OK that is a MB limit I did not see in the materials or FAQ. Thx for the clarification. If the OP has bought the M2 ssd, then he might return it for a sata drive or purchase the PCIe adapter, as you and the Duck suggest. Usually a discrete gpu uses one of the red x16 expansion slots so running the adapter in the other red slot will provide 8 lanes and lots of bandwidth.
About returning the drive ? No. Installing the M2 drive in the M2 slot will still give better performance than returning the drive for a sata drive.
I am new here and I wish to solve my SSD problem on my Asus Z97 VII Hero! I had bought Plextor PX-G1256M6E 256GB when this technology first started on my motherboard and after 4 days period of time, since in my Bios secure erase recognized my Plextor SSD M.2 after then it did not recognized it anymore but as I log in to Windows system explorer to find my hard drive it was showing! I had to change Windows operating system to another SSD hard drive. I was worried that I might face a lot of errors during the system is working!
This is the fact since SSD cards M.2 was evolving in these past 3 years or so there have been many changes technology out there. This has passed nearly 2 years since then, at that the same time I was in contact with Plextor support company as they where very friendly and they said to me... "Please be informed if your drive is not recognized in BIOS there will be no possibility to update firmware on that drive. When drive is not visible in BIOS could be that drive is broken if yes please return it to your dealer for warranty. Please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you."... Now I am considering to get a new M.2 SSD hard drive as I was looking to one of your latest comments.
I have 2 MSI Graphic cards installed 1 on [PCIE_X16/X8_1] and 2 on [PCIE_X8_2] all in the red slots of the motherboard and a USB3.0PCI-Express Card on [PCIEX1_1] right now at this moment.
When I get the new M.2 SSD slot card and put it in the motherboard socket M.2 SATA. USB3.0PCI-Express Card it will be disabled automatically [PCIEX1_1].
[M.2 Mode]: PCIeX4_3 slots runs at two mode for more available of M.2 connector. (PCIeX1_1/2/3 are disabled)
When you place the M.2 SSD in the slot of M.2 socket of the motherboard it does not make any difference less or high performance! Because this will disable all other (PCIeX1_1/2/3 are disabled) and there is nothing to do with Graphic cards performance also they are automatically enabled from the motherboard itself. It depends on the performance of the new high generations out there of M.2 SSD's adapters on it self of their high capacity!
I have made some research compability about one of the new generation Technology of the M.2 Samsung SSD out there of 512GB Samsung 960 Pro, M.2 PCIe NVMe, 48 Layer V-NAND, 3500MB/s Read, 2100MB/s, 330K/330K IOPS, 400TBW