[SOLVED] How many hard drives can be connected to the ASUS Z97-WS?

[Doctor Jellybean]

I have an ASUS Z97-WS motherboard, with an M.2 drive, 3 SATA drives and an optical drive connected.

I want to add another SATA hard drive, but not sure if there are enough connectors. According to the manual:

4 x SATA3 6Gb/s ports
2 x SATA Express ports

Thanks in advance.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Pages 1-26, 1-27 in your manual tells you everything you need to know. 6 SATA ports total with an additional M.2 port (sharing bandwidth with SATA 5 & 6). This is enough for 7 devices without adding additional ports via PCI-E cards.

 

[Doctor Jellybean]

Thank you.

It is the sharing bandwidth which confused me, as well as 4 x Intel and 2 x ASMedia. I don't want to order another drive and can't connect it.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Your mobo has a total of eight SATA III ports: four regular SATA III ports and two SATA Express ports (each of which provide two SATA III ports). One of the SATA Express ports (so two SATA III ports) gets disabled when you use the M.2 slot. It's the SATAEXPRESS_1 (SATA6G_5 and SATA6G_6) that gets disabled. But you'd still be left with six SATA ports to work with: SATA6G_1 through _4, and SATA6G_E7 and _E8.

So yes, you can add up to two more SATA drives.

 

[Doctor Jellybean]

Thank you both. I'll be ordering the drive today.

 

[Doctor Jellybean]

It is turning into fun & games.

I tried to install the drive today without much success. If I connect it to one of the 2 SATAEXPRESS_1 slots in a row, one of my existing hard drives disappear in the BIOS, but the new drive doesn't show. If I connect it to the other row, all the existing hard drives are listed in the BIOS, except the new one. Maybe it is the SATA cable, I've ordered new cables which should hopefully arrive tomorrow. Pity the SATA6G_E7 and _E8 slots ain't marked clearly ( not that I can see anyway).