Question NVME PCI-E card for Z97-A

[doveman]

I want to get a M2/NVME SSD, partly because I've run out of SATA ports and partly because I want to see if I benefit from the faster speed.

My Asus Z97-A motherboard has a M2 port but it's only x2 so won't support the fastest speeds (3500MB/s ). So I want to get a PCI-E card to run it off and would like some advice as to which one I should get and whether it will negatively effect my PCI-E graphics card (1070ti) at all?

 

[USAFRet]

I literally did this just the other day.
ASRock Z97M, 1TB Intel 660p, RIITop PCIe adapter

Yes it works. It delivers the full speed of that NVMe drive.
It does not impact the performance of the RX580 GPU.

But....
What do you want to use this drive for?
What other drives are in this system?

If you already have SATA SSD's, an NVMe drive is not a magical increase.

 

[doveman]

Thanks. Good to know it works and doesn't affect the GPU.

I've got three SATA SSDs and two HDDs that I'm using. There's some other HDDs in the case from my old PC that died but I haven't got them powered as I don't have enough power leads, so I have to disconnect one of the other drives if I need to check those (which I rarely do).

I want to get a M2 drive partly because I've run out of SATA ports but I also need more space and want to get a 1TB to use just for my flight sims (DCS and X-Plane 11). DCS loads reasonably quickly from the SATA SSD but X-Plane 11 takes ages loading the photo scenery, so I want to see if the M2 drive will make much difference. I can get a 970 Evo 1TB for £187, which is not massively more expensive than a 860 EVO SATA and the Ritop card is only £13 in the UK. So if it doesn't help with loading X-Plane I won't have wasted silly money and I still might find something else I can use it for which takes advantage of the extra speed.

 

[USAFRet]

The 1TB Intel 660p I got was only $88. On sale, but currently only $100.
Like you, I was simply out of SATA ports on the motherboard. ANd that 1TB being only $88, couldn't pass it up. I would have bought it if were just a SATA III 1TB at that price.

For that use, don't expect any major speed advantage.

 

[doveman]

Yeah, it seems this Sabrent is just as fast as the Samsung and it's only £117, so I'll probably get this instead
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-Rocket-Internal-Performance-SB-ROCKET-1TB/dp/B07LGF54XR/