[SOLVED] What PCIE SSD is compatible with my motherboard?

[Genefreak]

Hi there. I was wondering if this PCIE SSD was compatible with my ASROCK G31M-S (Rev1).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Corsair-...471164&hash=item522569cad1:g:PogAAOSwfYJcshc1

Thanks.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

That''s an M.2 SSD designed to fit in an M.2 slot.

Your motherboard doesn't have any M.2 slots so that SSD is not compatible.

 

[Genefreak]

Ahh. Thanks. So are there any SSDs that I can plug in without using up a SATA port?

 

[USAFRet]

Ahh. Thanks. So are there any SSDs that I can plug in without using up a SATA port?

In theory, you could get a PCIe adapter. But why?

What drives are in this system now?

 

[Genefreak]

It's an old system that I'm re-purposing for a File/Game server. I would like to add several HDDs to the sata ports (of which I have 4) and use RAID 5.. Because of this, I'd like to not use the sata ports for my boot/game install drive.... but something's just dawned on me.. not sure if the BIOS support booting to PCIE drives so may not even have that option.... just brainstorming at the moment.

 

[kanewolf]

You would probably be better off using one of the motherboard SATA ports for boot and putting a hardware RAID card in for you data drives.
That way you can move your RAID to another motherboard if this one fails.

 

[USAFRet]

but something's just dawned on me.. not sure if the BIOS support booting to PCIE drives so may not even have that option.... just brainstorming at the moment.

A board that old, almost certainly not.
And for that use, an NVMe/PCIe drive won't give any benefit over a regular SATA III SSD.

4 SATA ports.
1 for the OS drive, 3 for your data drives. RAID 5, JBOD, or just individuals.

 

[Genefreak]

Thanks. Very helpful. I could possibly put three 6TB drives in (one for parity - shame to lose that much space - but hey). I was hoping to futureproof - but I guess with the age of the motherboard, i can't afford to be too choosy.

Good idea about the RAID card.. I forgot that that would make it easier to transplant to another board when the inevitable happens. I take it if I software raided them directly on the motherboard, if the mobo fails, I've lost the whole array?

 

[USAFRet]

Just to be clear, a RAID 5 only gives you 'protection' of a single physical drive fail.
It does little or nothing for the actual data.

A good backup is always recommended.

 

[Genefreak]

I've always wondered about this. The biggest thing I worry about in my home server is drive failure. I'm the only user with write access on the system so unless I do something silly, I shouldn't lose anything. I guess bit rot is always an issue over time. I'm probably being naive because I've never had a catastrophic failure. I've used raid 1 on my synology NAS for the last 6 years..... mind you, I do have my critical stuff on all computers in the house distributed with syncthing - so I'm not completely stupid!