[SOLVED] Second M.2 drive - performance bottlenecks?

[APUser]

Hey guys. I'm thinking about buying a second M.2-card, a 2 TB Samsung 970 EVO, since I'm running out of space. This is my current setup:
ASRock Z370 Extreme4 Motherboard (https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/Z370 Extreme4/index.asp#Specification)
GTX 1080 Ti
2 TB HDD
500 GB M.2 in one of the two slots on the Mobo

I saw a few threads talking about potential bandwith-problems with M.2-cards and the graphics card; and since I would then have two M.2-cards I was wondering if I could run into problems there.
Specifically these:
https://www.kitguru.net/components/...m-2-ssds-with-ultra-m-2-but-there-is-a-catch/
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/m-2-ultra-help.2957124/
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/is-ultra-m-2-worth-it.2574877/
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/asrock-ultra-m-2-limiting-video-card.3321060/

I have one WQHD-monitor and one HD-one.

My main question is really, would this second M.2 impact performance in some way? I can't quite wrap my head around the whole slots- and bandwidth-thing.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

M2_1, SATA3_0 and SATA3_1 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.
M2_2, SATA3_4 and SATA3_5 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.

As per the link to the board ^

 

[APUser]

Meaning, since I have one HDD connected, I can't use two M.2s, right?

 

[Obakasama]

Depends which SATA port you're using. Check which SATA port your HDD is using, and cross reference it to the manual.

As far as the available info goes, if wanting to use both M.2 slots then only SATA3_2 and SATA3_3, and SATA3_A1 and SATA3_A2 slots can be used for other SATA devices.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Meaning, since I have one HDD connected, I can't use two M.2s, right?

Meaning - each M.2 device disables 2 sata ports. Your board has 8 sata ports total. So 8 - 4 = 4 sata ports left.

 

[APUser]

Got it. Are there any performance-problems with the 2 M.2 + 1 HDD-setup, as was also asked in the threads I posted? I'm asking again since I have two M.2-cards, not sure if that changes things or there's still plenty of bandwidth left for the graphics-card..

 

[SkyNetRising]

Are there any performance-problems with the 2 M.2 + 1 HDD-setup, as was also asked in the threads I posted?

No other impact than disabled sata ports.

 

[APUser]

Okay, thanks for your help

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Glad to help!