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Best m.2 Slot for ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI II

BillyBobSenna
Level 8

Simple question, is the M2.1 slot best for a boot drive on this board? Does it cause the GPU to run slower since it will fun x8?

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1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

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Got it. I have Z790 Dark Hero. I do not see any difference in terms of performance with RTX 4090 running at X8.

Do you means Crucial 2 TB T705? and NOT Corsair.

I am using two of Crucial 2 TB T500 GEN 4 drives in M.2_2 and M.2_3. My GEN 5 Corsair 2 TB MP700 is in M.2_1.

I am booting Windows from M.2_2 and the other two M.2 drives are for data.

I do not see any issues. My full build details are in https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/gaming-motherboards/can-asus-support-fix-realtek-audio-drivers-with-bo... 

Disclaimer: I am not an ASUS support person so my information may be incomplete. Always follow official documentation and material provided by ASUS representatives.

INTEL i9-14900K / CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB 192GB (4x48GB) 5200 CAS38 / ROG Z790 DARK HERO / ROG TUF GAMING RTX 4090 OC / ProArt PA-602 Case / SEASONIC PRIME TX-1300 ATX 3.0 / CORSAIR MP700 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen5 / CRUCIAL T500 2TB PCIe Gen4 / EIZO CG2700X

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5 REPLIES 5

JohnAb
Level 17

For most motherboards, yes, but check in your motherboard manual and it should be explained there...

Z690 Hero, 12900K, BIOS 4001, MEI 2433.6.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.32.2473, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.

Hi @BillyBobSenna which NVMe drive are you trying to use with your build? Here's the information from this board's manual although you also made a post about Z790 Hero board so I am not sure if you have multiple systems or are you trying get information to buy and build a system.

achugh_0-1731194892434.png

In any case, there is no QVL for HDD. If you are trying to get the fastest speed from your drive and the drive is GEN 5 then your only option is to use that GEN 5 drive in M.2_1 slot and YES you will lose 8 PCIe lanes to your graphics card slot once this M.2_1 slot is occupied.

I personally have a Z790 DARK HERO board and I have loaded my Windows OS into the M.2_2 slot which still comes from CPU but at GEN 4 speed. I have also populated my GEN 5 NVMe in M.2_1 slot but I use this drive as my DATA drive. There are couple of posts here where using M.2_1 slot for boot OS caused stability issue depending upon the drive you use. In general Kingston KC3000 NVMe drives are known to cause compatibility issue across multiple vendors including ASUS so you want to find something else.

I hope this information help you move forward. Good luck!

Disclaimer: I am not an ASUS support person so my information may be incomplete. Always follow official documentation and material provided by ASUS representatives.

INTEL i9-14900K / CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB 192GB (4x48GB) 5200 CAS38 / ROG Z790 DARK HERO / ROG TUF GAMING RTX 4090 OC / ProArt PA-602 Case / SEASONIC PRIME TX-1300 ATX 3.0 / CORSAIR MP700 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen5 / CRUCIAL T500 2TB PCIe Gen4 / EIZO CG2700X

Thanks this helps. Sorry for the confusion. I am working on 2 systems. The Hero is my computer and the Strix is going to be a gift for my son at Christmas. I have a Gen5 Corsair 2 TB T705 I am planning to make the boot disk on the Strix. In the end, what is the performance hit if the GPU is running X8? Thanks.

Got it. I have Z790 Dark Hero. I do not see any difference in terms of performance with RTX 4090 running at X8.

Do you means Crucial 2 TB T705? and NOT Corsair.

I am using two of Crucial 2 TB T500 GEN 4 drives in M.2_2 and M.2_3. My GEN 5 Corsair 2 TB MP700 is in M.2_1.

I am booting Windows from M.2_2 and the other two M.2 drives are for data.

I do not see any issues. My full build details are in https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/gaming-motherboards/can-asus-support-fix-realtek-audio-drivers-with-bo... 

Disclaimer: I am not an ASUS support person so my information may be incomplete. Always follow official documentation and material provided by ASUS representatives.

INTEL i9-14900K / CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB 192GB (4x48GB) 5200 CAS38 / ROG Z790 DARK HERO / ROG TUF GAMING RTX 4090 OC / ProArt PA-602 Case / SEASONIC PRIME TX-1300 ATX 3.0 / CORSAIR MP700 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen5 / CRUCIAL T500 2TB PCIe Gen4 / EIZO CG2700X

Yes, I meant Crucial 2 TB T705 and NOT Corsair. Not sure Corsair even makes m.2 drives.