Question Best M2 slots to use on Gigabyte Board

[Kubes03]

Hello Community!

Thank you ahead of time for your help and support!

I recently have bought the following:

• Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Prox X
  • Quick link to Manual (page 27): https://download.gigabyte.com/FileL...1201_e.pdf?v=2ee0e5b5b35ce5304aa99cb684769a81
• 2x Samsung Pro 990 4TB

I have two questions:

1. What's the most optimal slots to install the drives into?
   • I am pretty confident I do not want to install them into M2C_CPU (since it would split my my PCIe x16 lane with my 4090).
   • I've read that it's ideal not to have the drives installed right next to each other. (the drives are 80mm).
   
   
2. I'd like to have the two drives partitioned in a way where I see it as one large 8TB drive. Is raid 0 the best option for this?
   • FYI: I would also like to use this as my boot drive.
   • If raid0 isn't the best option, is there a way to use "disk management" (aka after windows install) to logically combine them? Is there any benefit to taking this approach if it's possible instead of the risk of raid0? (I doubt raid0 is really going to give me any performance boost).

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

1| M2A_CPU and M2Q_SB would be the route I'd take.
2| No point, you're better off with each drive being standalone.

 

[USAFRet]

If raid0 isn't the best option, is there a way to use "disk management" (aka after windows install) to logically combine them? Is there any benefit to taking this approach if it's possible instead of the risk of raid0? (I doubt raid0 is really going to give me any performance boost).

Leave them as 2 individual drives.

What is driving the desire for a single 8TB volume?

 

[USAFRet]

I'd like to do the 8TB instead of 2 x 4TB due to preference, nothing more. Unless there's some sort of significant negative that's the route I'd like to take.

The ONLY benefit is a single "drive letter".

There are many drawbacks.

Complicates any maintenance.
Depending on how is it instantiated, increases the fail potential and data loss a lot.
In some configurations, it can result in slower performance than the individual drives.

What will this system be used for?

A general config for more than one drive is OS and applications on one, and your data, incl games, on the other.

 

[Kubes03]

Samsung Pro 990 4TB

 

[Kubes03]

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I really appreciate your views and subject matter expertise on this topic!

I appreciate the hesitation on answering the original question for the best approach to do a single disk partition given your concerns, but if you wouldn't mind humoring me, I'd still like to proceed moving forward with what would be the best approach in accomplishing it and also wanting it to be my boot drive. Would your recommendation change the m2 slot suggestion as part of this?


To be a bit more specific on the why I value of a single drive letter is based on what I'm using the PC for. It complicates some of the dir, file, and URI structures I'm trying to use the PC for. (Ie: introduces a lot of scripting issues). I value it to the point of considering picking up a 3rd drive simply to do a raid 5. I really really desire having a simple one partion approach instead of multiple ones based on how I structure data on my computer.

Also given the suggestion of the 2 slots right next to each other, is it fair to assume you wouldn't think thermal bleeding is any kind of concern?

Thank you again so much for your continued conversation on this topic!

 

[USAFRet]

For the 2 drives, there's really only RAID 0 or Storage Spaces (spanned) in Windows.
Either of those increase the fail and data loss potential vs individual drives.

Neither of which I would do. And I have multiple drives in most of my systems.

And no matter how you may or may not do it, a real backup routine is needed.


Which M.2 ports? The above recommendations are just fine.

 

[DSzymborski]

People are always hesitant to give advice on RAIDs -- at least responsible people -- because of how dangerous they are relative to the gains that are very rare for a consumer.

Since we don't details about *what* this structure is and *why*, then I guess before I offer any advice (and I'm probably not the only one), I'll ask this question. OK, let's say you set up your RAID. You wake up one day and your RAID is unrecoverable. What are the consequences?

 

[USAFRet]

I value it to the point of considering picking up a 3rd drive simply to do a raid 5

A RAID 5...
3x 4TB drives = 8TB RAID array. You're losing the full size of one of them.
And only provides protection against physical drive fail. It is not for data protection.