Question M.2 ports for SSD's

[thirteentimes]

The current SSD I am looking at is an NVMe M.2 (specifically the Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive). The motherboard (a Gigabyte B450 AORUS PRO WIFI) has two M.2 slots and PCPartPicker says on the bottom "The motherboard M.2 slot #1 shares bandwidth with SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports. When the M.2 slot is populated with a PCIe-based M.2 drive, two SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports are disabled. " I was wondering if I would just be able to plug the SSD into slot #2?

 

[rgd1101]

How many sata drive do you have?

 

[thirteentimes]

I have one other HDD that takes a SATA 3Gb/s

 

[DrummerManSpike]

Slot #2 for M.2s usually aren't as good as slot #1 on most motherboards, but the performance difference is somewhat minimal and somewhat likely to be non-noticeable, assuming you aren't picky about your numbers. It will function just fine in slot #2 while leaving #1 unoccupied.

However, if you only have one device using a SATA connection (the HDD), I'd still recommend using the M.2 in slot #1 as it is still a bit faster at the end of the day. The motherboard you chose comes with 6 SATA ports, so you'd still end up with 4 functioning ports to use for drives or any other devices (refer to the manual to see which ports specifically become disabled).

Also, do you already have the HDD in your possession, or is a planned purchase? If you don't currently own one, I'd suggest getting one with a SATA 3 6Gb/s connection, which your mobo has, instead of a 3Gb/s. It'll give ya better performance and you wont have to worry about potential compatibility issues.

 

[USAFRet]

Slot #2 for M.2s usually aren't as good as slot #1 on most motherboards, but the performance difference is somewhat minimal and somewhat likely to be non-noticeable, assuming you aren't picky about your numbers. It will function just fine in slot #2 while leaving #1 unoccupied.

However, if you only have one device using a SATA connection (the HDD), I'd still recommend using the M.2 in slot #1 as it is still a bit faster at the end of the day. The motherboard you chose comes with 6 SATA ports, so you'd still end up with 4 functioning ports to use for drives or any other devices (refer to the manual to see which ports specifically become disabled).

Also, do you already have the HDD in your possession, or is a planned purchase? If you don't currently own one, I'd suggest getting one with a SATA 3 6Gb/s connection, which your mobo has, instead of a 3Gb/s. It'll give ya better performance and you wont have to worry about potential compatibility issues.

1. Slot performance depends on the motherboard in question. For this particular board, yes, it makes a differenec.
Slot M2_A is "SATA and PCIe 3.0 x4/x2 "
Slot M2_B is "PCIe 3.0 x2 SSD"
So yes, it makes a difference.

Use the M2_A.

Other motherboards, performance across multiple M.2 ports is identical.

2. For the HDD, SATA II (3Gb/s) vs SATA III(6Gb/3) makes zero differenec. An HDD will not saturate a SATA II interface. And they are backwards and forwards compatible.

 

[USAFRet]

I have one other HDD that takes a SATA 3Gb/s

Use the M2_A port. It is faster.
Just be sure to plug the HDD into one of the SATA ports that are not disabled.

 

[thirteentimes]

Alright, thanks.