z170 board + samsung 950 ssd (m.2 slot ) + SLI (gtx 980 x 2) , WILL IT work fine ? enough PCI lanes ? x8 x8 x4 ?

[omidelf]

Maximus VIII hero + Samsung 950 512gb SSD (m.2) , Will they work well together ? or i should consider another MotherBoard ?


i also have a gtx 980ti SLI and 4 SATA HDD's will i be fine ? can i connect all the HDD's ?

should i know anything before using a 950 with viii hero ? i should update bios or install a software ? any bios setting i should know ?

 

[Gingerbread]

Well you can put it in the m2 slot since your board has one, but then your gpus will run at x8 and x4 which will decrease your performance a bit.

 

[omidelf]

Well you can put it in the m2 slot since your board has one, but then your gpus will run at x8 and x4 which will decrease your performance a bit.

how about gigabyte z170x gaming 7 ? will this happen to that board too ? or i can use the m.2 slot + 2 gpu with no problem ?

 

[Gingerbread]

It's not a board problem just CPU limitation. Just use a SATA3 ssd, or if you are going to use it this way, you will have a slight gaming performance drop. Won't be really noticeable.

 

[omidelf]

It's not a board problem just CPU limitation. Just use a SATA3 ssd, or if you are going to use it this way, you will have a slight gaming performance drop. Won't be really noticeable.

how do you know what my CPU is ?

 

[Gingerbread]

Board uses LGA1151 which is 6th gen and so far 6th gen CPUs have only 16 lanes.

 

[omidelf]

Board uses LGA1151 which is 6th gen and so far 6th gen CPUs have only 16 lanes.

so how much of a difference does it make if i use like 20 lane instead of 16 ? how much fps difference in games ? is it huge ? should i be worried that i cannot fully use my gtx 980 ti sli ? should i just change my build ? ( i have not bought this computer yet )


also isn't that weird considering 6700k is their newest product ? why they don't have more lane ? isn't this a high end cpu ?

 

[Gingerbread]

Well it is a high end cpu but is a consumer cpu. Also even if you have the GPUs running in x8 + x4 instead of x8 + x8 you won't notice it. GPUs are not fast enough to fully utilize even x8, so in x4 you might lose 5% performance tops, but you won't notice it, especially while using gtx 980ti SLI.

 

[omidelf]

Well it is a high end cpu but is a consumer cpu. Also even if you have the GPUs running in x8 + x4 instead of x8 + x8 you won't notice it. GPUs are not fast enough to fully utilize even x8, so in x4 you might lose 5% performance tops, but you won't notice it, especially while using gtx 980ti SLI.

so you suggest i stay with my 6700k build and don't go with 5820k ?
will i have any problem in future gaming (2-3 year) if i go with 8x and x4 ? you sure it's only 5% difference ? i don't wanna spend like 3000$ and then regret it later , right now i can go with 5820k too or 6700k

 

[Gingerbread]

You have already bought the 6700k so pointless to switch to 5820k. Also if you are going to switch, better go for the 5830k since it has 40 lanes instead of the 28 of the 5820k, but yes I am sure. You can check some benchmarks gtx 980ti x16 PCI-E 3.0 vs gtx 980TI x4 PCI-E 1.1. The first runs at around 150, second around 140-145. You won't even notice it.

 

[omidelf]

You have already bought the 6700k so pointless to switch to 5820k. Also if you are going to switch, better go for the 5830k since it has 40 lanes instead of the 28 of the 5820k, but yes I am sure. You can check some benchmarks gtx 980ti x16 PCI-E 3.0 vs gtx 980TI x4 PCI-E 1.1. The first runs at around 150, second around 140-145. You won't even notice it.

also why did you say one will run with x8 and the other x4 ?

6700k has 20 lanes right ? so both gpu will run with x8 and the last 4 lanes will go to the m.2 right ? so why x8 and x4 on gpu's ?

and no i don't have a 6700k yet , planning to buy this computer next week

 

[Gingerbread]

The 6700k has 16 lanes. Only the 5820k has 28 lanes and the 5830k 5960x have 40 lanes.

 

[omidelf]

The 6700k has 16 lanes. Only the 5820k has 28 lanes and the 5830k 5960x have 40 lanes.

i saw this somewhere for z170 board + 6700k :

The lanes for storage (M.2, Sata Express and Hard drives) total 20

The lanes for CPU (GPU, Raid Cards, Sound Cards) total 16

These are completely different lanes. Storage lanes run off the chipset while GPUs etc run off the CPU.



so the 16 lanes of CPU would be used for my GPU's , x8 each
and the other 20 lane will be used for my HDD's and M.2 right ? is this true ?


source : https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/424724-z170-not-en...


and in another topic i saw this :

Along with reading mb reviews for z170 I keep reading that some boards wil do 8/8/4, it seems that the extra 4 is coming from the chipset. If that is the case then, z170 should alow 8/8 via cpu and an additional x4 for a gpu(amd only) or an m.2 slot. Reading the printout on the link shoes that each pcie lane is 8gb/s meaning the x4 m.2 should in fact run at 32gb/s.

Does this sound right to you guys? If this is in fact the case then a plx wouldn't be needed unless you wanted to 3 or 4 way sli.

it seems Z170/Skylake supports another 4 PCIe lanes , the chipset has built in lanes , but they don't work for GPUs.


source : http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/762902-Pcie-lanes-for-sli-and-m-2-4x

 

[Gingerbread]

I've read that on paper many times, that z170 boards have 4 lanes dedicated to the m2 ssd and not touching the ones of the CPU, however never seen it tested or confirmed. Though on paper it is like this, but I wonder why no Z170 manufacturer mentions this, I mean it should be said on every board manual (makes it feel like it has more features and is more premium).

 

[omidelf]

I've read that on paper many times, that z170 boards have 4 lanes dedicated to the m2 ssd and not touching the ones of the CPU, however never seen it tested or confirmed. Though on paper it is like this, but I wonder why no Z170 manufacturer mentions this, I mean it should be said on every board manual (makes it feel like it has more features and is more premium).

well considering you are expert in these stuffs and i'm really really newbee about all these pci lanes ( i honestly don't even know what they are or how they look like ... )

can you do a research and help me with this ? cuz i don't wanna drop a 3000$ and regret it later
if you do a research and confirm that this is true that would be very helpful , that i can actually run my gpu's with x8 and x8 and my SSD with x4


considering the 6700k and z170 are newer , i really don't wanna go back to x99 and 5k series of intel if the newer versions are availble

 

[omidelf]

another source :

Chipset PCIe lanes are additional lanes on top of the lanes provided by the CPU
See here: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z170-H170-H110-B170-Q150-Q170---What-is-the-Difference-635/

Best
Markus



source : https://communities.intel.com/thread/96012?start=0&tstart=0



also :

The CPU supports up to x16 on the PCI-E slots. The chipset has another 20 PCI-E lanes for things like your m.2 drives. Take a look at this diagram Intel has provided, hopefully this makes it easier for you to understand.

source : https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/424724-z170-not-enough-pcie-lanes/

 

[Gingerbread]

Yeah I am fully aware how it works in theory.

 

[omidelf]

Yeah I am fully aware how it works in theory.

so x8 for each gpu and x4 for the SSD right ? it should be fine considering no gpu will use more than x8 ?

 

[Gingerbread]

Well it should work both gpus in x8 but even if it goes for some unknown to me reaosn into x8 + x4, even then you will have no problems.

 

[Gamer1985]

You can run the GPUs at X8 no problem and use the M.2 also. The M.2 runs on different lanes then the PCI, but it will disable 2 of your SATA ports available.

 

[omidelf]

You can run the GPUs at X8 no problem and use the M.2 also. The M.2 runs on different lanes then the PCI, but it will disable 2 of your SATA ports available.

so after that how many SATA 3 Hard disks can i connect to the computer ?

 

[Gamer1985]

The M.2 has a PCIE and SATA configuration. If it runs on PCIE, itll take x4 lanes and if is configured for SATA then ports 1 and 2 automatically become disabled. I believe there is a total of 8 so you will have 6.

 

[omidelf]

The M.2 has a PCIE and SATA configuration. If it runs on PCIE, itll take x4 lanes and if is configured for SATA then ports 1 and 2 automatically become disabled. I believe there is a total of 8 so you will have 6.

you mean i can use 6 more SATA 3 HDD's ? or everyone of them uses 2 so i can have 3 more SATA HDD ?

 

[omidelf]

The M.2 has a PCIE and SATA configuration. If it runs on PCIE, itll take x4 lanes and if is configured for SATA then ports 1 and 2 automatically become disabled. I believe there is a total of 8 so you will have 6.

also are you saying that i should run the M.2 on SATA To run my gpu's with x8 each ?

if so , then will it have a less speed than when it's being run on PCIe ?


i saw this on reddit :

With Skylake you get 16 lanes from the CPU, which are either used as 16x for one slot, or x8/x8 for SLI/Crossfire.
M.2 slots come from the chipset PCIe (up to 20 lanes of PCIe 3.0, but some are sharing the same pins on the chipset as SATA, USB 3.0 or ethernet, so motherboard makers can't choose all of the options all at once). However the chipset to CPU link is effectively only 4 lanes of PCIe 3.0 equivalen

 

[Gamer1985]

Yes as the Maximus Hero allows you to run PCIe or SATA configurations for the M.2 drive. So if you ran the M.2 in a SATA configuration, it will disable SATA ports 1&2 while still allowing you to run your GPUs in a x8/x8 configuration with no decrease in performance.

You can read everything in the manual below, it explains about the M.2 capabilities on the motherboard.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/MAXIMUS_VIII_HERO/E10343_MAXIMUS_VIII_HERO_UM_WEB.pdf