Z370 Aorus Gaming Wifi PCIE lanes

Hi guys! A quick question. I have a Z370 Gaming Wifi motherboard and I have 2 SSDs, 3 HDDs and an Optane drive installed.

I'm planning to purchase a NVME drive to place on the 2nd M.2 slot (bottom slot) but I would like to clarify if it will read the NVME with no problem. I'm guessing it will read it since it is not PCIE based but I would like to have your opinion before I waste my money on a drive I cannot use.

Thank you!

Check your MB manual, some motherboards disable a number of SATA ports, if all M.2 slots populated...

Hi,
Indeed and 2-m.2 is likely to kill a pci-e slot too.

The manual explicitly spells out what SATA/PCIe ports are affected by the m.2 slots in chapter 1.8.11.

Cr00zng said:

Check your MB manual, some motherboards disable a number of SATA ports, if all M.2 slots populated...

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Indeed and 2-m.2 is likely to kill a pci-e slot too.

Thanks for the replies guys!

PolarNettles said:

The manual explicitly spells out what SATA/PCIe ports are affected by the m.2 slots in chapter 1.8.11.

I downloaded the manual and if my understanding is correct, installing two M.2 drives will kill one PCIE right? But if I install a bigger capacity HDD to replace 2 HDDs, I can now use the planned NVME right?

jaypels said:

Thanks for the replies guys!



I downloaded the manual and if my understanding is correct, installing two M.2 drives will kill one PCIE right? But if I install a bigger capacity HDD to replace 2 HDDs, I can now use the planned NVME right?

Did you notice that M2Q_32G only supports PCI-E M2 drives?

bobkn said:

Did you notice that M2Q_32G only supports PCI-E M2 drives?

To be honest, I'm really not familiar with the terms used. So I figured M.2 PCIe = NVME while M.2 SATA = Normal (Non-NVME) SSD.

Is that correct?

jaypels said:

To be honest, I'm really not familiar with the terms used. So I figured M.2 PCIe = NVME while M.2 SATA = Normal (Non-NVME) SSD.

Is that correct?

Not strictly. All NVME drives are PCI-E, but a PCI-E drive need not be NVME.

I'm using an oldish Plextor m.2 PCI-E drive that is not NVME.

Regardless, the second m.2 slot in the board only accepts PCI-E drives.

If you have one PCI-E drive and one SATA drive, you'll need to put the PCI-E drive in the second slot and the SATA one in the first. (Doesn't sound like a big deal, as I should have pointed out in my first post.)

bobkn said:

Not strictly. All NVME drives are PCI-E, but a PCI-E drive need not be NVME.

I'm using an oldish Plextor m.2 PCI-E drive that is not NVME.

Regardless, the second m.2 slot in the board only accepts PCI-E drives.

If you have one PCI-E drive and one SATA drive, you'll need to put the PCI-E drive in the second slot and the SATA one in the first. (Doesn't sound like a big deal, as I should have pointed out in my first post.)

That does clarify this a little. My top slot has the Optane drive installed. Will the motherboard recognize the lower slot if I put a NVME drive (970 evo) there? I believe Optane is NVME based (if that sentence makes sense)

jaypels said:

That does clarify this a little. My top slot has the Optane drive installed. Will the motherboard recognize the lower slot if I put a NVME drive (970 evo) there? I believe Optane is NVME based (if that sentence makes sense)

I have no personal experience with Optane devices.

However, I presume that it's PCI-E, and it's probably NVME.

You may need to set the BIOS to use the two m.2 devices properly, but I haven't checked that.