Compatibility Concern between ASUS Maximus X Hero and M.S and SATA Hard Drives

[amruch]

I am building a machine learning computer to help with my PhD studies involving natural language processing and machine learning classification tasks, and came across the following potential error message while using PCPartPicker.com: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($347.89 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H115i PRO 55.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Thermal Compound: Coollaboratory - Liquid Ultra 0.15g Thermal Paste ($12.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG MAXIMUS X HERO (WI-FI AC) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($248.79 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($830.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Pro 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($228.99 @ Newegg Business)
Storage: Toshiba - X300 5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($138.88 @ Other World Computing)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC2 HYBRID GAMING Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($799.89 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC2 HYBRID GAMING Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($799.89 @ Amazon)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Evolv ATX Glass ATX Mid Tower Case ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA P2 1200W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($205.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $3874.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-07-10 12:20 EDT-0400

In the Compatibility Notes section on the bottom of my PCPartPicker page, it lists the following potential error: "The motherboard M.2 slot #1 shares bandwidth with a SATA 6.0 Gb/s port. When the M.2 slot is populated, one SATA 6.0 Gb/s port is disabled."

Is this something that I need to be concerned about, given my selection of the Samsung SSD and Toshiba HD, or will my motherboard be able to work with both parts fine because it has other M.2 and SATA slots (https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-X-HERO/#spec)?

Thanks in advance!

 

[logainofhades]

You have no reason to be concerned given the drive configuration you are intending to use. Usually the last SATA port is the one disabled. Just use the first one for the HDD. GTX 1180 is expected to come out next month, just as an FYI. Also if your intended software is highly multithreaded, a 2700x base rig would be a better choice. I cannot think of any reason 64gb ram would be necessary either. Even if you do, you can get less expensive ram than that kit.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor ($309.90 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H115i PRO 55.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - X470 Master SLI/AC ATX AM4 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Sniper X 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($700.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Pro 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($228.99 @ Newegg Business)
Storage: Toshiba - X300 5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($138.88 @ Other World Computing)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC2 HYBRID GAMING Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($799.89 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC2 HYBRID GAMING Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($799.89 @ Amazon)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Evolv ATX Glass ATX Mid Tower Case ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 1300W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($179.99 @ B&H)
Total: $3578.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-07-10 17:01 EDT-0400

 

[amruch]

You have no reason to be concerned given the drive configuration you are intending to use. Usually the last SATA port is the one disabled. Just use the first one for the HDD. GTX 1180 is expected to come out next month, just as an FYI. Also if your intended software is highly multithreaded, a 2700x base rig would be a better choice. I cannot think of any reason 64gb ram would be necessary either. Even if you do, you can get less expensive ram than that kit.

Thanks for your note about there not being any true incompatibility issues between the ASUS motherboard and M.2 and SATA hard drives!

In regard to your other suggestions:

• 1. My research applies a lot of state of the art machine learning models that AMD processors cannot run efficiently at the present moment. Most new deep learning models are optimized for CUDA processing, and AMD's ROCM GPU analysis platform (https://rocm.github.io/dl.html) doesn't support frameworks like PyTorch or even the most up-to-date version of TensorFlow yet. It's a shame, though, because I agree with you that you get more bang-for-the-buck with AMD, especially since their Vega cards can do half-precision computation. Again, however, most mainstream ML frameworks are written for double precision... C'est la vie...
  2. I'll definitely look out for the 1180 graphics card, though it sounds like it'll be another year before the 1180 TI is out, and I'm not sure that it'll give me that much more computing power than what I need presently. Do you have any arguments for why I should reconsider? Counterarguments include my advisor wanting me to get a move-on with my thesis and grant research
  3. I totally agree with you about multi-threading. Do you have any other suggestions for Intel-based processors/motherboards that would be better than what I have listed? The Intel i7 8700K seemed the best for my build, though I know it only has six cores. It's processing speeds seemed quite good for the price, especially with overclocking.
  4. I have 64Gb of RAM because most of my datasets are larger than 50Gb and some are larger than 150Gb. Also, I do a lot of data mining and web scraping/crawling continuously in the background while I do other analyses. My present research on social network analysis is also incredibly RAM-hungry. I wish someone would write some network analysis frameworks in CUDA like they have for ML. Lastly, I also plan to do a good deal of parallel processing in the near future.
  5. Finally, and unfortunately, the G.Skill memory card you listed is not compatible with the ASUS motherboard (http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/ROG_MAXIMUS_X_FORMULA/MEMORY_QVL_0108.pdf?_ga=2.168583780.430560594.1531259569-1224341834.1531259569). I've confirmed by email with G.Skill that the memory card listed in my build is the fastest 64Gb card for the motherboard. Also, a number of people have reported problems overclocking the 3466MHz G.Skill cards. Also, their 3466MHz card has a significantly longer and uneven latency class compared to the 3200MHz card (16-18-16-38 vs 15-15-15-35), which may limit it a bit.

I previously had an AMD build that was spec'ed out to the teeth (http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3741103/compatibility-concerns-threadripper-1950x-build.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=forum_email&utm_campaign=EPR-8809), but it ended up being a bit beyond what I need at the moment (especially when one considers scaling issues).

Thanks so much for your help on this!

UPDATE: I just read up about the NVidia 1180, and it seems like it may not come out until September now. The new specs look pretty appealing, but computationally, I'm not sure if they are worth the wait, given that the price may be anywhere from $999 to $1400. At that rate, one could just buy more 1080 TIs until the 1180's drop in price or until the 1180 TI's come out. Am I right in that logic?