Mobo question about SSD and SATA ports

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justinf10000

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Feb 25, 2016
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Hey guys I would appreciate any help with this.

The motherboard is ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING LGA 1151

Now heres the problem.
I currently have a 250gb ssd on my SATA express port (its also my boot drive), and a 1TB HDD on one of my SATA3 ports.
Both of these are basically full however my brother just bought me a 1tb ssd and i'm not sure where to put it for best/optimal speeds.

If i just add the 1TB ssd to a sata3 port it won't be running as quick as the 250gb in the sata express right?
And if that's the case doesn't it make sense that I just do a fresh install on the 1TB and move the 250gb ssd to a sata3 port?

I'm pretty sure my mobo only has 1 sata express port but i couldn't find a good diagram or anything to be sure.

Any opinions would be appreciated! Thanks
 
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B

blinding

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Jul 14, 2011
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Your motherboard has 1 SATA express port. It also has an M.2 port that is faster than SATA3.

But these only help you if the SSD has a SATA express or M.2 connection. Does your new 1TB ssd support sata express?
 
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justinf10000

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Feb 25, 2016
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Yes but part of it is confusing, mainly the parenthesis part of this sentence.

"1 x SATA Express
(compatible with 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports)"
 
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blinding

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I have a feeling you are not using sata express. :-( Just because it is plugged into the sata express port on the motherboard does not mean it is running express. A sata express drive has a much wider connector than the standard sata so they can jam all that bandwidth through it. It would be using two of those sata connectors! That is why the manual says you can use two of the connectors for sata express or use them separately for two sata drives.

If you really need (want?) the fastest speed I would suggest getting an M.2 drive to boot from. The are readily available and reasonably priced. Wait for sata express drives to be available.
 
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justinf10000

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In other words: I have been just using SATA3 the whole time, so if i add the 1TB to another SATA3 port i won't notice a speed decrease when running games off the 1TB as opposed to the boot drive, correct?

Also another question, if i did switch to M2 vs the sata3 that i have been using, would I notice anything in terms of speed increase? Or is the SSD the bottleneck ?
 
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