Z690 Maximus Hero M.2 Drives

[Sierra_Oscar]

I'm just looking for some advice regarding using multiple M.2 slots on the Z690 Maximus Hero board. I am using a Intel 12900k.

The board has three M.2 sockets

• M.2_1
• M.2_2
• M.2_3

I have three NVMe drives that I want to use on the board. Two of the NVMe drives are PCIE 4 and one is PCIE 3.

I was going to install the two PCIE 4 NVMe drives into M.2_1 and M.2_3 as both of these are listed as supporting PCIE 4. I was going to put the PCIE 3 NVMe into M.2_2 as that is listed as supporting PCIE 3.

My main concern is this - if I am using all three M.2 slots simultaneously, will this impact on any of the PCIE slots - i.e. will my GPU PCIE slot be impacted?

The manual mentions that the lanes will be impacted if using the M.2 expansion card (which I won't be doing), but doesn't mention anything about any potential impact of using all M.2 slots simultaneously. 

Also, what M.2 slot should my primary NVMe with the OS be installed onto? 

Thanks in advance!

[JohnAb]

My Hero setup is as follows:

M.2_1 = Gen 4 (Drive for Games)

M.2_2 = Gen 3 (OS Backups using Macrium Reflect)

M.2_3 = Gen 4 (OS WIndows)

Then I also have 4x SATA drives for files and file backups

It all works fine for me and I still have x16 for the GPU. I'm not using RAID. Too difficult to fix things if I get drive failures in my opinion. I'd rather just use encrypted file drives (the HDDs) and manage my own backups. So yeah, you should be able to fill all slots without any issues. 

[Sierra_Oscar]

Thanks for your feedback JohnAb. Good to hear that your GPU is still running at x16. I was reading some conflicting content online from people saying that if you have all three slots utilised it would result in the GPU reverting to x8.

Nice setup btw!

[JohnAb]

Yes, a lot of motherboards do seem to have that issue. Luckily for us, the Hero seems just fine. You could probably put the OS in slot M.2_1 if you want, I just ended up with it in M.2_3 by chance after adding my last NVME, it wasn't for any particular reason.