Processor paired with an M.2 NVMe storage device
Processor paired with an M.2 NVMe storage device
Hello, your question is understandable. The Intel i5 9600K CPU itself doesn’t limit the number of M.2 slots you can install. However, the performance might be affected if you add too many cards, especially with newer ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 cards. The CPU’s capabilities are more about processing power than the number of slots, but adding many M.2 drives can impact stability and speed. It’s best to check the motherboard specifications for compatibility before expanding.
That depends on motherboard model as you need PCIe bifurcation for this. Note that you do have a max speed limit for all M.2 and SATA storage combined if you use a graphics card unless the board supports SLI, which realistically is somewhere between 3500MB/s to 3800MB/s. That's because all these storage is connected to the chipset in this case, which only connects to CPU with PCie 3.0 x4 equivalent of bandwidth
Consider that M.2 drives can also be linked through a chipset (especially with AMD, though Intel might support this too). While the speed might not match a direct connection to the CPU, you’ll notice the difference mainly when using very demanding storage tasks. Read the motherboard manual thoroughly—it explains which configurations allow M.2 and PCIe slots. Sometimes they share bandwidth, making it less efficient to use all available ports, so you might even rely on SATA or USB connections in certain situations.