Gaming 7, dual M.2 PCIe setup - need more sata ports

[nigelhaslam]

Hi folks,

I just built a workstation for 4K video editing with the Gigabyte Gaming 7 motherboard.  I have two Samsung 950 Pro PCIe drives populating both M.2 slots, so I only have two remaining sata ports available on the main sata block, plus the two ASMEDIA ports (sub question - are there any downsides to using the ASMEDIA connections?).

I am replacing my old NAS server based workflow because the 4K files are simply too large to move around over ethernet, so I'm trying to configure all my storage internally.  Aside from the dual M.2 slots, the other reason I chose the Gaming 7 was because of it's Thunderbolt3 capability.  In the near I hope be able to buy a TB3 based NAS boxes, which I will be able to use for archiving and portability.

In the meantime, I'm finding myself short of sata ports and wondering if I can use the sata express ports with some of my sata hard drives somehow.  Would a simple Sata - Sata Express adaptor cable do the job.. or do I need an external hard drive case with sata express connections?

Any other suggestions would be welcome.  This is a beast of a machine, with currently 20 TB of storage but configuring it is proving a complex setup.

Thanks in advance
Sdack

[shadowsports]

Greetings,
I haven't looked closely at the specs of your board...  but, what you often see on secondary controllers is this.  Often, only one PCIe lane is dedicated to a secondary controller.  If true, bandwidth is split (shared) between each port, so if the controller is SATA 6Gbs, you will only get 3Gbs per port if you connect two devices.  Have a look at the schematics diagram in your manual.  If there is only one lane supporting the AsMedia controller, then this will be true.

Some options, and I'm sure there are more   

Use a larger (single) NvME M.2 - gain some ports
Use AsMedia Controller
Use Add-On Controller card (big case, lots of drives, plenty of cooling)
TB3 NAS or storage array

Over 3k currently..  https://www.qnap.com/solution/thunderbolt-nas/en/

[nigelhaslam]

Hey Shadowsports,

Thanks for your reply.

I looked at the manual but it's rather obscure and doesn't talk in terms of M.2 Pcie connections

http://download.gigabyte.asia/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_ga-z97x-gaming-g1_e.pdf

I attach a screengrab of the 'block diagram' which I think is what you mean by the 'schematic', from Page 8

and another screengrab of the section just after it in the manual, on page 11, which sets forth the expansion options

If you can make sense of it please let me know if, when I connect both the Asmedia sata ports, I am halving the speed of the connection.

I'm also unsure whether using both the M.2 950 pros, is somehow inducing a similar compromise ie. I've read that often using two PCIe slots can drop one or both of them down from 16 to 8 times speed.

Any help would be mightily appreciated.

[dmdilks]

All you can do is go into the bios with the drives connected and look at what is showing up. When you use the top M2 slot near the CPU you lose ports. When use the one near the Video card you don't lose as many.

 

[shadowsports]

nigelhaslam,
You said AsMedia...  I see Marvell 9172...  (apples to oranges). 

There are 4 ports.  1 lane each.  If you connect 1 device to each set, you will get full 6Gbs speed.  More than one, only 3Gbs

Best Config 1 drive to port 0 or 1, 1 drive to port 2 or 3

[joevt]

nigelhaslam,
You said AsMedia...  I see Marvell 9172...  (apples to oranges). 

There are 4 ports.  1 lane each.  If you connect 1 device to each set, you will get full 6Gbs speed.  More than one, only 3Gbs

Best Config 1 drive to port 0 or 1, 1 drive to port 2 or 3

There's more than one Gaming 7 motherboard. The diagram shows the z97x version with 2 Marvell 9172 controllers with 2 ports each, 1 lane per controller. A PCIe 2.0 lane has max 500 MB/s. Many SSD's are faster than that since 6 Gb/s > 500 MB/s. Although you might rarely reach that speed. In any case, I don't believe that an SSD would be limited to 3 Gb/s unless you raided 2 of them together on the same controller, then they would be limited to 250 MB/s each. I think if you accessed only one drive at a time on the same controller that you could still get more than 3 Gb/s (but I wouldn't know without testing it with an SSD).

I agree that you should use one port on one controller, then one port on the other. If you need to use 2 ports on the same controller then put the two slowest drives on one controller.

[joevt]

Those diagrams are for the G1. The Z97X Gaming 7 is different. The Gaming 7 has only 1 Marvell 9172 controller.
http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_ga-z97x-gaming7_e.pdf

Only the Z170X Gaming 7 has Thunderbolt 3. Therefore you must be talking about this one:
http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_ga-z170x-gaming7_e.pdf

Page 32 of the manual clearly shows that the SATA Express ports are tied to their two SATA ports so they won't help. No-one makes anything for the SATA Express ports anyway (there are USB 3.0 adapters..). Actually, the diagram shows that the first SATA Express (SATA3_0/SATA3_1) is usable as PCIe x2 instead of x4.

The ASMedia ASM1061 is also a PCIe 2.0x1 two SATA port controller. I guess no-one makes a PCIe 3.0x1 SATA controller...

So I would put the fastest drives on SATA 4 and 5, then slower drives on 6 and 7. I put my DVD on 6 or 7. I haven't measured whether the chipset SATA is faster than the ASMedia though. The chipset SATA doesn't seem to have a PCIe link width/link speed so they might not be limited.