Looking for a specific motherboard

G

GeekVerve

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I'd love to find a Z170 board that fits the bill, but I doubt it exists. So, I'm willing to pay the premium for an X99 setup. What I'm looking for is something that will allow me to run x16(full)/x4/x4/x4 (3-PCIe 3.0 x4 AIC's) with at least 2-M.2 PCIe 3.0 slots or 1-M.2 PCIe 3.0 slot and one U.2 PCIe 3.0 connector (with no bandwidth sharing).

The aging Asus X99-E WS is about the only one I've found that would work ($$). I can use add-on cards for the additional PCIe 3.0. connections. Anyone know of any others?
 
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Ok. I jumped on NewEgg's sale today on their Intel 750 Series PCIe 1.2TB SSD card, so I'm going to have to go with a less expensive CPU/motherboard combo - looking at Z170 now. Are there any that will do x16(full)/x4/x4 with a couple of additional x4 options from M.2 and/or U.2?

On a related note, if a motherboard's manual says it has 3-PCIe 3.0 x16 slots that support single x16, dual x8/x8 or triple x8/x4/x4 (or x8/x8/x4 or whatever), is that just when they are all populated with GPU's? If slots 2 and 3 are populated with x4 PCIe cards, will slot 1 operate at a full x16?
 
Skylake runs 16 pcie lanes from the CPU. You'd need a mobo with a PLX chip to run 12 more pcie lanes.

eg ASUS Global

"4 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (single at x16, dual at x16/x16 mode, triple at x16/x8/x8 mode or quad x8/x8/x8/x8 mode)
1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 (max at x4 mode) *3"

PCI Express - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia might give a few more ideas of what to look for.
 
i7Baby said:
Skylake runs 16 pcie lanes from the CPU. You'd need a mobo with a PLX chip to run 12 more pcie lanes.

eg ASUS Global

"4 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (single at x16, dual at x16/x16 mode, triple at x16/x8/x8 mode or quad x8/x8/x8/x8 mode)
1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 (max at x4 mode) *3"

PCI Express - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia might give a few more ideas of what to look for.
Click to expand...

I understand the CPU only provides 16-lanes, but the Z170 chipset adds some to the PCIe slots as well, as I understand it (how else could you do x8/x8/x8/x8?). The Z170-WS is actually one I've been considering. Can it run x16/x4/x4/x4 (x4's being non-GPU cards), or does simply populating that 4th slot with anything drop the first slot to x8?
 
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