Benefits of Extra PCI Lanes?

[canadianvice]

Ultimately, in the build I'm planning on, I want to have the following:

1 PCI SSD (Boot)
1 Graphics Card (Probably a 1080Ti)
1 USB 3 5x port card

I have two options. I can wait for Intel's summer special, though I'd rather not, which will likely offer a i7-6800K (28 lanes) or greater or I can jump on their current one and get an i7-7700K.

One other thing to check:

The i7-7700K (16 lanes) uses FCLGA1151 for a socket, is this socket recent? Will I be able to use this with quad channel DDR4?

If the benefits to extra PCI lanes are minimal, I'll jump on this one provided that other question is good. If not, I'll wait.

Both will be available for probably around $250usd.

 

[Supernova1138]

The 7700k does not support quad channel DDR4, it only supports dual channel. You get 16 PCI-E lanes from the CPU, which depending on your motherboard can be offered in x16 or x8 x8 configuration for multi GPU setups. All other PCI-E lanes come off the chipset. Depending on the speed of your PCI-E SSD, you may hit a bottleneck also adding the USB 3 card unless you are willing to run your 1080Ti in x8 mode (Z270 chipset motherboards only) and use the secondary GPU slot for your SSD or you completely disable your M.2 slot.

If you want quad channel RAM or lots of PCI-E lanes you might want to look at LGA 2011-3 and the 6800k.

 

[Ecky]

Socket 2011v3 (6800K) is Intel's latest high-end desktop (HEDT) socket, and supports quad channel RAM. Socket 1151 (7700K) is Intel's latest mainstream (DT) socket and supports dual channel RAM. 1151 is a lot less expensive, and its CPUs are clocked higher and use newer core designs, but have fewer total cores.

The 6800K has a total of 28 CPU lanes available. The 7700K has a total of 24 when paired with a Z270 board. This means you could run 2 4x lane cards with the 7700K and still have 16 lanes for a GPU.

Source

That said, it's largely irrelevant. Existing video cards show very small (2-4%) hits when running with only 8 lanes.

 

[Rogue Leader]

The 7700K runs on a Kabylake motherboard (LGA1151 which is their most current socket), which has its own 24 lanes where your PCIe SSD will run and any other cards except your GPU. You have 1 GPU, it will use all 16 lanes from your CPU.

6800k on the other hand runs on X99, which only ha 8 onboard lanes, but the CPU makes up for it with 28 lanes. On top of that you can even get 40 lane CPUs. The only place this is really beneficial is if you want to run cards in SLI or Crossfire and insist on them both having a full 16 lanes. It makes a minimal performance difference. For the average person, and from your description, you don't need this. Also the 7700k gets higher FPS in most games anyway.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Socket 2011v3 (6800K) is Intel's latest high-end desktop (HEDT) socket, and supports quad channel RAM. Socket 1151 (7700K) is Intel's latest mainstream (DT) socket and supports dual channel RAM. 1151 is a lot less expensive, and its CPUs are clocked higher and use newer core designs, but have fewer total cores.

The 6800K has a total of 28 CPU lanes available. The 7700K has a total of 24 when paired with a Z270 board. This means you could run 2 4x lane cards with the 7700K and still have 16 lanes for a GPU.

Source

That said, it's largely irrelevant. Existing video cards show very small (2-4%) hits when running with only 8 lanes.

This is incorrect, a 7700k with Z270 lanes has a total of 40. 16 are dedicated to the GPU slot(s) and come direct from the CPU. The others are produced by the motherboard PCH and run the other slots and/or M.2 slot and SATA ports, USB 3.1, etc. The link you posted is incorrect it is off by 10. Not all 24 lanes are available to the user to connect cards in slots due to their aforementioned uses, but they are there.

X99 has 28 (or 40) lanes dedicated from the CPU plus 8 chipset lanes. That said these in some cases have M.2 slots that run to the CPU directly, but it makes little performance difference.

 

[Ecky]

Thanks for the correction. I've always been a bit unclear on that.

 

[canadianvice]

The 7700K runs on a Kabylake motherboard (LGA1151 which is their most current socket), which has its own 24 lanes where your PCIe SSD will run and any other cards except your GPU. You have 1 GPU, it will use all 16 lanes from your CPU.

6800k on the other hand runs on X99, which only ha 8 onboard lanes, but the CPU makes up for it with 28 lanes. On top of that you can even get 40 lane CPUs. The only place this is really beneficial is if you want to run cards in SLI or Crossfire and insist on them both having a full 16 lanes. It makes a minimal performance difference. For the average person, and from your description, you don't need this. Also the 7700k gets higher FPS in most games anyway.

So, two quick clarifications then:

#1: Jump on the i7-7700K? Yes, no? (I technically have a 6600K lying in its box still.... would this work admirably for my purposes? I want something that feels really Ferrari, if you catch my drift. In other words, is this simply pathos talking?)

#2: What I'm seeing is Quad channel isn't really the bee's knees for gaming... which is likely what I'd use it for. Does that sound right? Do I sound like I need QC ram? I want this PC to be high end, but not for trivial differences.

 

[Rogue Leader]

So, two quick clarifications then:

#1: Jump on the i7-7700K? Yes, no? (I technically have a 6600K lying in its box still.... would this work admirably for my purposes? I want something that feels really Ferrari, if you catch my drift. In other words, is this simply pathos talking?)

#2: What I'm seeing is Quad channel isn't really the bee's knees for gaming... which is likely what I'd use it for. Does that sound right? Do I sound like I need QC ram? I want this PC to be high end, but not for trivial differences.

1) Yes, its the best gaming CPU out right now. You wan't the Ferrari? Thats the red one!

2) QC is useless for gaming, it makes no discernible performance difference. The reality is to have QC ram you'd need a CPU that will perform worse. Two things are most important to gaming, CPU and GPU.

 

[canadianvice]

So, two quick clarifications then:

#1: Jump on the i7-7700K? Yes, no? (I technically have a 6600K lying in its box still.... would this work admirably for my purposes? I want something that feels really Ferrari, if you catch my drift. In other words, is this simply pathos talking?)

#2: What I'm seeing is Quad channel isn't really the bee's knees for gaming... which is likely what I'd use it for. Does that sound right? Do I sound like I need QC ram? I want this PC to be high end, but not for trivial differences.

1) Yes, its the best gaming CPU out right now. You wan't the Ferrari? Thats the red one!

2) QC is useless for gaming, it makes no discernible performance difference. The reality is to have QC ram you'd need a CPU that will perform worse. Two things are most important to gaming, CPU and GPU.

One last question, I actually already have a i7-6700K new in box, I never got around to building with it (I bought it on the last intel deal). Is it worth my while to get the i7-7700K, or?

 

[Ecky]

The 7700K is basically a new revision of the 6700K that's 300mhz faster. It tends to overclock a little higher too, but performance per clock is identical.

 

[canadianvice]

The 7700K is basically a new revision of the 6700K that's 300mhz faster. It tends to overclock a little higher too, but performance per clock is identical.

Eh, you're probably right. I imagine it's just pathos.

I sure as hell hope the processor I got last year works! I've never had a board to test it with xD

 

[Rogue Leader]

The 7700K is basically a new revision of the 6700K that's 300mhz faster. It tends to overclock a little higher too, but performance per clock is identical.

Eh, you're probably right. I imagine it's just pathos.

I sure as hell hope the processor I got last year works! I've never had a board to test it with xD

Intel has something like a 0.15% failure rate, you're pretty likely to be fine.