PCIe LANE Confusion when using M.2s

CodeMeRight · 21 Oct 2016 at 16:58

Hey Lads

Could do with someone who knows about PCIe Lanes Please, I've been reading the Manual for this

Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) "OVERCLOCKERS LINK"

Who Understands the PCIe rules best ?

I'm somewhat confused If I can fit 2 x M.2 on the board, How many SSHD SATA Drives will I be able to use ?

Also thinking of buying the Intel 6700K, or would there be a better CPU to buy.

All I want is to be able to have 2 x SSHD drives for all my STEAM Games and Origin Games,.. Then a PCIe M.2 as the Booting drive. (2 x M.2 and 2 x SSHDs would be better).

from what I've been told, they're not enough lanes,... Is this true?

What Drive set up would you lads have, 2 x M.2s and 2 SSHDs ?
Or 1 x M.2 and 2 x SSHDs.

All reasonable responses would be Appreciated, Thanks People

Smffy · 21 Oct 2016 at 20:06

Couple of posts down from yours:

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18753791

There are plenty of lanes on the chipset, most people have SSDs only and the whole M.2 is still only now becoming a thing. In reality the read/write speed is reasonably overkill for most processes but you could for example have the 1 M.2 with your OS and programs with a bank of SSDs for the rest. Personally I have 1 x M.2 and 4 x SSDs, 1 of the SSDs was replaced by the M.2.

Plenty of lanes, pretty sure the chipset has ample for the drives (something like 25) so SATA isn't a problem. The M.2 only becomes a problem if not in a dedicated slot which is using the Z170 chipset not CPU lanes, where your x16 with drop to x8... Again makes vitually no difference in most applications other than benchmarking.

Short story, plenty of lanes, unlikely to notice any drop in PCI lane from x16 to x8 for normal use. Most applications are not going to make full use of say 2,000mbs read/write so i'd say largely a good 500mb/s SSD is ample for most people. I bought my just because if i'm honest about it. Speaking totally honestly for storing files/music etc and constantly read/writing you want a normal HDD because an SSD will wear out... Takes a long time but it will, where as a HDD might after many years fail. Documents and files for long term safe storage = HDD, I use and external one to avoid slowing things down.

CodeMeRight · 21 Oct 2016 at 20:47

Smffy said:
Couple of posts down from yours:

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18753791

There are plenty of lanes on the chipset, most people have SSDs only and the whole M.2 is still only now becoming a thing. In reality the read/write speed is reasonably overkill for most processes but you could for example have the 1 M.2 with your OS and programs with a bank of SSDs for the rest. Personally I have 1 x M.2 and 4 x SSDs, 1 of the SSDs was replaced by the M.2.

Plenty of lanes, pretty sure the chipset has ample for the drives (something like 25) so SATA isn't a problem. The M.2 only becomes a problem if not in a dedicated slot which is using the Z170 chipset not CPU lanes, where your x16 with drop to x8... Again makes vitually no difference in most applications other than benchmarking.

Short story, plenty of lanes, unlikely to notice any drop in PCI lane from x16 to x8 for normal use. Most applications are not going to make full use of say 2,000mbs read/write so i'd say largely a good 500mb/s SSD is ample for most people. I bought my just because if i'm honest about it. Speaking totally honestly for storing files/music etc and constantly read/writing you want a normal HDD because an SSD will wear out... Takes a long time but it will, where as a HDD might after many years fail. Documents and files for long term safe storage = HDD, I use and external one to avoid slowing things down.

This Is so much better than I expected, Thank you for the time, It's really appreciated, Pal.

Kind Regards

Smffy · 22 Oct 2016 at 15:18

CodeMeRight said:
This Is so much better than I expected, Thank you for the time, It's really appreciated, Pal.

Kind Regards

No worries, good luck

mistersprinkles · 24 Oct 2016 at 21:10

-You can use as many SATA drives as you want. It doesn't matter as they are HDD/SSD/SSHD. If you have a free SATA port, you can add a drive.

Dual m.2 on Z170 is not a problem. There are (20?) PCIE 3.0 lanes coming from the PCH (aka southbridge) and M.2 is only 4X PCIE 3.0 so theoretically you could have 4 M.2 drives on a board and not see any kind of bandwidth issues provided that you did not have additional devices pulling more than 4 PCIE 3.0 lanes (combined) themselves.

HoneyBadger · 24 Oct 2016 at 22:27

mistersprinkles said:
-You can use as many SATA drives as you want. It doesn't matter as they are HDD/SSD/SSHD. If you have a free SATA port, you can add a drive

Not quite true, some mobos disable SATA ports when m.2 drives are in use. Depends on the board.

doc · 27 Oct 2016 at 21:26

I have that board and have the following setup:

2x M.2 in RAID0
2x SSD in RAID0

That takes up all the Intel SATA ports and from the testing I've done, everything runs at full speed.

You then just have the 2x Asmedia SATA ports for anything non RAID (DVD, etc)

Also, I chose that board as the M.2 slots are perfectly placed to avoid heat issues as most boards put them underneath graphics cards.

CodeMeRight · 2 Nov 2016 at 22:38

doc said:
I have that board and have the following setup:

2x M.2 in RAID0
2x SSD in RAID0

That takes up all the Intel SATA ports and from the testing I've done, everything runs at full speed.

You then just have the 2x Asmedia SATA ports for anything non RAID (DVD, etc)

Also, I chose that board as the M.2 slots are perfectly placed to avoid heat issues as most boards put them underneath graphics cards.

Sorry for the delay,...been real busy.

That's sounds like great news, My plan was to have 2x-M.2 RAID0,... Then was hoping for 2x-4TB SATA SSHDs,...for Steam & Origin Gaming, However, Not in RAID0,... If They had to be in RAID then so be it.

I could always have 1 or 2x4TB Drives in a Networked box with all my movie & Music collection, as watching a movie or listening to music you don't really need speed,... So no need for them drives to be fixed into the Rig.

@HoneyBadger

You are correct, This is why I came to ask, I read about this in the manual you see, but was still a little unsure, always best to ask I say.

Thank you to everyone, Appreciated.