M.2 SSD compatible with SLI?

Happy2Kill

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Jan 8, 2014
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I am pretty clueless with these new M.2 drives despite my love for building computers and learning everything I can about newer hardware. I heard that SLI can interfere with M.2 SSD's or maybe it was the other way around but I wanted to make sure before I buy one.
I recently upgraded my 7700k build to a 9700k (9900k wasnt in stock and I will probably overhaul my build before I need more than 8 cores anyway) and this is my current build
i7 9700k
ASUS ROG STRIX Z390E
Dual ROG STRIX GTX 1080 ti in SLI
32GB DDR4 Trident Z 3200mhz RAM

(Probably doesn't matter but just in case)
Thermaltake floe riing 360mm AIO
Cooler master V1200 1200w PSU

I saw that this mobo had 2 slots for m.2 drives and i was wondering if either slot would be deactived upon using SLI or if SLI wouldn't be possible while an m.2 is installed.

Any insight is helpful, thanks!
 

I figured someone would reply this, but no, the mobo is still at the post office waiting to be picked up later today.
 


I won't lie, reading the m.2 socket instructions on there isn't getting me anywhere, I think I just don't understand what the lanes mean.

EDIT: *1 When the M.2_1 Socket 3 is operating in SATA mode, SATA port 2 will be disable.

Does this have to do with it? I honestly am not sure what i'm looking for 🙁
 


Awesome, thanks for the clarification. Is that concern I had about it limiting my GPU pcie lanes with older motherboards or was I just misunderstanding?
 
m.2 SSDs use PCIe lanes to communicate. And CPU only supports a limited number of PCIe lanes operating at one time. This is where the confusion for people starts. The thing is, new Z motherboards have M.2 slots routed mostly to the PCH which has it's own PCi-E lanes. SLIed cards would run through CPU 16 PCIe lanes @x8 + x8 and SSD will run through motherboard PCH.

Those who experience problems with SSDs and SLI should just buy a decent motherboard and stop the confusion.

You'll be fine.
 


Thanks for breaking it down. Does that mean I could fill both m.2 slots and not experience any issues?
 


YES