Question Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X - M.2 lanes

[Rimio]

Hi!

So I want to install two Intel 660p Series 512GB M.2 drives on the two slots of the motherboard. Since each will run an operating system, they won't ever be in use at the same time. Two more SATA drives will be installed separately.

The manual is very brief regarding M.2 connectivity and I'm not very clear if:
(a) the two M.2 ports share the PCIe lanes, or if they affect each other in any way
(b) any of the two M.2 ports use the CPU PCIe lanes (I also have a RTX2070)

Where could I find relevant information on this? If they do share the lanes, is it possible to create two profiles that I can choose at boot time (i.e. one for each OS)?

 

[feelinfroggy777]

What are you using the system for? While on paper these drives are faster than standard SATA SSD's, you really only see the speed performance when complete large file transfers across the drives. Since these are only 500gb drives split between two OS, it does not look like there will be large file transfers.

In the end, you may see little, if any at all, performance difference by running one of the OS on a SATA SSD.

Ultimately, I am not certain how it will configure the PCIe lanes. I believe it will split both of them to run at x2 lanes, but running with 2 different OS may change that and it is just not something that I personally tried.

 

[Rimio]

What are you using the system for? While on paper these drives are faster than standard SATA SSD's, you really only see the speed performance when complete large file transfers across the drives. Since these are only 500gb drives split between two OS, it does not look like there will be large file transfers.

The Linux drive will most probably see read-heavy workloads (data processing/aggregation), while the Windows drive is mostly irrelevant.

To be honest, I got the drives for a very good price, which is why I bothered with them in the first place, but I'd like to optimize as much as reasonably possible.

 

[feelinfroggy777]

SSD prices have fallen far, it is great. Since you already have the drives, then boot them up and see how they do.

Let me know the outcome as I am curious.