M.2 and Sata port :: Hardware and Operating Systems

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Wraithsiege Apr 4, 2019 @ 2:32am

M.2 and Sata port

Im having 500gb 960evo ssd and 4 sata slots in my pc in which one of them uses my 1TB WD Blue(sata 1). I was looking at my motherboard manual and motherboard site to see how many sata ssd i can add in future but i cant find the info how much sata ports are disabled cause of my ssd. Motherboard is MSI B350M Mortar

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Showing 1-12 of 12 comments

Jinn-Gon Qui Apr 4, 2019 @ 2:49am

Usually, or totally, two SATA ports are disabled once an M.2 driver (I assume Intel Optane, for instance) or storage is used.

tacoshy Apr 4, 2019 @ 2:54am

M.2 is a formfactor. It can be both SATA and NVMe (PCI 3.0 x4).
With the use of a 960 (NVMe) normally disable 2 sata ports. only the manual will tell you which ports.

_I_ Apr 4, 2019 @ 3:08am

depends on the mobo, read its manual to see whats disabled when sata or nvme drive m.2 is used

Supafly Apr 4, 2019 @ 3:22am

Nothing I can find in the manual states a M.2 Drive affects the Sata ports in anyway. My board has 6 Sata ports and that leaves me with 4 as ports 5 and 6 are disabled. I suspect you have full use of all 4 Sata ports as the M.2 has dedicated lanes not linked to them.

To be sure contact MSI. Alternatively and Faster than contacting MSI just move your 1TB HDD from Sata 1 to the other Sata ports. Then boot after each and see if it shows up after each change.

Washell Apr 4, 2019 @ 3:30am

Checked the manual myself, it's not mentioned anywhere, so no ports will be disabled when using the M.2 drive/stick.

If they had added that feature, you probably would have had 6 physical SATA ports instead of the 4 you have now.

ericcui1 Apr 4, 2019 @ 5:35am

960EVO is a NVMe drive, it does not use SATA interface. It will not interfere the SATA ports whatsoever.
Only if you install a M.2 SATA drive, then on some motherboards it will disable a SATA port.

Supafly Apr 4, 2019 @ 5:46am

Originally posted by ericcui1:
960EVO is a NVMe drive, it does not use SATA interface. It will not interfere the SATA ports whatsoever.
Only if you install a M.2 SATA drive, then on some motherboards it will disable a SATA port.

Nope. Whether it's an M.2 SSD or PCIe SSD can affect use of Sata ports as some boards share the lanes.

Copied this from my Motherboard, GA-Z270X-Gaming K5, manual.

Installation Notices for the M.2 and SATA Connectors:
Due to the limited number of lanes provided by the Chipset, the availability of the SATA connectors may be affected by the types of device installed in the M2M_32G and M2A_32G connectors. The M2M_32G connector shares bandwidth with the SATA3 4, 5 connectors. The M2A_32G connector shares bandwidth with the SATA3 0 connector. Refer to the following table for details.

ericcui1 Apr 4, 2019 @ 5:58am

Originally posted by Suicidal Monkey:
Originally posted by ericcui1:
960EVO is a NVMe drive, it does not use SATA interface. It will not interfere the SATA ports whatsoever.
Only if you install a M.2 SATA drive, then on some motherboards it will disable a SATA port.

Nope. Whether it's an M.2 SSD or PCIe SSD can affect use of Sata ports as some boards share the lanes.

Copied this from my Motherboard, GA-Z270X-Gaming K5, manual.

Installation Notices for the M.2 and SATA Connectors:
Due to the limited number of lanes provided by the Chipset, the availability of the SATA connectors may be affected by the types of device installed in the M2M_32G and M2A_32G connectors. The M2M_32G connector shares bandwidth with the SATA3 4, 5 connectors. The M2A_32G connector shares bandwidth with the SATA3 0 connector. Refer to the following table for details.

Oops, forgot about the case of multiple M.2 drives. OP only has one NVMe drive, it shouldn't disable any SATA ports.