Question MSI h110i M.2 pcie sata help

[ForYourHealth]

Hello! First, some specs

Mobo: MSI H110i pro (has 4 SATA ports, one M.2 slot manual says "supports PCIe 2.0x4 standard M.2 PCIe-interface SSD cards", and one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot)

I want to have an SSD to use as my boot drive, and don't have an OS installed yet. I will be putting Ubuntu Server 24 on the boot drive.

I have installed:

4x1tb HDD in SATA_0-SATA_3

I bought a M.2 drive, but already realized it won't work due to being SATA and nvme-incompatible (whoops!).

Before I buy more stuff, I want to figure out the best way to add an SSD.

Will using the M.2 slot turn off any SATA drives? The manual I can find online doesn't say anything about this.

Would using the PCIe slot also shut off any SATA ports? Or would getting a PCIe slot to m.2 adapter work, to avoid the M.2 slot on the back of the mobo?

Is there any other way to figure out this information without just changing drives in and out and checking in the BIOS? The M.2 slot is on the back of the mobo and very inconvenient to get to.

 

[Aeacus]

Will using the M.2 slot turn off any SATA drives?

No.

Since M.2 slot supports only PCI-E 2.0 in x4 mode (4 lanes), it doesn't interfere with SATA in any way. After all, PCI-E and SATA are two completely different protocols.

Would using the PCIe slot also shut off any SATA ports?

No.

Or would getting a PCIe slot to m.2 adapter work, to avoid the M.2 slot on the back of the mobo?

Well, since your MoBo is mini-ITX, it only has one PCI-E slot. So, when you do not use dedicated GPU (instead iGPU inside the CPU) and you have your PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot free, then yes, you can use PCI-E to M.2 add-on card.

Is there any other way to figure out this information without just changing drives in and out and checking in the BIOS?

Well, you can research PCI-E and SATA protocols and at which cases they overlap, if you don't believe what i'm saying about those.

Though, that M.2 slot is strange of being PCI-E 2.0. 1st time i see M.2 slot being PCI-E Gen2. 🤔
I have same series, Intel 100-series chipset MoBo and the two M.2 slots my MoBo has, are both PCI-E 3.0 (Gen3). I also have one gen older MoBo, Intel 90-series and M.2 slot there is also PCI-E 3.0 (Gen3).

And i don't even know any M.2 drives that are PCI-E 2.0 (Gen3).
1st PCI-E NVMe drives that came out, were all PCI-E 3.0 (Gen3) drives. Like Samsung 960 Evo. But it matters not, since M.2 PCI-E 3.0 drives are backwards compatible with M.2 PCI-E 2.0 slot.

The M.2 slot is on the back of the mobo and very inconvenient to get to.

Well, you could buy 2TB HDD and replace two 1TB HDDs with it. Thus freeing one of the SATA ports, where you can hook 2.5" SATA SSD to. This would be the easiest.
Or when you go with 8TB HDD, you'll free up 3 other SATA ports, while doubling your storage space.

 

[USAFRet]

1. That board may or may not be capable of booting from a NVMe drive.

2. Being a PCIe 2.0 port, you'd see little if any difference over booting from, or using, a SATA III SSD.


I would just go simple, and boot from a SATA III drive.