GA-Z270X-Gaming K7 - Which M2 Slot?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
S

Syed117

Honorable
Jan 16, 2017
18
1
10,515
It's been a while since my last PC build and I got one of these NVMe SSDs.

My question is where should it be placed.

I have a GIGABYTE Aorus GA-Z270X-Gaming K7 and there are two M2 slots.

One labelled M2M_32G and the other M2P_32G.

The M2M is higher on the board, between the video card and the cpu.

The M2P is lower, between the 2nd and 3rd PCI slots.

I don't have my video card yet, and I installed the SSD on the lower slot because I thought it would interfere with the video card PCI if installed on the higher slot.

Does it matter? Is there any difference in performance if I install on the M2M vs the M2P? Should I switch it to the higher slot?

Everything is running fine right now, but it's something that was bothering me.

Thanks!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
jpatrick2

jpatrick2

Respectable
May 4, 2016
458
0
1,960
Hi mate. This is from page 32 of your motherboard manual. You'll probably want to refer to the tables on that page to be sure that you are not sharing the bandwidth between your SATA ports and M.2 slot.

Installation Notices for the PEIEX4, M.2, and SATA Connectors:
Due to the limited number of lanes provided by the Chipset, the availability of the SATA connectors may be
affected by the type of devices installed in the M2M_32G and M2P_32G connectors. The M2M_32G connector
shares bandwidth with the SATA3 4, 5 connectors. The M2P_32G connector shares bandwidth with the PCIEX4
slot. Refer to the following tables for details.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
S

Syed117

Honorable
Jan 16, 2017
18
1
10,515


Thanks for the reply!

So right now my NVMe is in the M2P slot which shares lanes with the PCIEX4 slot.

Also have a 1tb HDD on the Sata 1 if I remember correctly.

Will have to confirm when I get home and move things around if needed.

So I'm thinking I should move the the NVMe to the M2M and my Sata 1 drive should be fine. Will keep those PCI lanes open.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Dec 22, 2014
32,771
2,836
113,640


In other words, the M.2 Slots have nothing to do with your top 2 GPU slots and will not affect GPU performance.

The only time it does is if you decide to go 3 way SLI or Crossfire and populate the 3rd GPU slot, or you want to use the 3rd GPU slot for another card. If you use the M2P_32G connector that slot is disabled.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
C

cpc71783

Distinguished
Aug 31, 2010
5
0
18,510


If you don't plan on using your bottom PCIE slot with any kind of card and you want all of your SATA ports freed up, then I would suggest leaving your M.2 SSD in the bottom M.2 slot. It only shares bandwidth with your bottom PCIE slot, and either way, both your SATA and your M.2 drives will still be using lanes from your CPU regardless of where you put your M.2, but if you put it in the top slot, it will also disable two of your SATA ports. Keep it in the bottom slot. That's where I'm putting my Samsung 960 EVO 500GB.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Dec 22, 2014
32,771
2,836
113,640


This is incorrect. The SATA and M.2 slots use lanes from the motherboard's PCH, of which the Z270 has 22, not the CPU. Depending on the M.2 slot you select changes whether it takes the bandwidth form one of the PCIe slots, or 2 of the SATA connectors (of which there are 6 so is this really a big deal?)

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

cpc71783

Distinguished
Aug 31, 2010
5
0
18,510


There are 24 lanes on this chipset, not 22. The Z170 chipset has 20 lanes and the Z270X has 24.
 
Upvote -1 Downvote
C

cpc71783

Distinguished
Aug 31, 2010
5
0
18,510
If you want to do SLI or crossfire, one card will want to use 16 lanes, and another 8 lanes. That leaves absolutely zero out of 24 for your M.2. If you run your M.2, it will use 4 lanes, and will leave 4 lanes total open out of the Z270X chipset. All I was saying, CPU aside, was that whether you use it on your SATA or your PCIE, you likely won't be running more than one, or at most, two cards anyway, and to leave your SATA ports freed up, you might as well run it in the bottom slot.
 
Upvote -1 Downvote
Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Dec 22, 2014
32,771
2,836
113,640


More completely untrue information.

The PCIe lanes that go to the GPU slots are direct to the CPU. In a single gpu situation all 16 lanes go to the first slot, in an SLI or crossfire situation IF the board is configured properly they go 8 to one and 8 to the other. Many boards will NOT provide 16 PCIe lanes to the second slot even if a single GPU is used, which is why its always best to use the closest slot to the CPU

These lanes have NOTHING to do with the 24 lanes from the Motherboard's PCH. These are distributed amongst the M.2 slot, SATA ports, and other PCIe slots on the motherboard depending on board configuration.

On a final note, this post was resolved 2 months ago, please do not dig up old posts, especially to post completely dubious and incorrect information.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
C

cpc71783

Distinguished
Aug 31, 2010
5
0
18,510
Ah, so you do realize that there are 24 lanes from the PCH and not 22? 40 total lanes (24 from PCH and 16 from CPU) Am I correct? I was under the false impression that it was 24 total lanes for some reason, forgetting that the CPU provides the x16 for the GPU's directly, PCH aside. Thanks for the help.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Dec 22, 2014
32,771
2,836
113,640


Correct in the old post I mistyped 22 instead of 24. However that was irrelevant to the issue. Yes its 40 total lanes if you add them up.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom