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Dual M.2 on ROG MAXIMUS X HERO

pilotrobbie
Level 7
Hi All,

Currently, have the following specifications.

Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition, ROG Maximus X Hero DDR4, Intel Core i7-8700K 3.7Ghz, Corsair H115i Extreme Performance Liquid CPU cooler, GeForce GTX 1080Ti ROG Strix OC GDDR5X, Trident Z RGB 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 RAM, 2 x Kingston 240GB HyperX 3K SSD, 1 x 2TB WD ext. SSD & Windows 10 64-Bit


My two SSDs have good health but are currently getting on. I want to upgrade for multiple reasons. This MOBO allows dual M.2. (Samsung 970 Pro) to be bolted on without any performance issues? Presumably, both NVME will run at PCIe Gen 3x4?

I would likely keep my SSDs, clean wipe them for GoPro footage and Downloads.

Cheers,
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6 REPLIES 6

Ch3vr0n
Level 10
Everything you need to know is in your manual.

From your motherboard manual

Page x

When the M.2_1 Socket 3 is operating in SATA mode, SATA port 1 will be disabled. (top M.2 slot)
When the M.2_2 Socket 3 is operating in PCIEX4 mode, SATA port 5, 6 will be disabled (Bottom M.2) slot

When socket M.2_1 is occupied with a sata device, you'll loose sata 1. Which is not the case for you
When socket M.2_2 is operating in PCIEX4 (aka the maximum you can set and that 970 Pro can use), you will LOSE SATA ports 5 & 6 (the 2 ports above each other closest to the bottom of the board) . If you set it to PCIEX2, you should not lose the sata ports, but the 970 will only operate at half its maximum speed. Most likely this is because the bottom socket shares bandwith lanes with those 2 sata ports.

Ch3vr0n wrote:
Everything you need to know is in your manual.

From your motherboard manual

Page x

When the M.2_1 Socket 3 is operating in SATA mode, SATA port 1 will be disabled. (top M.2 slot)
When the M.2_2 Socket 3 is operating in PCIEX4 mode, SATA port 5, 6 will be disabled (Bottom M.2) slot

When socket M.2_1 is occupied with a sata device, you'll loose sata 1. Which is not the case for you
When socket M.2_2 is operating in PCIEX4 (aka the maximum you can set and that 970 Pro can use), you will LOSE SATA ports 5 & 6 (the 2 ports above each other closest to the bottom of the board) . If you set it to PCIEX2, you should not lose the sata ports, but the 970 will only operate at half its maximum speed. Most likely this is because the bottom socket shares bandwith lanes with those 2 sata ports.


Evening,

I only need two SATA Ports for 2x SSDs (Although I am not fussed if I don't use them anymore, as they were purchased in 2012.)

I read the following on the website (Where the Manual is located) I read that both slots provided PCI-E 3.0 x 4. So presumably this is the fastest way?

Dual M.2 Socket 3 Type M

・ 1 x 2242~2280 (PCIe 3.0 x4 + SATA)
・ 1 x 2242~2280 (PCIe 3.0 x4)


Does this mean without blowing myself or my MOBO up that I can run two SSDs of the same performance on my MOBO?

Ch3vr0n
Level 10
In that case. You're pretty much set

1. Hook the 2 SATA ssd's up to 2 of these SATA ports. 1-2-3-4 (avoid the bottom 2 ports SATA 5&6, closest to the bottom edge of the board, consult your manual if you have to)
2. Install both nvme SSDs and boot up.
3. Install the samsung magician software and launch it
4. In Samsung Magician on the left go to: Drive details. Now on the right check "Interface" for both drives. The top one should by default say "PCIe Gen. 3 x 4" (max speed), the bottom one MIGHT say "PCI Gen. 3 x2" if the bios is not configured (or smart enough) to auto set the 2nd drive as x4 (this depends on the motheboard). In that case you may need to go into the bios to change that. (I think the relevant setting is under "advanced - pci storage devices" or something. If it's on auto and magician said it was x2, switch it to x4 for M.2_2 and boot up.
5. If you needed to change the pci speed in bios, Open magician again and check if it's now reported as x4. If it is, install the samsung driver and reboot.

All done. And yeah you can do that safely. Click my system specs above my avatar. Check the hardware i'm running 😉 It's not the exact same model, but my XI formula has 2 nvme drives running, 4 SATA hard drives and 3 optical drives. Simply stating hardware wise, your board is tiny compared to mine runs fine with much more hardware, so yours should run just as fine with a lot less 🙂

PCIe Gen. 3 x4 is the fastest currently capable yes (though there now are certain boards / ssd's that run on PCIe Gen 4, the 970 Pro is NOT one of them :))

thanks for sharing this detailed info

Ch3vr0n
Level 10
btw 1600W for that tiny system? You doing quantum computing with that thing? Even under full load (CPU or GPU) i barely hit 4-500W (and i got an 800W PSU :p) Feel free to report back if it worked.

Ch3vr0n wrote:
btw 1600W for that tiny system? You doing quantum computing with that thing? Even under full load (CPU or GPU) i barely hit 4-500W (and i got an 800W PSU :p) Feel free to report back if it worked.


Can you run your 1080 at x16 on the pciex16_1 slot? I just installed dual 970 evo plus on my mobo and i can barelly run my 2080ti on x8 native as it says in the bios and in windows. I kept my HDD on sata and BR-drive as well on sata and it messed up my x16 gpu wich is now runnint at x8 as said in gpu-z. Any advice on how to set up my bios to recognize the pciex16 port? gpu-z says that it is due to power saving kind of thing. But i am not sure of how the bios is done to know what to do.

ps: gpu-z recognize the gpu being able to run at x16 3.0 and i have no idea on how to setup my bios 😕 !!!