F5F Stay Refreshed Hardware Desktop searching for Z690 dual fully wired X16 PCIe adapter

searching for Z690 dual fully wired X16 PCIe adapter

searching for Z690 dual fully wired X16 PCIe adapter

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PikachuPro952
Junior Member
15
03-11-2021, 11:00 AM
#1
I need a Z690 board with two full wired X16 PCIe ports. Most boards have three to four physical slots, but only one is dedicated to X16. I’m considering switching to NVMe since I want to move away from spinning drives. I currently use two ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 cards with 2TB Samsung drives, and on an X8 slot I can only see two drives clearly. I’d like to stay on consumer platforms before upgrading to Xeon. Thanks!
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PikachuPro952
03-11-2021, 11:00 AM #1

I need a Z690 board with two full wired X16 PCIe ports. Most boards have three to four physical slots, but only one is dedicated to X16. I’m considering switching to NVMe since I want to move away from spinning drives. I currently use two ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 cards with 2TB Samsung drives, and on an X8 slot I can only see two drives clearly. I’d like to stay on consumer platforms before upgrading to Xeon. Thanks!

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Bro_craft23
Member
57
03-15-2021, 10:02 PM
#2
Not feasible with two full x16 slots. The CPU provides only x16 lanes, limiting the total to x16 lanes connected to it, while the chipset caps at four lanes per device. A PLX chip might allow this configuration, but overall bandwidth would remain x16, and currently there are no PCIe Gen 5 PLX switches available. A Z690 board likely wouldn't support them. However, some boards include five M.2 slots and an x16 slot. For a dGPU, you could run seven M.2 drives—five directly to the CPU and four shared between CPU and chipset. If full bandwidth and drives are needed, consider using an x8 card with PCIe switches that enable more NVMe devices on fewer lanes.
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Bro_craft23
03-15-2021, 10:02 PM #2

Not feasible with two full x16 slots. The CPU provides only x16 lanes, limiting the total to x16 lanes connected to it, while the chipset caps at four lanes per device. A PLX chip might allow this configuration, but overall bandwidth would remain x16, and currently there are no PCIe Gen 5 PLX switches available. A Z690 board likely wouldn't support them. However, some boards include five M.2 slots and an x16 slot. For a dGPU, you could run seven M.2 drives—five directly to the CPU and four shared between CPU and chipset. If full bandwidth and drives are needed, consider using an x8 card with PCIe switches that enable more NVMe devices on fewer lanes.

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Endothief
Junior Member
12
03-16-2021, 04:32 AM
#3
Hey, seems like you were wondering if I misread something. Right now I'm using a 7700K with a Maximus Hero, a 3090FE, and 12TB of spinners on a HBA card plus 2x 4TB drives on the chipset. I also have two 2TB Samsung 980 Pros. I know I’m out of PCIe lanes now, so upgrading might be the best way to consolidate everything into one system. Glad you asked for a sanity check!
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Endothief
03-16-2021, 04:32 AM #3

Hey, seems like you were wondering if I misread something. Right now I'm using a 7700K with a Maximus Hero, a 3090FE, and 12TB of spinners on a HBA card plus 2x 4TB drives on the chipset. I also have two 2TB Samsung 980 Pros. I know I’m out of PCIe lanes now, so upgrading might be the best way to consolidate everything into one system. Glad you asked for a sanity check!

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Brudora
Senior Member
726
03-17-2021, 10:34 AM
#4
For multiple fully wired X16 connections beyond the standard slots, you'll need servers or high-end CPUs such as Threadripper, Intel Extreme, Xeon, or EPYC because they provide more PCIe lanes.
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Brudora
03-17-2021, 10:34 AM #4

For multiple fully wired X16 connections beyond the standard slots, you'll need servers or high-end CPUs such as Threadripper, Intel Extreme, Xeon, or EPYC because they provide more PCIe lanes.