselves as well.

The general requirement for these motherboards is that they must support M.2. If a motherboard that you post doesn't support M.2 then you are being counter productive to the point of this thread.

 

[Zerk2012]

Here ya go.
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#E=1,3&X=0,15196&f=2,7
Their no reason to buy a M.2 SSD for just the operating system the only difference would be about a sec quicker boot time over a regular SSD.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

Here ya go.
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#E=1,3&X=0,15196&f=2,7
Their no reason to buy a M.2 SSD for just the operating system the only difference would be about a sec quicker boot time over a regular SSD.

I agree that it's not much faster but it is faster overall. Plus, if something were to ever happen to the OS where I or someone else might need to reinstall the OS or if they're like me and switch out and install different OS every once in a while for IT purposes then I or they could just wipe and reinstall the OS to the M.2 and restore from a backup disc that's on a flash drive to restore things like registry and shortcuts and drivers for all the stuff that's on the SSD and/or the HDD without doing a large backup/transfer of one drive to another and then back again and/or without losing any data on said drives because the user doesn't have any other drives to backup to. Plus and M.2 is easier to move from one PC to another (one that supports M.2 of course) because you don't have to unscrew, unplug and remove an SSD/HDD and then move it to the other PC and then plug and screw it back in because the M.2 will just simply unplug from the motherboard and plug right back in.

And thanks for the PCPartPicker list BTW but I was looking for some personal preference/reference on the motherboards from what you and others know is a good quality and what isn't

 

[Zerk2012]

Their not easier you still got to unscrew them just less Screws and depending o the motherboard it could be under the video card. You can buy a regular SSD for 1/2 the price and do everything you said. Not sure why you would swap out to install different operating systems when you can install more than one OS on the same drive.

 

[Calvin7]

Intel 100 series motherboards usually have
•PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 Connector with up to 32Gb/s Data Transfer (PCIe NVMe & SATA SSD support) (some PCIe only)

Older Intel 9 series usually have:
•PCIe Gen2 x2 M.2 Connector with up to 10Gb/s Data Transfer

AMD
Asus 970 PRO GAMING/AURA
1 x M.2 Socket 3, , with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (PCIE 2.0 x4)
(note: only for data storage, not for OS)
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/970-PRO-GAMING-AURA/specifications/