Question Looking to replace current Motherboard

[GreenCEO]

Below are my benchmark results from userbenchmark.com

I'm looking to replace my current motherboard as it only has 26 available lanes total and I would like to add another video card to my setup and maybe a few other things.. 2 more sticks of ram .. maybe a sound card.. m2 drive.. etc..

I was wondering if anyone could provide me with a few options of motherboards that would be better suited for my current setup. I would like a mobo with bluetooth / wifi built in (but not a deal-breaker).. Something with at least 2 slots for graphics cards.. 1 or 2 slots for m2 drives.. high sata ports.. etc..

Any help is appreciated. I've been building this pc for about 2.5 years now.. maybe a bit longer.. and would like to kick it up a notch..

This pc is primarily used for web / graphic design video editing but of course it gets its use for gaming..

Kind of games played on pc:
Dirt Rally 2.0
Forza 4
Battlefield 5
GTA5
OverWatch
Dying Light
Metro Exodus
SC2

Current MoBo specs:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty Z170 Professional Gaming i7/?cat=Specifications#BIOS

Article regarding limited lanes:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/asrock-fatal1tyz170-progamingi7-hsio-connectivity,30481.html

UserBenchmarks: Game 94%, Desk 79%, Work 59%
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.2Ghz - 74.8%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 2070 XC Ultra- 106.7%
SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 500GB - 116.8%
SSD: Samsung 860 Evo 500GB - 99.3%
RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB - 99.4%
MBD: Asrock Z170 Professional Gaming i7

 

[rgd1101]

lanes is limited by the chipset/cpu, that haven't change much on intel consumer level cpu.

 

[GreenCEO]

lanes is limited by the chipset/cpu, that haven't change much on intel consumer level cpu.

So does that mean if I want more lanes I will need a higher chipset? Z390 and so on?

 

[rgd1101]

higher up like the x299, which support cpu that have up to 44 pcie lane

even the z170 can have 2 m.2 with sli support
depend on the motherboard setup

here a list with 2 m.2 and sli support, that work with your current cpu
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/m...1,117,122,110,119&E=2,4&l=2&sort=price&page=1

 

[GreenCEO]

Quite a few boards to look at on this list: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/m...2,110,119&E=2,4&l=2,3&sort=price&R=5&s=30&L=4
Guess it comes down to doing some homework and seeing which one will offer me the best bang for my buck.. The LGA1151 cpu is only compatible up to Z270 boards correct?

 

[rgd1101]

The LGA1151 cpu is only compatible up to Z270 boards correct?

for your cpu, correct.

6th/7th gen cpu only work on 100-200 series motherboard. 6700k is 6th gen
300 series is for 8th or 9th gen

 

[TJ Hooker]

I don't see how your current motherboard wouldn't be sufficient. You have:

• Two x16 slots for GPUs (that would run at x8/x8)
• Two PCIe x1 slots (that can be used for sound card/network card)
• 4 RAM slots (the most you can without getting an HEDT mobo/CPU with quad channel memory)
• 3 M.2 slots

Regarding getting a 2nd GPU, the consensus seems to be that SLI is dying and getting dual GPUs isn't worth it anymore.

 

[GreenCEO]

I don't see how your current motherboard wouldn't be sufficient. You have:

• Two x16 slots for GPUs (that would run at x8/x8)
• Two PCIe x1 slots (that can be used for sound card/network card)
• 4 RAM slots (the most you can without getting an HEDT mobo/CPU with quad channel memory)
• 3 M.2 slots

Regarding getting a 2nd GPU, the consensus seems to be that SLI is dying and getting dual GPUs isn't worth it anymore.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I thought I read something in the article I posted that if I added too many components the motherboard would create a significant bottle neck due to the limited HSIO lanes? Sorry if I seem like a noob.. I don't fully understand how everything works. I was curious about dual cards cause it seemed like the more video ram you have dedicated, the better resolution you can play at comfortably.

So at the moment.. I should be able to have my graphics card connected in x16, an m2 drive + both ssd's, a better sound card and / or a better network card and 4 ram sticks?

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/asrock-fatal1tyz170-progamingi7-hsio-connectivity,30481.html

 

[TJ Hooker]

First off, RAM is completely separate from PCIe, so no need to worry there. Your GPU will be connected via PCIe lanes that go directly to your CPU, so no need to worry about it losing bandwidth to other devices.

The rest of your PCIe slots, along with M.2 slots, SATA ports, NIC, etc. all connect to the CPU through the chipset. The chipset has a maximum bandwidth of 4GB/s (in each direction, equivalent to PCIe 3.0 x4) to the CPU. So that's where you can start being bottlenecked. But that only becomes an issue if you have heavy I/O to multiple devices at the same time, such that the combined data speeds get close to 4GB/s. Whether or not that could happen would depend on what exactly you do with your PC and what devices you have installed, but I really doubt it'd be an issue for the vast majority of people

As said above, if you want to eliminate the CPU-chipset bottleneck altogether you'd have to get a high end desktop platform like Intel's X299 or AMD's X399. Those chips have more PCIe lanes direct from the CPU, so you can connect more devices before you have to start using the chipset lanes.

 

[GreenCEO]

Really appreciate the help guys. I think I have enough info here to make my decision. Cheers!