ssdpro :
Considering the reviews put the 7700K at about 0-2% in gains across the board, ... I'd wait for Zen and then maybe what Intel does to counter it
News flash: the 7700k
is what Intel did to counter it. It's an overclock of their
existing architecture on virtually the same process. What is that, if not a hasty reaction to Ryzen?
In the longer term, they'll provide more cores, in the form of Coffee Lake.
OEMs could enable x16/x8 multi-GPU configurations using the CPU’s 16 PCI-E lanes and an additional eight lanes from the chipset.
This is a
terrible idea, as it's basically going x16/x4, with the x4 also being shared for SSD, sound, and all other I/O. Much better to split the CPU's direct-connected lanes 8x/8x.
The only argument I see for x8 lanes per device is for some server peripherals that are x8 lanes @ PCIe 2.0.
And the only point I see of adding more PCIe lanes from the PCH is for RAIDs of M.2 SSDs.
memadmax :
No doubt these boards are for the low end dells/hp's that companies buy en-mass to populate a workcenter...
How are these low-end, exactly? Unless you're just talking about the Bx50 chipsets. But the Z270 is the best thing you can pair with an i7-7700k, and that's not low-end by any definition.