Check if the 7700K supports an expansion card with two PCIe x16 ports functioning in x8/x8 mode.
Check if the 7700K supports an expansion card with two PCIe x16 ports functioning in x8/x8 mode.
PCIe 2.0 delivers about 500MB/s per lane, which equals 2GB/s for four lanes. With sixteen drives that’s roughly 125MB/s each. This matches expectations from a single drive. Improving further to eight lanes could push performance closer to 2GB/s per HBA, though it’s unclear if anything beyond that will significantly help. Using a 10G Ethernet connection would reduce the effective speed compared to what the storage can actually provide at four lanes. The 7700K is likely to struggle managing thirty-two drives and high data rates.
I do get faster than 125MB/s from each drive, and they are all accessed simultaneously during parity checks which would slow that down. So yeah I do think I'll need the 8 lanes each. Even though that results in overkill, 4 lanes sounds like not quite enough. It's nice to know that's an option though, so thanks.
If you receive a 3.0 card, you'll experience 4GB/s performance, which resolves the issue.
They mentioned around $300 for a 16i, which would just swap in the one you already have. You'd still need to purchase additional expanders. The most affordable choice looks like buying a used SLI motherboard and another 2.0 HBA. Thanks for your assistance!
It seems the price range isn't affected by whether it's new or used. Prices begin near $270 and increase from there, which would have been better.