MOBO, M.2, video card, Firewire card - how many PCIe lanes do we need?

[Snatcholo]

Hi all,

I'm looking at buying the components listed below and I can't get my head around how many PCIe lanes I'm going to need to avoid compatibility issues.

Can I get away with the i76800k (28 lanes) or am I going to need the i7-6850k (40 lanes)?

Any help would be much appreciated

MSI X99A Gaming carbon

Slots
• 4x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots*
- Support x16/ x0/ x0/ x0, x16/ x16/ x0/ x0, x16/ x16/ x0/ x8, x8/ x16/ x8/ x8 with the CPU that supports 40 PCIe lanes.
- Support x16/ x0/ x0/ x0, x16/ x8/ x0/ x0, x8/ x8/ x8/ x0, x8/ x8/ x8/ x4 with the CPU that supports 28 PCIe lanes.
• 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots
* PCI_E6 slot shares the bandwidth with U.2 port and M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4. Please refer to page 32 for PCIe 3.0 bandwidth table.

Storage
• Intel® X99 Chipset
• 10 x SATA 6Gb/s ports (2 ports from SATAe port)
- SATA1~6 support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10
- SATA7~10 only support IDE mode and AHCI mode
• 1 x M.2 slot (Key M)*
- Supports up to PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6Gb/s
- Supports 2242/ 2260/ 2280 storage devices
• 1 x U.2 port */ **
- Supports PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe storage
• 1 x SATAe port* (compatible with 2 SATA ports)
- Supports up to PCIe 2.0x2
• Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology***

* M.2 slot (PCIe 3.0 x4) and U.2 share the same bandwidth. Please refer to page 38 for U.2/ M.2/ SATAe & SATA combination table.
** The U.2 port will be unavailable when installing the PCIe device in PCI_E6 slot.
*** This function will be supported depend on the CPU.

i7 6800k - Max # of PCI Express Lanes 28

Msi Geforce Gtx 1080 Gaming X 8G

Firewire 800 PCIe card
To connect a RME audio card.

1x SSD 512GB Samsung M.2 PCI-E 960 PRO [MZ-V6P512BW]

2x Samsung SSD 850 EVO, 500G B, 2.5" SATA III [MZ-75E500B/EU]

1x Hard disk 3,5 2TB Western Digital Sata III 7200rpm 128MB [WD2004FBYZ]

 

[DRagor]

28 lane CPU is enough. The only difference between 40 and 28 lanes would be if you decided to add second GPU (x16/x16 with 40 lanes, only x16/x8 with 28 lanes).

GPU goes to PCIE_1. Firewire goes to PCIE_4. 960 Pro goes to M.2 slot. Remaining 3 drives go to SATA ports 1-4 (and you still have one free)

 

[Snatcholo]

28 lane CPU is enough. The only difference between 40 and 28 lanes would be if you decided to add second GPU (x16/x16 with 40 lanes, only x16/x8 with 28 lanes).

GPU goes to PCIE_1. Firewire goes to PCIE_4. 960 Pro goes to M.2 slot. Remaining 3 drives go to SATA ports 1-4 (and you still have one free)

Thanks so much for you help DRagor, much appreciated, that explains it perfectly.

I completely forgot to add the Elgato hd60 pro to the setup which is a PCIe x1, do you think it would be ok?

Many thanks again.

Cheers

 

[DRagor]

Thanks so much for you help DRagor, much appreciated, that explains it perfectly.

I completely forgot to add the Elgato hd60 pro to the setup which is a PCIe x1, do you think it would be ok?

Many thanks again.

Cheers

And now it is a bit of different story.
Since it would go to PCIE_2 slot ... except GPU will make it unavailable as due to its size it takes two slots 🙁 so you will have to install it in either PCIE_3 or PCIE_5 (_3 is probably better choice) ... but still, you have only 2 cards at 3.0 slots which means GPU will run at x16. So you are still good to go with 28 lane CPU.

 

[Snatcholo]

Thanks so much for you help DRagor, much appreciated, that explains it perfectly.

I completely forgot to add the Elgato hd60 pro to the setup which is a PCIe x1, do you think it would be ok?

Many thanks again.

Cheers

And now it is a bit of different story.
Since it would go to PCIE_2 slot ... except GPU will make it unavailable as due to its size it takes two slots 🙁 so you will have to install it in either PCIE_3 or PCIE_5 (_3 is probably better choice) ... but still, you have only 2 cards at 3.0 slots which means GPU will run at x16. So you are still good to go with 28 lane CPU.

Seriously DRagor, thanks heaps, you made my day!