need m.2 confirmation. asus z97-a

[XlordB]

If i get the new samsung 950 pro m2 drive and a mini 4x m2 adaptor and have a setup like this. only have one gpu in slot 1 pcie and plug the adaptor into pcie slot 2 what speeds will they run at? gpu x16 m2 x4? or what?

 

[USAFRet]

Why go through all that just for an m.2?
What other drives are in there?

 

[Zerk2012]

http://techreport.com/review/29221/samsung-950-pro-512gb-ssd-reviewed/4
I would not even consider using the more expensive M.2 drive (about 2X per GB price increase) Unless your going to be doing a ton of fie transfers or using it for a scratch drive for 4K or higher video editing.

 

[XlordB]

hmm ok heres the thing the onboard m.2 slot is rated at x2 what im wondering is this, theres 3 main slots on my board two of them are pcie 3.0 x16 and one is pcie 2 x16 so i guess i could maybe get a m2 adaptor fit it to pcie 2.0 third slot for x4? and just get a pcie 2.0 m2 x4 drive then?

 

[XlordB]

to clarify here my current setup is sli gtx 970 4690k, i have only two drives one mechanical and one ssd using as system, I would much prefer to have the m.2 drive for system my current ssd for games only and my mechanical for storage. i dont mind dropping to a pcie 2.0 drive if it runs x4 for my system drive

 

[XlordB]

my current ssd is only 256g samsung 850 evo and i love it but i realy want a seperate system drive so i can have that drive for games only because when i start installing games to it it fills up fast

 

[USAFRet]

to clarify here my current setup is sli gtx 970 4690k, i have only two drives one mechanical and one ssd using as system, I would much prefer to have the m.2 drive for system my current ssd for games only and my mechanical for storage. i dont mind dropping to a pcie 2.0 drive if it runs x4 for my system drive

In normal realworld use, you will not see a 4x performance increase.

 

[Zerk2012]

my current ssd is only 256g samsung 850 evo and i love it but i realy want a seperate system drive so i can have that drive for games only because when i start installing games to it it fills up fast

http://techreport.com/review/29221/samsung-950-pro-512gb-ssd-reviewed/4
Again no performance increase for what your doing and not worth the cost.
Same price but the regular SATA has 3 X the storage.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820147466
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820156124

 

[XlordB]

So basically instead of m2 i should just buy a larger ssd and stick it on my sata interface? and use my current ssd as sytem only?

 

[XlordB]

also i run windows 10 not 8 ..

 

[USAFRet]

So basically instead of m2 i should just buy a larger ssd and stick it on my sata interface? and use my current ssd as sytem only?

Your current drive is 256GB.
That is plenty for the OS and a whole bunch of applications.

Just get another SSD (or HDD) and use it for games/movie/video/etc.

 

[junkeymonkey]

need to find a review that covers slots like the pro here to see how the slots are ''wired / shared '' you see how adding a 3ed part in a slot can affect things even usb down to x1 speeds and then how it shares with the chipset on the rest ?

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/asus-z97-pro-motherboard/2/

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/66282-asus-z97-lga1150-motherboard-review-7.html

you only got 16 lanes off the cpu then as you add parts it goes down like 3 devices can go 8x4x4 4 devices can cut that down less and less like stated in that one review all the way to x1

all you can count on is the primary pci-e slot for the card will allways maintain x8

''If you're running just a single card, the top slot will run at x16. If you opt to use two cards, then they will both run at x8. As for the third slot, that runs at just x2.''

Read more: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6556/asus-z97-a-intel-z97-motherboard-review/index2.html

''The problem is that the specification describes an M.2 slot as having four PCIe lanes and one SATA port. However, Intel chipsets don't have enough of free PCIe lanes, so the SATA Express and M.2 connectors have only two rather than four PCIe lanes. Moreover, the ASUS Z97-A isn’t a flagship model and has no additional controllers. Four of the chipset's ''

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/asus-z97-a_2.html

 

[XlordB]

thanks for the answers. So on my board apparently the 3rd slot down is pci2.0 and its only x2.. what a bummer lol anyway i found an m2 drive that i can use on my m2 slot directly https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plextor-PX-G1256M6E-256GB-2280-Express/dp/B00JJYKO4K/ref=pd_cart_vw_2_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=279KJY9SJ1SY7PT8QFF6

 

[junkeymonkey]

So on my board apparently the 3rd slot down is pci2.0 and its only x2..

don't know with out looking at the manual on how the slots are arranged

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/705872/Asus-Z87-A.html?page=41#manual

thing is don't say what the m2 socket speed is ?? could be x2 as well ??

''The PCIe x1_1/2 slots share bandwidth with M.2 Socket 3. The M.2 Socket 3 is disabled by default''

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/705872/Asus-Z87-A.html?page=6#manual

like said the more you add the less you get

 

[Zerk2012]

also i run windows 10 not 8 ..

It dont matter what OS your using the results are the same.

 

[junkeymonkey]

its just a hardware limitation of the board [intel] some are a bit different in how its wired/shared but overall the same you olny have so many lane between the cpu [16] and the chipset [8] for a total of 24

only thig is how the ''CPU'' lanes are shared some may only do the 2 pci-e slorts for the cards and never go below 8x8 and some may just hold one slot for a card at 8x and share the rest at 8x4x4 and so on

unlike AMD boards its all through the chipset and I think 40 lanes total [why AMD can have 2 x16 for the cards ]

now if you go up to a intel board with a plx chip like a ''X"" board or 2011 chips there cpu's have more lanes built in to them

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_2011