Samsung 950 PRO M.2 with i5 6600k - PCIe Lanes

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qontrol

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Jan 31, 2016
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Hi guys,

I want to buy a samsung 950 pro pcie ssd card. I have read some stuff on the internet that this card will steal pcie lanes. However I still have one GTX980ti which i want to work to at x16.

I saw that the i5 6600k only has 16 pcie lanes, so does that mean that my graphics card will only work at x8?

I'm going to buy a ASUS z170 pro gaming mobo.

http://ark.intel.com/nl/products/88191/Intel-Core-i5-6600K-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz

Thanks.
 
Solution
Karsten75
clearly a m.2 is a lot faster than SATA. Since it won't impact your graphics card, then yes, that is the best option. Take care where the M.2 is mounted though. On the ASRock X99 Extreme6, the mount position is directly under the GPU. SO not optimal in my opinion since it's a hot spot and not easy to get airflow over.
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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Oct 15, 2009
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Unless the motherboard has an expensive Plex chip, there are no "motherboard PCI lanes".

Having said that, most graphics cards work just fine with x8.

 
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Suztera

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Mar 18, 2014
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There are 20 pcie 3.0 lanes on the chipset itself. All the I/O is connected in some way like extra pcie slots, M.2, SATA connectors, ethernet ports. Intel reference them as High Speed IO Lanes (HSIO lanes).
Due to DMI3.0 implemented into Skylake architecture, the Z170 is able to offer two M.2 at 32GB/s allowing two 950 Pro Nvme ssd to run at full speed without affecting the cpu 16 pcie lanes but at the cost of some I/O, typically SATA ports.
 
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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Oct 15, 2009
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I'm aware that the Z170 chipset has 20 PCIe lanes. But as you observed yourself, all the I/O has to arrive at the processor somehow. The M.2 slot on that mobo has a configurable option to use either SATA or PCIe. Unfortunately the manual is silent on where the lanes are taken from.

So you might be correct. I just can't tell.

From the anandtech review, (http://www.anandtech.com/show/9485/intel-skylake-z170-motherboards-asrock-asus-gigabyte-msi-ecs-evga-supermicro/5) it seems that the 4 lanes are dedicated to the chipset and I doubt that means they can be dedicated to the M/2 device if that device is installed.
 
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Suztera

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With the ASUS Gaming Pro, the M.2 can takes one lane that connects to the SATA port 1.
With DMI 3.0, it can be dedicated to the M.2. It just depends how the manufacturer designed the motherboard. Remember that the DMI 3.0 interface maxes out around 3.93GB/sec which is enough for most I/O.
 
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Leaps-from-Shadows

Leaps-from-Shadows

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Jan 10, 2011
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EVERY SINGLE Z170 board has PCIe 3.0 x4 lanes from the chipset for at least one M.2 port. They may share with SATA ports or SATA Express ports (or other things connected to the chipset), but they NEVER share with the CPU's 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes.

The only thing that can share with the CPU's PCIe 3.0 lanes are cards you put into the PCIe slots.

qontrol ... you will not lose PCIe 3.0 lanes for your graphics card by using an M.2 SSD in the mainboard's M.2 port. I guarantee it.
 
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qontrol

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Jan 31, 2016
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Actually, the point is I want to know if it is preferable to pick an m.2 instead of a regular sata ssd like the 850 evo at this time, or would a normal ssd still be good. For future proofing, but also for speed as i am going to use it for large files, lots of music samples etc.
 
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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Oct 15, 2009
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clearly a m.2 is a lot faster than SATA. Since it won't impact your graphics card, then yes, that is the best option. Take care where the M.2 is mounted though. On the ASRock X99 Extreme6, the mount position is directly under the GPU. SO not optimal in my opinion since it's a hot spot and not easy to get airflow over.
 
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