Slightly Confused About M.2 on Asus X99-WS/IPMI

[tolagarf]

I'm trying to figure out if using the available M.2 slot on my motherboard, the Asus X99-WS/IPMI will cause SATA ports SATA6_G5 and G6 (SATA Express connector) to be disabled when a M.2 NVMe card is used in the slot.

According to the manual is says nothing about it at all. Not what I can find anyway. However on the product page from ASUS it mentions the following at the bottom with the specifications in the note section:

*6 with M Key, type 2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA/PCIE mode), M.2 Socket 3 shares bandwidth with SATAExpress

So what does that actually mean? I would assume it means if both the SATA ports belonging to the SATA Express port and the M.2 are populated, they'd share that bandwidth? Does this mean they would have to fight over IO access, or is this not even a problem? I have two HDD running in RAID1 on those ports, fyi.

[AlienALX]

NVME uses lanes.

M.2 SATA uses SATA ports.

At least that is how I understand it. So it depends on your drives as to whether they will use lanes, SATA or both.

[tolagarf]

Originally Posted by AlienALX

NVME uses lanes.

M.2 SATA uses SATA ports.

At least that is how I understand it. So it depends on your drives as to whether they will use lanes, SATA or both.

Yes exactly. Since the SSD is a PCI-e NVMe M.2, it shouldn't use SATA. And that's how it usually works on Asus boards, that if you run it in SATA mode that would disable the SATA Express port (or two SATA ports). It's just the way they mention it, it sounds like they would have to fight over bandwidth no matter what.

Of course I could test it out...

[AlienALX]

I remember doing stupid hours of research into this, and it's about as clear as a glass of mud. I think some of it depends on whether the drive has a controller on it as well.

But aye, "Suck em and see" is probably the best way to find out lol.

[tolagarf]

Test done. Turns out the ports are deactivated when a M.2 occupy the slot. Well I guess I might as just install my ASUS X99-A motherboard as it doesn't have that problem, instead it deactivates PCI-e x16_4 slot when a M.2 is installed, however it's an Ultra M.2 slot even

[tinytomlogan]

Even SATA ports are using PCIE dude. Its all how the chipset works.

Basically it can disable or share bandwidth with Sata 5 and 6