[M.2 SSD] Question Please Help!

[dagiccross]

I'm planning to get a M.2 SSD since my SSHD is making noises... but I found out it shares bandwidth with my GPU, I'm not sure if I still wanted to get it though. Someone said it barely takes anything from your bandwidth, and depends what's your lanes on your PCI-e, confused

Can someone help me out what sort of M.2 SSD storage drive I can use on this motherboard http://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VII_RANGER/

It has a M.2 slot but I can see there're few types of M.2 too, like
SSD - M.2 SATA and SSD - PCIe M.2 NVME / AHCI SSD
which one of those support on my Z97 motherboard?
Does it really shares bandwidth with my GPU at all?
I think M.2 SSD like Intel 600p 512GB offers Read 1775MB/s, Write 560MB/s will be reduced on my Z97 too, should I still get it?

Thanks for helping!

 

[Radox-0]

The M.2 slot on that particular board (and most z97 ) runs slightly slowed Gen 2.0 PCIe lanes x 2. Newer M.2 drives such as the Intel 600p, Samsung 960 Pro etc require you to use Gen 3.0 x 4 lanes to extract maximum performance.

In order to ensure the drive (and similar) runs at its maximum capability, you would need to purchase a M.2 adaptor card like so: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-hyper-m.2-x4-pci-e-mini-adapter-card-black-pcb-hd-032-as.html and plug it into the second x16 slot on the motherboard directly.

This technically would reduce the PCIe lanes to your GPU from x16 to x8, but that is really a non issue and the impact is negligible and same thing would happen if you ran SLI for example.

Also ensure that you update your motherboard BIOS to at least 2601 (if its running an older one) to ensure it supports NVMe drives. http://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VII_RANGER/HelpDesk_Download/

 

[dagiccross]

Thanks for providing such information! I'm still not sure whether I should get a m.2 or go back for the ssd sata... booting from m.2 ssd might be a bit of a problem too with Z97 board.