Recommendation for motherboard with pcie x16 slots separated by 4 spaces

[ThorntonStrolia]

Budget (including currency): ~350 USD with a little room to budge

Country: United States

Programs or workloads that it will be used for: Maya, Houdini, Blender

 

I have a 3090 and 3070 and for the life of me I figured with 3 slots separating the PCIE16 slots on my current board I could fit both. I cannot. That is not the end of the world because my CPU is about 3 years old now and I put my computer through a lot of abuse as a computer animator so I am due for an upgrade. I just want to make sure I will have room for both cards. I am looking at a 5950x CPU so I am looking for a compatible motherboard that will have sufficient spacing for both cards. The simple solution is to run water cooling and that is on the roadmap but not as urgent to me as getting both cards up and running because CUDA and RT cores are an animators best friend and as powerful as the 3090 is (and man is it awesome) I should be able to 1.5X my speeds with both cards on projects where the ram doesn't exceed the 7gb on the 3070 if I can get both running. Alternatively I can use risers but I would really rather not mess with that if possible. The bigger issue here is. I want the 3070 on top because it runs cooler than the 3090 and I actually technically have room for the 3090 now but I would have to pull the USB3 and case poser cables to make room. It literally is missing like 4mm of clearance. The most obvious solution is a board with 4 open lanes/spaces below the bottom PCIEx16 slot vs the 3 open lanes I have now. But if anyone has any knowledge of a board they know will work with a 3090 in the bottom slot then I am fully open to whatever solution can be provided at this time.

 

I appreciate it. Also, hopefully I put this in the right section. I am new here. It seemed like build planning was the right place to put this but it might be better suited in the motherboard hardware topic. I am not sure.

 

[WhitetailAni]

7 minutes ago, ThorntonStrolia said:

I am looking at a thread ripper 5950x CPU

Just an FYI, that's not a Threadripper chip - it's a regular Ryzen AM4 chip. Zen 3 Threadrippers were supposed to launch November 2021 but that didn't happen.

[ThorntonStrolia]

5 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

Just an FYI, that's not a Threadripper chip - it's a regular Ryzen AM4 chip. Zen 3 Threadrippers were supposed to launch November 2021 but that didn't happen.

You are correct. Sorry I started typing 3975 and then changed it half way through and just completely butchered that. haha

[brob]

What are the actual models of the GPUs?

[ThorntonStrolia]

27 minutes ago, brob said:

What are the actual models of the GPUs?

It is an MSI gaming x trio 3070 and a gigabyte aorus 3090 both air cooled variations. The 3070 fits fine in either slot. And there doesn't seem to be any clearance issues between the 3070 and 3090. Just those extra few mm on the 3090 that interferes with the USB3 and chassis cables. But if I put the 3090 in the top slot (how I have it now) then it blocks the second PCIe slot all together. I just need a motherboard with a bit of extra room on the bottom of the board between the headers and the PCI slots.

[brob]

Could you use a right angle usb adapter? Something like https://www.amazon.com/Extension-Gelrhonr-Motherboard-Internal-Header-Black/dp/B0925QZ6B3

[ThorntonStrolia]

40 minutes ago, brob said:

Could you use a right angle usb adapter? Something like https://www.amazon.com/Extension-Gelrhonr-Motherboard-Internal-Header-Black/dp/B0925QZ6B3

Actually, quite possibly. For $10 ill give it a shot. I still don't know if that will be enough clearance but thats not too expensive to give it a shot. I wonder if there is anything like that for the USB2, fan, power and restart button headers too. They are all sadly located like RIGHT there. The USB3 elbow looks pretty low profile but the fan and power fingers are a bit taller so I am not sure if that would actually help with anything. I could possibly use a fork of some kind for the fan but I am not sure what to do about the other ones.

[brob]

As long as you have a mm or two clearance above the usb 2 and other connectors you should be able to simply bend the wires. You may have to untwist the one bundle.

 

Frankly I wouldn't worry so much about placement of the two GPU. As long as there is good airflow through the case it should be fine.

[ThorntonStrolia]

2 minutes ago, brob said:

As long as you have a mm or two clearance above the usb 2 and other connectors you should be able to simply bend the wires. You may have to untwist the one bundle.

 

Frankly I wouldn't worry so much about placement of the two GPU. As long as there is good airflow through the case it should be fine.

Since the bottom pcie lane is covered by the 3090 I basically can only put it on bottom. It also sits around 68c when rendering without a second card in there so I want to make sure to give it all the room I can. I will see if I can pull the USB3 and anything not 100% needed and see if I can get it to fit at all. If I can then ill inch back in, but since I am looking to get a new CPU anyway I would definitely prefer a board that just has the space.

[brob]

The X570 Godlike might work, but it grossly exceeds the budget. There may also be issues with the back plate on the GPU interfering with the cpu cooling solution.

 

 

 

[ThorntonStrolia]

57 minutes ago, brob said:

The X570 Godlike might work, but it grossly exceeds the budget. There may also be issues with the back plate on the GPU interfering with the cpu cooling solution.

 

 

 

That it is.... hmmm. I have built my fair share of computers including this one but am by no means an expert. Are there any things I can look for or terminology that may indicate the amount of room I have or is this a situation of just word of mouth? I think this best case scenario is if someone here is lucky enough to have dual 3090s on an am4 board who may be able to let me in on what they have. At the same time, in the realm of dual 3090s, that board may also be grossly over budget but probably the easiest sure fire way to know a 3090 will fit.

[ThorntonStrolia]

1 hour ago, brob said:

The X570 Godlike might work, but it grossly exceeds the budget. There may also be issues with the back plate on the GPU interfering with the cpu cooling solution.

 

So, quick update. I pulled the USB3 cable and there is JUST enough room like it is squishing the power button cables and I think they are a smidge bent out of shape but I got the 3090 in the bottom slot and the 3070 in the top so here we go with some stress testing. That elbow for the USB3 is looking real good now. Thanks for all the help and I am still interested in a less literal arm bending solution for the future when I get a new CPU and mobo if anyone else has any suggestions.

[brob]

When it's time to upgrade, many Alder Lake motherboards seem to use 4 slot separation. This suggests that other new motherboards will start using this separation.

[ThorntonStrolia]

2 hours ago, brob said:

When it's time to upgrade, many Alder Lake motherboards seem to use 4 slot separation. This suggests that other new motherboards will start using this separation.

I certainly hope so. I look forward to that.