PCIe Slots Occupied

[XxPHATAL1TYxX]

Ok, so I'm building my first system, I've been working on it, collecting parts for just over a year, and I have almost everything now. Currently I'm waiting for Vega to launch as that's the GPU I want.

As a pre-cursor, I'll give a little information about my system. I'm going with an I7-7700K in an Asrock Extreme 4 Z270 Motherboard. And of course as previously mentioned the Vega GPU. There are a lot of components going in that I won't mention because they're irrelevant to my question, but my issue is this: The Motherboard I've chosen has 3 x16 PCIe slots. The GPU will occupy the first slot, and I'll want it to run at x16. That leaves 8 lanes across the other 2 slots, but I have an NZXT Sentry LXE fan controller, a DLink PCIe WiFi card, and an Asus Strix Raid Pro sound card, all of which (if I'm not mistaken) only take up 1 lane a piece. I've read that by plugging anything into the other slots reduces slot 1 to x8. But I've also read that it is possible to dictate slot 1 to x16 and the other 2 slots to x1 or x4. Is this true? And if so, how do I do this? I was thinking of getting a PCI riser to give me an extra slot for the extra component. And I'm assuming I'd then need 2 PCI extension ribbons. Would this work though?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Your motherboard has 3 PCIE x1 slots, that you can use for sound card and wifi card.
NZXT Sentry LXE fan control card doesn't really require a slot.

 

[XxPHATAL1TYxX]

Ahhhhhhhh, LOL I'm honestly not sure how I missed that when reading the spec list. Thank you for pointing that out.

The LXE may not "require" the PCIe connection, but I do want to utilize all the tools/features it offers 😛

Thank you for your help. That eases my worry.

 

[Dragos Manea]

Ok. so 1 thing first, you dont have 3 pcie slots runnign at 16X, you got 2 pcie slots running at 16X or 8x/8x (in case of dual gpu setup) and 1 pcie 16X runnign at 4x. The 16x runnign at 4x does not run from the cpu lanes but from the motherboard chipset lanes. The only cpu lanes are on the first 2 pcie 16x lanes which they can work only at 16x or 8x/8x (i think the second one can work only at max 8x, you got to check the manual) all other slots run from the chipset lanes, so no matter what you do the first slot will run at 16x and the second slot will run at max 8x. All other slots run from shipset pcie lanes.

 

[XxPHATAL1TYxX]

SkyNetRising: Did you mean it doesn't actually connect via PCIe at all, but rather just sit in a slot in the chassis? I was under the impression it still had to connect.

Dragos Manea: I'm not saying you're wrong, but the Spec sheet on Newegg specifically states 3 x16 slots. 1 at x16. 2 at x8, or triple x8. So while I understand what you're saying, the 2nd slot won't run at x16, I already stated that in my opening. That would be 32 lanes, which is more than the CPU and Motherboard could handle. But even though it won't run at x16, the spec sheet does say it is an x16 slot.

 

[SkyNetRising]

SkyNetRising: Did you mean it doesn't actually connect via PCIe at all, but rather just sit in a slot in the chassis?

Yes - exactly. See the picture.

 

[XxPHATAL1TYxX]

Thank you for your help. It's much appreciated.