[SOLVED] Need to expand my storage with both nvme and sata 3 ssd's

Dec 30, 2018
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Hello. I have a PC motherboard (gigabyte h77-ds3h) with only two sata 3 (6g/s) ports that I alreasy use. I need some extra ports for adding more ssd's. I see pcie adapters for adding an nvme ssd. I also see PCIe adapters that add one or two sata 3 ports. I have not enough pcie slots so I wonder if there is a pcie adapter which combines both nvme ssd and and one or more sata 3 6g/s ssd. Can anyone help me please?
 
Solution


Yes, that second one would limit a SATA III drive to SATA II performance. No difference if that drive was m.2 or 205" format.

You're trying to gain drive performance on a board that cannot do it. That was a low end board 7 years ago when it was released.
Save your NVMe money for when you...


First off, why do you "need" the NVMe drive? A system that old has other speed limitations.

And no, I've never seen an adapter that is for both SATA and NVMe drives at the same time.


What drives do you have in this system now?
 
I don't t know if I really need it. I have windows 10, (CPU i7 3770k and 16 GB ram) on a Samsung 840 and a second Samsung 850. I use my PC for heavy audio production with Cubase, kontakt etc. I need some extra ssd's and I thought that since I am gonna buy an adapter, why not use the extra speed of a nvme disk, epecialy for the cubase projects which load a lot of audio samples and plugins that reach the limit of my system.
I found pcie adapters for nvme, pcie adapters for sata 3, a lot of other different ones, but why not one that takes both of these two?
 


Why no adapters that take both? Probably low (or no) demand for it.
Any more recent system already has a multitude of SATA and m.2 ports, and more PCIe slots.
And people that use a system as old and low end as your motherboard aren't trying to maximize their SSD options.

Personally, I'd just get regular SATA III drives and adapter. Wait until you have a system that can accept an NVMe drive natively.
 


Yes, that second one would limit a SATA III drive to SATA II performance. No difference if that drive was m.2 or 205" format.

You're trying to gain drive performance on a board that cannot do it. That was a low end board 7 years ago when it was released.
Save your NVMe money for when you get a new system that can use that natively.
 
Solution
I guess I just have to choose between an adapter with an nvme and an adapter with sata 3 slots.
You think that there will be no difference at all between these 2 solutions? The price difference is no big at all. And any improvement at performance would be more than welcome. If you think they will have the same behavior then I will just take an adapter with two sata 3 slots. Thank you again for your help
 


In theory and benchmarks, the NVMe drives are faster.
In real world use, especially with a system as old as yours...I doubt you'd see any user facing benefit vs regular SATA III SSD.s
And especially not for the increased $$ per GB.

Get a SATA->PCIe adapter, and add a couple of regular 2.5" SSD's.

How much new drive space do you actually need?