The motherboard just arrived and it’s awesome! 
Photo’s to follow. Just grabbed the manual out to gen-up while waiting for the rest. It’s heavy, too.
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I just realised that I’ve done it again and not completely checked everything before the order. Not that it would have made me not buy it - but I need to get some extra stuff, such as a PCIe SATA board. This mobo has just 4 SATA ports and I currently have all 6 used on my Z390.
Not a biggie, but all adds up. At least I’ll be able to dump my chassis fan interface. It can run a dozen case fans - I have 6 currently fitted and suitably low running temps, but the Z390D only has two (!!) chassis fan power points. I find that a bit lacking, even for a few years old board.
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How much storage are those SATA drives together?
A 1TB M.2 SSD (that is also much faster than SATA at PCIe3 or PCIe 4) costs about €60 currently.
Does it make sense to you to replace 2 of the smallest SATA drives with a 1TB M.2 SSD for £50 instead of buying a SATA adapter?
If you really want to keep 6 SATA drives, you could also consider replacing the motherboard with one of these:
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Nah, only just got the motherboard and it seems like a good one - don’t want to return it. One of the SATA ports used are running M2 SSDs - but I don’t think they will fit any of the 3 M2 slots on this board. One of them is in a SATA drive case and another is on a PCIe to SATA board already.
Also, even not as expensive as they were SSDs still add to the cost. The only sensible option to combine current ones would be 2TB drives.
I just checked and I actually have 7 drives connected - including the M2 2280 O/S drive on the motherboard M2 slot. Two of those are just storage/admin so theoretically I could switch them to USB, I’ll know more when I have everything and can properly take stock. I may already have a SATA board - I bought loads of stuff in recent years and it’s all in various cupboards and drawers.
Wish I could find my PCIe Audigy FX card, but the onboard sound in my Z390 has been pretty good so I s’pect the new one will be okay, too. Don’t use surround any more due to noise constraints in my new PC room.
Thanks, but I’ll manage 
They don’t call me John The Bodge for nothing!
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deleted - sod all that - I changed my mind 
Just ordered a 2TB P3 Plus from Crucial - it’s cheaper than normal cos it has Acronis Trial bundled - which will go straight in the bin 
£83 - thanks @Freak, for motivating me to think again
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Your SSDs now:
Seriously though, yes throwing them away sucks. I normally prevent that by keeping one or more of my smallest SSDs in the old pc when I sell it and replace it with a new box.
If keeping them all hooked up will cost you more money and energy than replacing the smallest, that is waste too. Just want you to know your options and I think I’m getting annoying now so I’ll get out of this thread. Thanks for allowing me to help!
EDIT: you sniped me with your edit!
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Yeah, I’m always forgetting stuff! Anyway, after adding it all up, I can replace three of my current SSDs with that 2TB one and still have more than 50% remaining, so that’s a win 
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I’ve had good luck with the tiny USBC/A M.2 enclosures that turn the SSD into an external drive. They’re cheap, compact/light and work great for a large capacity USB stick; really fast transfer rates using the C cable too.
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I’m sure it will be okay, but can anyone confirm using a 3.0 USB will be fine on a 3.2 socket (I mean for VR headsets, phones etc). I think it’s like SATA - it will just run at whatever your hardware does, but I have seen some weird posts about this not being the case.
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Wull, all the bits have now arrived and hopefully tomorrow I’ll start stripping this one down.
Think I’ve got everything backed-up, but I always forget something! With luck this will be the first time I didn’t
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Good journey, mate
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Yes, problems usually occur only when there is not enough current (power) for the device to function properly but this should not be an issue for SSDs.
Having your socket be higher rated than the device is always good. There is some weirdness with multiple lanes (4) instead of just (2) faster lanes which can get complicated but usually it just works. If you ever want to be sure, you can Google for all the different USB specs and their overlapping names
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Good luck and enjoy!
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Thanks chaps… tally ho! I have Mudspike on my tablet (but not logged in as I hate posting in forums on a tablet) but logging out now and hopefully on in a few hours.
If not, “Houston, we have a problem…” 
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aaaand we’re done!
Had an hour’s total frustration when the BIOS (freshly updated) wouldn’t let me choose a boot device and another when windows refused to activate - all sorted now, though
Just all the admin and installing/configging/hair pulling to do now. Usually takes a few days.
PC is so far running perfectly.
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Great to hear Johnny
Thanks - though I’m pulling my hair out again this morning!
For now I’ve given up trying to get into Steam - it just keeps denying me. I wonder why they bother with a sign-in/password when they just keep chucking other things at you all the time (with accompanying repeat captchas!). It even keeps denying my authenticator codes from the app on my phone. ludicrous. 7 digit ‘recovery’ codes? Yeah, won’t accept those either.
Then it’s OneDrive that I just signed up to. It’s all well and good having your main user folders backed up to the cloud, but I want local access available on my gaming PC - and OneDrive download speed is pedestrian - especially when compared with Google Drive.
I refused to use ones like Proton and DropBox for storage because they are considerably more expensive, but may be forced into one or other now.
then there’s Microshite - after activation I set up Win 10 just how I want it and get rid of all the excess guff they put on, then they do an update this morning and reset it all and reinstall all the guff. I could use a word that would be censored and be convinced that it’s nevertheless a very accurate description of those people. I’m sick of MS and Google always trying to force stuff on me. I don’t want it - bugger off! Even my mutt understands that phrase!
Other ballsache issues, too, but I was expecting problems, so I guess I’ll be spending this week sorting all those out and get on with the fun stuff next week. Hopefully.
PS: 
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I feel you bro. Sometimes being a user to MS feels a bit masochist.
But it’ll be a few years before we can do our favorite pastime without them. Most games are fine on other operating systems, DCS is even pretty decent on Steam Deck, but DCS in VR seems to be more difficult to get going without the stuff they make in Redmond.
You can tell when DCS in VR works on Linux, because I’ll be the first to switch.
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Perhaps once vulcan hits…
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