Hello,

As the title says I need some expert opinion on this matter/setup. A little confused over this and would appreciate opinions from the community.

Current setup is as follows.

Motherboard. Asus Maximux X Code.
CPU. Intel i7 8700K
Graphics. EVGA GTX 1080ti FTW3
RAM. G.Skill 16GB RGB 3866mhz
Storage. Intel 256GB M.2

Have an Intel DC P3500 2TB which will go in the above mention setup and Intel 256GB M.2 will come out.

I have seen the Asus Hyper Kit Rev 1.01 for a very reasonable price of £17 and according to the description page it is x4 since the item is no longer in production the only mentioned SSD is Intel 750 and some older Asus motherboards gets the mentioned in supported list.

I also have seen PCIe x4 card also for a reasonable price of £16.50 and it does take Intel DC P3500 and all that. I do have the U.2 cable with my SSD drive so going for Asus Hyper Kit is not an issue.

Real question is which option is best and gets the most output, presumably, 32GB's or so on. Since the M.2 is under the shield on Asus Maximus X Code and if I go for the Asus Hyper Kit, I can not use that M.2 slot because the cover won't close. So the other M.2 slot which can be mounted vertically can be used and cable can be routed, no worries.

I do not want to buy the Asus Hyper Kit if it will not give the maximum output speed. Looking at the motherboard diagram both M.2's are x4 so the output speed should be as intended, correct?

If any memeber(s) can input their thought and experience as in which option is best with this motherboard and with Intel DC P3500 then it would definitely help me make the correct choice in buying the right adapter/card. Motherboard Bios was updated a few weeks ago.

I tried to read up about PCIe lanes and their speed and ended up with contact your motherboard manufacturer to verify that how they have designed and configured the PCIe lanes speed(s). So I left that option because it was confusing me even more! So gents and ladies, if you can kindly suggest that which option is best way to go forward to get the maximum speed, I'll appreciate that very much!

Hope to see some replies from experienced members. Thanks in advance.

Cheers!