Using SATA EXPRESS and SATA "OS Drive" connections on Asus Z170 Pro motherboard

[Pan_Melas]

Good day to all,

I am building a new PC from scratch. Its basic configuration is the following:

- Motherboard: Asus Z170 Pro
- CPU: Intel i7-6700k
- Gaphics Card: XFX R9 380 DD, 4GB
- RAM: G.Skill TridentZ F4-3200C16Q-32GTZ, 32 GB

By reading the motherboard manual, I saw that it has 6 SATA connectors, two of which are marked as "SATA EXPRESS" ones, while two more of them, at the left side of the first two, are marked as "OS Drive" ones.

Further reading of the manual revealed that the user can connect two SATA discs on the SATA EXPRESS ports, but nothing more is explained for this kind of connection. Therefore, the following questions have been raised for me, which I feel that have to be answered or clarified at this stage, that the building is at the beginning, to do it correctly and avoid additional work, that will possibly appear, if something is done wrong:

A. Where shall I connect the Operating System Disc (or Discs)? Do I have to connect it (them) on the "OS Drive" ports or can this be connected on the "SATA EXPRESS" port (or ports)?

B. If I have to connect two SSD drives on the "OS Drive" ports, is it better to configure them in RAID 0 mode, to achieve faster operational results? In this mode, shall I get a really faster operation with the two discs in RAID 0?

C. If the SATA EXPRESS ports can be used, to connect the OS Disc Drives, can I use them instead of the "OS Drive" ports, with two SSD Drives in RAID 0 configuration, to achieve even faster operational results? Will it be any difference between the use of these two different ports?

I have to add here that I sent these questions to ASUS Technical Support as well, but if I get a quicker reply here, it will save me time and perhaps additional effort and labor.

Thanks in advance.
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[Dex does Computers]

A : OS disk can connect to "OS Drive" but all sata ports can be mapped later in the bios.

B : Any sata can be configure to do RAID. I DO NOT SUGGEST RAID 0 very risky. If one drive dies you loss everything.

C : Sata express is basically 2 sata ports any drive will work and can be configure later.

 

[Pan_Melas]

Thanks for the response. I really appreciate.

However, configuring two SSDs at RAID 0 still waits to be answered in terms of faster operational results. I know that this was possible "once upon a time" with normal HDDs, but I am not sure if this applies to today's SSDs, this is why I placed the question.

The "risk" issue is known and understandable, but someone may want to take the risk, in favor of speed.