[SOLVED] Using all M.2 slots will affect performance?

[GeroldDayne]

It's my first time buying a board with M.2 slots.
I'm thinking of buying the MSI PRO B660M-A PLUS WIFI.

- A friend told me using the 2 M.2 slots will affect the system performance. Is this true?

- What about SATA ports can I use all 4 without losing performance?

 

[USAFRet]

It's my first time buying a board with M.2 slots.
I'm thinking of buying the MSI PRO B660M-A PLUS WIFI.

- A friend told me using the 2 M.2 slots will affect the system performance. Is this true?

- What about SATA ports can I use all 4 without losing performance?

"a friend told me..."

What documented reasoning did he give for this?


My current system has 6x SSD. In my sig, under 'Viper'.
2x NVMe, and 4x SATA III.
I see no performance hit.

 

[Hellfire13]

That is incorrect. Each M2 slot has its own dedicated lane for high speed connectivity.

 

[hotaru.hino]

- A friend told me using the 2 M.2 slots will affect the system performance. Is this true?

No.

- What about SATA ports can I use all 4 without losing performance?

Maybe. Using the second M.2 slot in many boards will disable SATA ports. Consult the manual to figure out if this is the case and if so, which ones. Otherwise no.

 

[GeroldDayne]

No.


Maybe. Using the second M.2 slot in many boards will disable SATA ports. Consult the manual to figure out if this is the case and if so, which ones. Otherwise no.

I just check and it says: "SATA8 will be unavailable when installing M.2 SATA SSD in the M2_2 slot "

The board only has 4 SATA slots. What does it means by SATA8 ?

https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/PROB660M-AWIFIDDR4_PROB660M-ADDR4100x150.pdf

 

[Lafong]

I just check and it says: "SATA8 will be unavailable when installing M.2 SATA SSD in the M2_2 slot "

The board only has 4 SATA slots. What does it means by SATA8 ?

https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/PROB660M-AWIFIDDR4_PROB660M-ADDR4100x150.pdf

Consult page 18,

 

[geofelt]

I just check and it says: "SATA8 will be unavailable when installing M.2 SATA SSD in the M2_2 slot "

The board only has 4 SATA slots. What does it means by SATA8 ?

https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/PROB660M-AWIFIDDR4_PROB660M-ADDR4100x150.pdf

Exactly that.
The sata port labelled sata8 can not be used if you install a sata m.2 device in M2. note sata, not pcie^^^^
I imagine that a more normal pcie m.2 device would not disable sata8

 

[GeroldDayne]

Exactly that.
The sata port labelled sata8 can not be used if you install a sata m.2 device in M2. note sata, not pcie^^^^
I imagine that a more normal pcie m.2 device would not disable sata8

Is this common to every motherboard? Or just some?

 

[USAFRet]

Is this common to every motherboard? Or just some?

Most boards have 1 or more SATA ports disabled if an M.2 port is used.
Not all, though.

My Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO has 2x M.2 ports, and does not disable any of the 4x SATA ports.
I have all 6 in use.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550M-AORUS-PRO-rev-10/sp#sp

But most people don't have enough physical drives for this to matter.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Is this common to every motherboard? Or just some?

It's common in a lot of boards due to how the second M.2 slot and the SATA ports are wired up. They share the same communication line to the chipset.

This is to provide flexibility, and it's not like board makers expect people to populate every last port and slot in the system. Yes some people do, but most people don't.