Question Which M.2 slots to use

[mikejs78]

I'm building my system and am a bit unclear on which M.2 slots to use on my motherboard (this is my first build using M.2 drives). I have:

AMD Ryzen 7700x CPU
Asus Rog Strix x670e-f motherboard
Two M.2 drives, both Samsung 990 Pro (a 1TB drive for OS/apps, a 2TB drive for games)

The motherboard lists the four slots as follows:

AMD Ryzen 7000 Series Desktop Processors:

• M.2_1 supports PCIE 5.0 x4 mode M Key design and type 2242 / 2260 / 2280 storage devices
• M.2_2 supports PCIE 5.0 x4 mode M Key design and type 2242 / 2260 / 2280 storage devices

AMD X670 Chipset:

• M.2_3 supports PCIE 4.0 x4 mode M Key design and type 2242 / 2260 / 2280 / 22110 storage devices
• M.2_4 supports PCIE 4.0 x4 mode M Key design and type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices

Which slots does it make sense to use in my situation, and why? Obviously the drives are PCIE 4.0, so that is not a factor, but I was wondering if there was any other factors I should be considering?

 

[hedwar2011]

Both drives are 2280 drives. You will need to use the slot designated for that size.

 

[logainofhades]

OS drive in the top slot, and the game drive in the second slot.

 

[helper800]

Put the OS drive in the slot closest to the CPU socket. The reason why is because it will have ever so slightly better latency than the other slots and is wired directly into the CPU.