Question about new Intel 600p m.2 ssd and my Asus Z-97A MOBO.

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OCedAstrolabe

OCedAstrolabe

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Aug 30, 2016
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So I'm not the most computer savvy but I'm trying to learn. I've recently purchased the new Intel 600p 512 gb m.2 ssd pcie 3.0x4 for the size, mainly, and price but I'm wondering what to expect with the m.2 slot om my Asus Z-97A USB 3.1 MOBO only being pcie 2.0x2. Im not so worried about speeds, as I'm sure it would still be plenty fast, but what about the lanes available to my GPU's. I have SLI 980 ti's connected to my pcie 3.0x16 slots and I'm wondering if their performance should be affected. Also my CPU is a i7-4790k and if it matters I do not plan to have my OS on this ssd, which is Windows 10 pro, it's just for extra storage. I read that some MOBOs have a PLX chip to avoid this but I'm almost positive my MOBO does not have one. I've tried to inform myself but some things still aren't clear to me.
 
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Based on your CPU and chipset, you have 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes coming from the CPU and (should have) 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes coming from the Z97 chipset.

However, sometimes MB manufacturers use some of those lanes to provide other functionality as they feel fit. In your case, stuff like PCI slots and USB3.1 ports are using up a few of the PCIE 2.0 lanes that were coming from the chipset. Doing a quick read through your motherboards manual and specifications, it seems that you should be fine. You have now hit the limit for total number of connected devices on PCIe but not yet passed it. When USB3.1 and the M.2 slot are active, all of the lanes from the chipset are being taken up. The lanes from the CPU are still there, so your 980 Tis are running...
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OCedAstrolabe

OCedAstrolabe

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Aug 30, 2016
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So I dug a little deeper and found this post from a few months back that states that using a pcie 2.0 device does not affect the number of lanes used in pcie 3.0. So my understanding is that my two 980 Ti's in SLI will both be running at 8x still. But I'm still a little confused because my CPU, Haswell i7-4790k, has a total number of 16 lanes. I just really want to know if when i plug in this M.2 ssd if my lanes will be divided 8/4/4?

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2405813/pci-lanes-work.html
 
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apk24

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Based on your CPU and chipset, you have 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes coming from the CPU and (should have) 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes coming from the Z97 chipset.

However, sometimes MB manufacturers use some of those lanes to provide other functionality as they feel fit. In your case, stuff like PCI slots and USB3.1 ports are using up a few of the PCIE 2.0 lanes that were coming from the chipset. Doing a quick read through your motherboards manual and specifications, it seems that you should be fine. You have now hit the limit for total number of connected devices on PCIe but not yet passed it. When USB3.1 and the M.2 slot are active, all of the lanes from the chipset are being taken up. The lanes from the CPU are still there, so your 980 Tis are running in PCIe 3.0 x8/x8 and your M.2 drive is running at PCIe 2.0 x2.
 
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