[SOLVED] M.2 SATA compatibility question

[BizzarreFr0g]

Hi all,

Just wanted to ask a compatibility question because I don't trust myself enough to fully understand everything involved.

I have an MSI Z97S Krait Edition motherboard with a 2280 Key M (PCIe Gen2 x2/SATA) M.2 port. Does this mean it will support M.2 SATA, NOT NVMe? Or both?

I'm considering purchasing a Western Digital Blue M.2 SATA SSD 1TB OR a Crucial MX500 M.2 1TB SSD, which according to their specs support SATA III 6GB/s. Will either of these be compatible with my motherboard? Will they interfere with any PCIe lanes my GPU is currently using in the top slot? Also, I'm currently using 5x SATA ports for other drives. Will this mess with any of those?

Thanks everyone in advance!

 

[RealBeast]

Hi all,

Just wanted to ask a compatibility question because I don't trust myself enough to fully understand everything involved.

I have an MSI Z97S Krait Edition motherboard with a 2280 Key M (PCIe Gen2 x2/SATA) M.2 port. Does this mean it will support M.2 SATA, NOT NVMe? Or both?

I'm considering purchasing a Western Digital Blue M.2 SATA SSD 1TB OR a Crucial MX500 M.2 1TB SSD, which according to their specs support SATA III 6GB/s. Will either of these be compatible with my motherboard? Will they interfere with any PCIe lanes my GPU is currently using in the top slot? Also, I'm currently using 5x SATA ports for other drives. Will this mess with any of those?

Thanks everyone in advance!

Your board will support either SATA m.2 or NVMe (PCIe) M.2 but with only 2 lanes, not the full 4 that they can use. This will limit your speed slightly -- but 2 lane NVMe is still faster than SATA and provides all the other advantages of NVMe.

But a direct answer -- yes it will support either of the two SATA m.2 drives that you linked. But as noted on pages 1-20 & 1-21 of your manual, use of the m.2 slot disables the SATA5-6 ports.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Sata ports SATA5, SATA6 get disabled, if you use M.2 drive.
So - if you decide to use it, only 4 of your 5 connected sata drives will be available.

 

[popatim]

Both of those are sata drives and not a single bit faster then their 2.5" version so why not just get the 2.5" version and save your M2 slot for an NVME drive? Or maybe get an NVME drive instead?
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/45221/crucial-p1-m-2-nvme-ssd-1tb

 

[BizzarreFr0g]

Your board will support either SATA m.2 or NVMe (PCIe) M.2 but with only 2 lanes, not the full 4 that they can use. This will limit your speed slightly -- but 2 lane NVMe is still faster than SATA and provides all the other advantages of NVMe.

But a direct answer -- yes it will support either of the two SATA m.2 drives that you linked. But as noted on pages 1-20 & 1-21 of your manual, use of the m.2 slot disables the SATA5-6 ports.

Ah I see. Unfortunately I can't sacrifice any of my other drives at the moment, so maybe a motherboard upgrade is in order soon... NVMe sounds like it would have big benefits for 4k video editing. Thanks for such a clear explanation!

 

[RealBeast]

For video editing you would be wise to look at a motherboard that can use two M.2 NVMe drives in x4 mode without impacting the SATA ports. One for the OS and the second for your scratch drive. Most of the newest motherboards can do that.

 

[BizzarreFr0g]

For video editing you would be wise to look at a motherboard that can use two M.2 NVMe drives in x4 mode without impacting the SATA ports. One for the OS and the second for your scratch drive. Most of the newest motherboards can do that.

That sounds great! I'd also need one with decent overclocking capacity, ideally with an Intel 1151 9th gen socket. Any recommendations? Thanks again

 

[RealBeast]

I just built an i9-9900KF on an ASUS Prime Z390-A, which has two NVMe x4 ports that do not impact the SATA ports if you use NVMe, but if one is M.2 SATA one SATA port is disabled. The price is reasonable, it boots with the original bios, and it doesn't have a lot of unneeded bells and whistles IMO.

If you want a mATX board, probably not for your use, but the Gigabyte Z390 M Gaming is a good choice.

 

[BizzarreFr0g]

I just built an i9-9900KF on an ASUS Prime Z390-A, which has two NVMe x4 ports that do not impact the SATA ports if you use NVMe, but if one is M.2 SATA one SATA port is disabled. The price is reasonable, it boots with the original bios, and it doesn't have a lot of unneeded bells and whistles IMO.

If you want a mATX board, probably not for your use, but the Gigabyte Z390 M Gaming is a good choice.

That sounds like an awesome build! The Z390-A sounds great, and looks great too. Thanks for all the advice