Asus Maximus VII Hero - no SATA Express support, does it matter?

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wolfstryder

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Jul 14, 2014
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I'm planning on updating my aged processor and motherboard. (Phenom II 965 BE and Gigabyte mobo) to a Intel 4790k and a Z97 mobo. I'm narrowing down my motherboard choices and I'm really looking at the Asus Maximus VII Hero. The only thing I was concerned about was the lack of SATA Express ports. It does have a M.2 port however. Will I be gimping myself if I don't have a board with SATA Express for the near future? Will the M.2 slot serve as a replacement? Apparently you can only use a certain type of M.2 SSD with the board as well. Plus, will the M.2 on the board only support 1 SSD at a time?

On a less concerned note, I already have a soundcard (Soundblaster X-Fi Fatality). I know the Asus Maximus VII Hero comes with a great sound system. I'm I still better off using my sound card instead of the on-board sound?

Thanks for any advice.
 
Solution
volcanoscout
In no particular order:

- The SATA 3 ports are backward compatible with SATA 2, so no worries, SATA 2 drives will work with them.

- Both the Ranger VII and the Hero VII come with a single M.2 port that will support a single M.2 drive.

- From Wikipedia: "Essentially, the M.2 standard is a small form factor implementation of the SATA Express interface, with the addition of an internal USB 3.0 port." Here's a good link for info: https://www.sata-io.org/sata-m2-card

- The M.2 is a connection standard but there are two kinds of M.2 drives: SATA, which uses the SATA 3 protocol and will transfer at 6Gbits/s, and PCI-E, which uses the SATA 3.2 protocol and will transfer at 10Gbits/s. You'll want to make sure you're getting the one you...
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MrCasualGamer

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Jun 29, 2014
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Hello,

I have some questions regarding asus too.. we sail in somewhat same boat .. just that I have to buy a lower price motherboard .. I am stuck at following..


Asus Maximus VII Ranger 32GB DDR3 Intel Motherboard

Storage: Intel® Z97 Chipset:
6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports, gray,
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology, Intel® Rapid Start Technology, Intel® Smart Connect Technology *2

Now, I have some sata 2.0 drives as storage .. all ports are sata 3.0 .. is sata 3.0 backward compatible? I need to use my sata 2.0 drives too .. I will have ssd boot drive, but can this mobo use sata 2 drives also [generally is sata 3.0 backward compatible ? ]

Also, generally looking at 5 year life for this motherboard. Never used asus product before.

tx a loads.

 
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volcanoscout

volcanoscout

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Jan 5, 2014
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In no particular order:

- The SATA 3 ports are backward compatible with SATA 2, so no worries, SATA 2 drives will work with them.

- Both the Ranger VII and the Hero VII come with a single M.2 port that will support a single M.2 drive.

- From Wikipedia: "Essentially, the M.2 standard is a small form factor implementation of the SATA Express interface, with the addition of an internal USB 3.0 port." Here's a good link for info: https://www.sata-io.org/sata-m2-card

- The M.2 is a connection standard but there are two kinds of M.2 drives: SATA, which uses the SATA 3 protocol and will transfer at 6Gbits/s, and PCI-E, which uses the SATA 3.2 protocol and will transfer at 10Gbits/s. You'll want to make sure you're getting the one you need when buying.

- The limitation on which ones you can put in are size-based, not brand or model necessarily, so this isn't some gimmick to force you to buy some proprietary product. The Hero vii (and I believe all of the current Asus Z97 boards) is specced for a 22mm x 60mm or 80mm card. Other sizes may work (30, 42, 60, 80 and 110mm length cards are available), but you'll have to check your board.

- Whether you'll be gimping yourself by not having eSATA ports is more of a personal call. SATA 3 isn't going away anytime soon, and M.2 and eSATA drives aren't necessarily cheap. Unless you need super fast data retrieval from a storage drive in addition to what you get with an M.2 or eSATA OS drive, I would say probably not, but it's your call.

Hope this helps.
 
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