Asus Z170 PRO GAMING - M2 port disables SATA port?

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legion_bre

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Jun 26, 2016
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Hi all - I just read about the ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K4 losing an eSATA (2xSATA3 ports) when the M2 port is used as they use the same bandwidth leaving 4 usable SATA ports. Unfortunately I need 5, so instead I have looked at the Z170 Pro Gaming, which states that the M2 port shares bandwidth with 'a SATA port'. I want to know if that refers to a single SATA3 port (leaving 5 available) or if it disables an eSATA (leaving only 4 available) like the ASRock version.

Thanks for you help!
 
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Bearmann
I'm not 100% sure, but I think that if you put a NVMe SSD (like the Samsung 950 Pro) in the M.2 slot, you would not lose any SATA ports as it would connect as you suspected through the PCIe lanes.
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legion_bre

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Jun 26, 2016
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I looked at the manual you linked and its said:
"When the M.2 socket 3 is operating in SATA mode, SATA port 1 will be disabled" and they are number 1-6 so there should be 5 remaining. Great.

That lead me to wonder what "operating in SATA mode" meant - is there another way of operating (PCIe?) which can free up another SATA port? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I am relatively new to this.

 
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