To test the storage performance in our motherboard reviews we use CrystalDiskMark and run the sequential read and write tests on default settings (1MiB block size, Queue depth of 8 and 1 thread) to test the maximum throughput of the connector/port. For M.2 tests, we run the benchmark test on a Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB Gen 4 NVME drive. For USB tests, we use the same drive, inside an ASUS ROG Strix Arion NVME enclosure, and for SATA tests, we use a TEAMGroup Delta RGB 250GB SSD. The test is run in various slots/ports and the drives are always formatted before use.
The M.2 slots all have pretty much the same results, with a slight edge going towards the first slot, this is because it is connected to the CPU directly and not the chipset. Slot 6 is so low because it is a PCIe Gen 3.0 slot as opposed to the Gen 4.0 slots that the others are, one of the others is a Gen 5.0 slot but since we can’t test a type of drive that doesn’t exist we used a 4.0 drive in all slots.
SATA speeds are significantly slower than M.2 as you would expect, with read speeds being over 50MB/s faster.
Bizarrely, USB Type-C has a slower read speed than it does write speed while USB Type-A has a big lead on its read speeds over the write speeds, but USB Type-C sees overall better performance than Type-A does.
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