[SOLVED] M.2 and motherboard slots

[Stef74]

Hi all,

First post, so please excuse any "daft questions"

I've done a bit of interwebs searching on this, but before I jump in I thought it wouldn't harm to ask a few experts, just to be safe and to hopefully dodge any avoidable issues. So after running clunky old hard drives for so long I've decided to upgrade, I've bought 2 x M.2 SSDs, and my motherboard has 2 x M.2 slots on it. I've got ...

Motherboard - ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. STRIX Z270F GAMING
CPU - Intel Core i7 7700K @ 4.20GHz / Kaby Lake 14nm Technology
The 2 SSD's are - WD Black SN850 NVMe's (a 1TB and a 2TB)

The "plan" is to have the 1TB M.2 as my C: / OS drive, and the 2TB one to be where my game installs live. I do have other stuff I'd like to back up, but I'll do that with 2.5in SSD's later down the line.

I've read all the posts and seen a lot of videos about disconnecting all drives except the the M.2 that you wish to install Windows 10 on so I'm aware of that procedure, I've got a installation pen with it W10 on ready, so I'm guessing that shouldn't really be an issue.

So I guess, and the main crux of this post, is that I'm wondering which slot should I use for which M.2? The motherboard documentation lists them as follows ...

M.2 Socket 3 Type M (2242-2280) - Supports PCIe3.0x4 mode
M.2 Socket 3 Type M (2242-22110) - Supports SATA & PCIe 3.0 x 4 modes

The above doesn't mean much to me, I'm hoping someone can enlighten me as to if there's an advantage to be had from having them installed a certain way around?


Thank you in advance for any help, I won't be tearing my PC to bits just yet, not until I'm happy that I can pull this off with the least amount of hassle :\


Regards

Stef

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

I've read all the posts and seen a lot of videos about disconnecting all drives except the the M.2 that you wish to install Windows 10 on so I'm aware of that procedure, I've got a installation pen with it W10 on ready, so I'm guessing that shouldn't really be an issue.
Thumbrule is to have all storage devices disconnected except the drive you wish to install the OS onto, this applies to SATA based devices as well as M.2.

If you look up the SSD's specs, you'll see that it's PCIe Gen4 x4 based, meaning any slot that it's dropped into that is PCIe 3.0, will have the SSD operate at a lower spec. If you haven't purchased the SSD yet, might want to look into PCIe 3.0 based SSD's. If you intend to upgrade your platform to something that accepts PCIe 4.0 SSD's, then you're good with the purchase.

 

[Stef74]

Thanks for the prompt reply,

I've already purchased the SSD's, they are in front of me ready to go, boxed with heatsinks. I do plan to upgrade in the near future as my overall rig is a bit dated now, I just wanted to get the use of these M.2's now as my load up times are starting to get slow. I also intend to get the previously mentioned 2.5in SSD's at that time also as I plan to get a case where I can mount them behind the motherboard out the way, or something similar, something I can't do now. So I will eventually upgrade everything, when time and spare cash permits.

So if I understand your reply correctly, both of the SSD's will run slower by virtue of them being PCIe3.0 slots on the motherboard, and it doesn't matter which way round I install them. My next planned motherboard should have 2 x PCIe4.0 slots to gain full advantage of these SSD's?



Stef

 

[Lutfij]

So if I understand your reply correctly, both of the SSD's will run slower by virtue of them being PCIe3.0 slots on the motherboard, and it doesn't matter which way round I install them. My next planned motherboard should have 2 x PCIe4.0 slots to gain full advantage of these SSD's?
Yes + yes.