I need some help in upgrading storage on my rig. I have an Asus Maximus IX Hero mobo and I'm purchasing my first M.2 drives. I've been running 2.5" SATA III SSDs for a number of years and this is my first delve into the world of super-fast M.2 drives. I'm trying to figure out what ports I'll lose and what I'll still have by starting to use the M.2 ports.
So, looking at the BIOS manual, it looks like if I enable X4 on M.2_2, I'll lose SATA ports 5 & 6. No major problem there. My main question concerns the M.2_1 port. I'm confused because I don't see a speed selector for that port like I do for the second one. The only options I see for port 1 are Auto, SATA mode, and PCIE mode. If I leave in auto with a PCIE drive or change to PCIE mode, I don't lose a SATA port, but I also don't see a way to change the speed. If I can't change the speed, what does it default to?
Does anyone know what speed port M.2_1 normally runs at or if there's a way to change the port speed like for M.2_2 that I'm missing?
Thanks.
