-[Q]- AMD Bulldozer FX-6100 PCI-E expansion question

[iWearKiltz]

Hey guys,
I've recently decided to build my second rig, and i'm waiting for all the Intel/Nvidida/AMD parts come out. I've learnt many things through watching videos on the net about Processors, Mobos etc etc..
I currently have running in my rig:
-AMD Bulldozer FX6100 (3.3GHz-3.9GHz)
-ASUS M5A97 (Revision 1)
-Corsair Vengeance LP RAM 2x4GB (1332MHz - Fails to boot out of BIOS after manually switching to 1600MHz, and Auto selects 1332MHz. Bonus Question if you can find out why it does this)
-AMD Radeon Sapphire HD7850 2GB
-Creative Soundblaster Recon 3D
-Western Digital 500GB Main HDD
-Corsair CX750M PSU
My main question is; I've searched over google already (i'm pretty independent in my learning) to find out (just out of interest) how many PCI expansions my processor can do (may not be correct termonology). I've done example searches for Intels i7 3770k, and that clearly states in what form the PCI-E speeds run at. When I look for my AMD version of this "PCI expansion configurations" I fail to find anything. So what is my PCI expansion possibilities

All i've been able to find out is something about AM3+ bottlenecking with high-end graphics cards... though no specific details were given.

Advanced thanks for reading/answering

iWearKiltz

[Godlygamer23]

post is screwed up.

[iWearKiltz]

post is screwed up.

Fixed

[jollander]

Skipping your main question (as I have no idea) and going straight for the bonus one!

 

Check the manufacturers site to see which volt it should run at, then check what your motherboard gives it. I had the same problem with my Corsair Vengeance and I found out that my motherboard auto-regulated the voltage and it undervolted. Because of that it wouldn't boot at the proper 1600mhz. It was quite an easy fix once I set it up manually.

 

+Like if this helped! :)

[Godlygamer23]

Your CPU will bottleneck high end cards because it's not powerful/fast enough. Your current motherboard will support Quad SLI or Quad CrossfireX in the form of 590s, 690s, 6990s, 7990s, etc. If you decide to not do that, you can still do two way SLI/CrossfireX.

[jollander]

Oh i forgot one more thing about the ram. Check the CL timings to make sure your motherboard isn't screwing you over on that as well. Mine are CL9 (9-9-9-24) but my motherboard set it to CL10 (10-10-10-27) automatically. 

 

Make sure you get the most out of your ram by setting it manually.

[iWearKiltz]

Your CPU will bottleneck high end cards because it's not powerful/fast enough. Your current motherboard will support Quad SLI or Quad CrossfireX in the form of 590s, 690s, 6990s, 7990s, etc. If you decide to not do that, you can still do two way SLI/CrossfireX.

I kinda understood this already.. although there are 1x16 and 1x8... so i could only do SLI/CF anyways.. what I was asking about was at what speed would the cards operate at within the slots? (i.e 2x8 slots)

[Lavi]

OK takling your main question. Unlike with intel chip amd does not have the PCIe on the cpu, it's on the chipset, so your number of PCIe lanes and the versions are dependent on what chipset you get. For the 900 series there are four options.

 

970 chipset with one PCIe 2.0 slot @ 16x (and one @ 4x). Generally only suitable for single card set-ups. Can do crossfire technically but the second card will be hampered. The 4x slot is really for something like a sound or raid card. This is what you have.

 

990X chipset with one PCIe 2.0 slot @ 16x or two @ 8x 8x (and one at 4x). Bit of a middle child, suitable for multi-card set up of lower end cards but... meh.

 

990FX  chipset with two PCIe 2.0 slots @ 16x and one at 4x. The one to get for SLI or crossfire.

 

Also there is the Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 motherboard with two PCIe 3.0 slots @ 16x if you really want to make sure your cards aren't being slowed down.