New SSD installation/connection question

[cctaylor88]

Its been a little over a year since I built my last PC, I need to expand my storage. My motherboard has "SATA Express" connections as pictured here. Now my question, as dumb as it may be is serious. As you can see only the top 3 (out of 6) SATA connections are "express" (I assume because they are highlighted red). The top two slots or two right slots in the picture are already taken by two SSDs that I currently own (looking to add a third).

So my dilemma. As you can see the two slots on the right/top are your typical "L" connection as shown here. So I'm left with the third connection and its just a straight connection. Is this compatible with a typical SSD, for instance this generic one on amazon? This SSD ships with no connectors, so what do I need. I feel like in every SSD I've messed with the "L" is what you find?

I'm sure this is very elementary but I haven't gotten inside my PC for months!

 

[VirtualLarry]

The "L" shaped connectors are the ones that you want to use for SATA.

The whole row, of the PCI-E x2 stub connector, along with the two SATA "L" connectors to the right, all comprise ONE "SATA Express" connector. So there are two SATAe total.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

EDIT: I see that Larry beat me to it with a shorter answer during the time I stepped away from my desk before finishing my post . . .

No. That third port is for part of an SATA-Express cable port. Not familiar with the Gigabyte board, but it should be similar to other Z170 boards, and the spec sheet on your board shows a total of six regular SATA ports. Four of those are part of the two SATA-Express port offerings. Depending on what other motherboard resources you configure as enabled, you might lose SATA ports 4 and 5 as they're designated 0 to 5.

If you consume all of the ports left enabled for SATA, you may then be compelled to add an SATA controller to a PCIE slot. On my part, I had one of the ports still available, but wanted to use it for future expansion with an internal drive. So I bought a cheap 4-port SATA controller card that fits a PCIE X1 slot on the motherboard. I'm not too concerned about throughput limitations for external backup devices . . You could, of course, use an X4 card, but you might want to save your PCIE slots for something else .. .

 

[Ranulf]

Ahh, Sata Express. Perhaps the most useless motherboard features/tech in the last ten years.

As the others have said, just get a sata ssd like the one you linked. Make sure you have a sata data cable and a spare power cable from your power supply. You may need adapters if you don't have spare sata power cables coming from the power supply.