Question SSD SATA M.2 and ASUS TUF X570

[anon7mous]

I'm leaning towards taking Samsung 860 EVO M.2 https://www.samsung.com/us/computin...ssd-860-evo-m-2-sata-250gb-mz-n6e250bw/#specs
and I'm getting this motherboard https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/TUF-GAMING-X570-PLUS-WI-FI/specifications/

What confuses me is that on the motherboard specs it says "with M key" and when I look at the picture of 860 Evo it looks like it has both B and M.
Question 1. Will this work?

Question 2., if I decide to get another SSD sometime in future, will have any M.2 ports remaining? This entire m.2 thing is a bit confusing to me but I'm adamant to understand it.

 

[PC Tailor]

Yes that M.2 should work fine with the motheboard, however the board only has 1 M.2 slot available. So you can only have 1 M.2 unless you decided to use a PCIe slot based one/adapter.

Anything you're not sure of regarding M.2? Just remember there are 2 different M2 interfaces SATA/PCIe.

 

[anon7mous]

Yes that M.2 should work fine with the motheboard, however the board only has 1 M.2 slot available. So you can only have 1 M.2 unless you decided to use a PCIe slot based one/adapter.

Anything you're not sure of regarding M.2? Just remember there are 2 different M2 interfaces SATA/PCIe.

Thanks for your reply.

So the motherboard accepts "M key" and the card looks as if it has "M+B" and that is compatible? That confuses me.

Lastly when I use my M.2 port for SATA interface, my motherboard will automatically make one SATA port "unavailable" but I will still have 7 SATA ports remaining (the board should have 8x SATA ports)?

I guess that would be all

 

[PC Tailor]

Yes you will still have access to the 8 standard SATA ports with an M.2 attached.

Here is a quick idea for the keys

B key = PCIe x2 / SATA
M Key = PCIe x4 / SATA
Yours is a B+M key - so this means it can operate with both.

 

[mdd1963]

an 860 EVO is a SATA drive, a decent SATA drive, but, a waste of an M.2 SATA/NVME slot...(which, in my opinion, are best served with much faster NVME drives)

I'd go for Intel's 660P which is a 3x faster (at sequential reads, anyway) NVME M.2 for the same prices..if not less..

 

[PC Tailor]

an 860 EVO is a SATA drive, a decent SATA drive, but, a waste of an M.2 SATA/NVME slot...

I'd go for Intel's 660P which is a 3x faster (at sequential reads, anyway) NVME M.2 for the same prices..if not less..

Personally I'd opt for whatever is cheapest, you'd only real see a benefit if say you're doing large movie file edits, or moving data from one NVMe to another.

Agreed the 660p is excellent value for money, so if it's the same price, may as well.

 

[anon7mous]

Yes you will still have access to the 8 standard SATA ports with an M.2 attached.

Here is a quick idea for the keys

B key = PCIe x2 / SATA
M Key = PCIe x4 / SATA
Yours is a B+M key - so this means it can operate with both.

Now I get it. Thanks!

an 860 EVO is a SATA drive, a decent SATA drive, but, a waste of an M.2 SATA/NVME slot...(which, in my opinion, are best served with much faster NVME drives)

I'd go for Intel's 660P which is a 3x faster (at sequential reads, anyway) NVME M.2 for the same prices..if not less..

I'm building a new PC for myself that will mostly be used for gaming and maybe occasionally for CAD. I doubt I need NVME for gaming purposes and that's why I went with SATA (was also cheaper).
I choose Samsung because of durability / endurance (TBW). I usually give my "old" PCs to my family and they usually last 10 years. I'm afraid that other SSDs with lower TBW won't make it that long but I might be misinformed here.
If I am let me know and I can maybe get Crucial MX500 or even intel NVME.