manleysteele :
-Fran- :
manleysteele :
This is the "feature" of Intel chipsets that get on my last nerve. I don't understand it. To be honest, I resent having to pay an extra $50-$100 for one or two PEX8747's just to run all of the storage options without disabling slots. At least one can find boards that have them, but a premium chipset shouldn't need them.
Counter-point: the Z chipsets are just high mid tier. The "good stuff" from Intel is the X chipsets. That can be considered premium and/or high tier.
Plus, they do that to segment the market. They make you jump onto the X platform if you have a slightly higher need than what the Z/H platforms offer.
Not justifying, but that is the nature of the (big) beast.
Cheers!
I have 8 SSD's in my system now, plus my spinning drives. I had to pay $100 for an add in card to run them all. I'm waiting for the Asus Z-290 WS to become available in order to move my installation over to a modern board. Even with that board, I'll have to be careful with slot assignments in order to run the drives I already own. If I want more, I'm probably going to need to wait for a $500 dollar X-290 WS. It's disgusting, but as you say, that's the nature of the beast.
I was gooning around Benchlife and it looks like Kaby Lake-X may only support dual channel memory, so there is another rumor/leak that makes me wonder what in the world Intel is thinking.
I doubt an X series chipset will ever go dual channel. Intel isn't that bad.