[SOLVED] Storage options on Prim B450M-A motherboard

[Scionwest]

I just bought a new CyberPowerPC that should be delivered on Friday. I had planned on buying a customized one but my MacBook Pro has been having problems more and more recently and I depend on a PC (Windows or Mac - doesn't matter) for work at the moment. The one I bought had the two major components I wanted, AMD Ryzen 3700X and RTX 2070 GPU and shipped quickly. A custom build wouldn't ship until mid-June.

Anyway, I didn't realize two things when I bought it. The first being the SATA options on the motherboard and the fact that the case only handles two 2.5" drives and I'm storage hungry (6TB consumed on my current PC). First thing I did was buy two 5TB 2.5" drives on Amazon to go with the 1TB m.2 SSD that the machine ships with.

This is the motherboard it has - https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-B450M-A/specifications/

I've never really built a machine or understood how all of the SATA stuff works. Can someone explain to me if I put the two 2.5" 5TB drives into the case along with the 1TB m.2 that it ships with, will I still be able to expand with additional SSD/HDDs in the future?

From the ASUS website, I read this:

AMD B450 chipset :

4 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s),
Support Raid 0, 1, 10
3rd/2nd/1st Gen AMD Ryzen™/ 2nd and 1st Gen AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics/ Athlon™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics Processors :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s),
Support Raid 0, 1, 10
3rd/2nd/1st Gen AMD Ryzen™/ 2nd and 1st Gen AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics :
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)*2
AMD Athlon™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics Processors :
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (SATA mode)*2

It sounds like I can plug up to 4 HDD and 1 M.2 drive in the case - if the case supported it. The case (here: https://www.amazon.com/101-Black-Gaming-Computer-Tempered/dp/B079GXVD4Y?th=1) says it supports two 2.5" or 4 SSD.

I'm not sure how to interpret this. Does that mean the board itself can support 4 SATA connections but if I use a 3rd Gen Ryzen (which would be my CPU) I only have 2 SATA ports available? If I install the two 2.5" 5TB drives I ordered would I still have more SATA capacity, despite the case itself not having slots for additional drives? If that's the scenario then replacing the case might be in order at some point in the future.

I didn't want to build a new PC from scratch (don't have the time at the moment) but I would like to start learning. A case swap in the future might be a good place to start if I have SATA capacity for more drives. Is that the case?

Thanks!

 

[Scionwest]

Another quick follow-up - the technical specs (that I didn't understand how to interpret) says 4 x SATA and 2 x SATA for 3rd Gen Ryzen 7. The Overview page on the motherboard page here: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-B450M-A/overview/ shows 6 x SATA ports. Does that mean I have 6 x SATA if my CPU is Gen 3 Ryzen 7? Or if it is Gen 3 Ryzen I only have 2 available?

 

[USAFRet]

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There are 6x SATA ports.
4 run by the motherboard chipset, 2 run by the CPU.

However, if an M.2 drive is used, you lose the SATA 5 & 6 ports
"The M.2 Socket shares bandwidth with the SATA_5/6 ports, and therefore the SATA_5/6 ports cannot be used when an M.2 device is installed. "

 

[USAFRet]

Now, on to the whole CyberPower thing...

You need to be really really careful with this.
Buying one of their stock ones almost always brings a crappy power supply.
If they did not give you a specific make/model, assume it is junk, no matter what wattage it states.

 

[Scionwest]

Now, on to the whole CyberPower thing...

You need to be really really careful with this.
Buying one of their stock ones almost always brings a crappy power supply.
If they did not give you a specific make/model, assume it is junk, no matter what wattage it states.

Thanks - it says it has an ATNG 800 Watts 80 Plus Gold. Not sure how to determine if the PSU is a decent one or not

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks - it says it has an ATNG 800 Watts 80 Plus Gold. Not sure how to determine if the PSU is a decent one or not

It might not completely suck.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?15499-ATNG-ATA-800FB-B-Good-Bad-Junk

Not good, though.

 

[Scionwest]

Thanks for the link. I don't intend to over clock it so hopefully it'll be good for a bit.

However, if an M.2 drive is used, you lose the SATA 5 & 6 ports
"The M.2 Socket shares bandwidth with the SATA_5/6 ports, and therefore the SATA_5/6 ports cannot be used when an M.2 device is installed. "

Ok this is good to know - I should be able to use 4 SATA drives then, if the case itself supported it.