Adding new SSD to Asus Z170I Motherboard

ColinGraham

New member
Hello,

I'm trying to update my PC with a biggger SSD for the C: drive. I'm reasonably competent at this having upgraded many PCs over the years, but this one has me stumped. I've taken off the cover and can see all of the memory cards and the HDDs, but I can't for the life of me find the existing 128gb SSD nor the slot for the new 256gb SSD. I haven't removed any of the devices to see what's lurking underneath - I thought I'd ask before attempting this.

What I'd like to do is to put the new SSD the the second slot, clone the old one onto it, then use this as the system disk. When it's all up and running, I'll reformat the old SSD as another drive.

Any help in locating where the SSDs are would be much appreciated.

Regards
Colin
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
What kind of SSD? An M.2 one or a Sata one?

What was your full spec?

If it's an M.2 SSD, at the risk of asking an obvious question, have you looked at the manual to see where the M.2 slot lives on the motherboard? :)
 

ColinGraham

New member
Hello and thanks for the quick response.

Here's the original spec:
Case COOLERMASTER ELITE 130 CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6500 (3.2GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® Z170I PRO GAMING: Mini-ITX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM) 16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card 2GB AMD RADEON™ R7 240 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
2nd Graphics Card NONE
1st Hard Disk 1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk 1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
3rd Hard Disk NONE
4th Hard Disk NONE
1st M.2 SSD Drive 128GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2000MB/R, 650MB/W)
1st PCI-E SSD Drive NONE
RAID RAID 1 (MIRRORED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile, Super Quiet CPU Cooler
Change to: PCS FrostFlow 40 Series High Performance CPU Cooler

Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting NONE
Extra Case Fans NONE
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT + WIRELESS 802.11 A/B/G/N/AC
Wireless Router/HomePlugs NONE
USB Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Firewire NONE
TV Card NONE
Operating System NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Change to: Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence

I ordered the following (using the PC Specialist upgrade facility, so I'm sure I've got the correct part):
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)

and have received the following:
256GB Samsung MZ-VLW2560 NVMe M.2 NGFF PCIe Gen3 x4 Solid State Drive SSD.

I've downloaded the Asus Z170I motherboard Manual, but it's nt much help. Whilst it references the M.2 SSD, I can't find any reference at all the the PCI-E SSD drive, so I'm still somewhat in the dordk about it.

Regards
Colin
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
1st M.2 SSD Drive 128GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2000MB/R, 650MB/W)
That's an M.2 SSD and it should presumably be where ubuysa says :) And your new one goes in the same place.

Whilst it references the M.2 SSD, I can't find any reference at all the the PCI-E SSD drive,
For your purposes, the PCIe drive is an M.2 drive. In terms of plugging it in, that's all that matters.

A PCIe SSD uses PCIe lanes to allow for much faster speeds than conventional SSDs. But rather than plugging into a PCIe expansion slot like your graphics card, yours does this via the M.2 slot. Which is entirely normal for many PCIe NVMe drives these days.

z170i-pro-gaming-6-1280x1024.jpg
http://www.bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/asus-z170i-pro-gaming-review/1/
 
Last edited:

ColinGraham

New member
Hi Again,

So I guess with what "ubuysa" said earier in this thread, that to add the new SSD I'm going to have to remove the motherboard - not something I'd choose to do ordinarily, but if needs must....

Thanks for all of the help with this - I'l let you know how it pans out.

Regards
Colin
 
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