PCIE Lane Help

[Mentuis]

Hello!

 

Today’s PCIE lane video was very timely, as I am currently working through some issues and thought I would seek guidance from those of you who understand the black magic that is PCIE better than I do.

 

Background: I decided to take some parts I had around and finally make an Unraid server and consolidate some DAS’s into a proper NAS. That has expanded to running my Plex server and a VM for emulation.

 

Setup:

AMD 7950X3D

ASUS Prime B650M-A

X2 2TB SSD Gen 3 x4

64GB (32x2) DDR5

12 Sata 3.5 Drives (6 on expansion card 6 plugged directly into the board)

 

PCIE cards, in order top to bottom

 

Quadro P2000 (for Plex/Dockers)

PCIEx4 6 Port Sata 3.0 card

PCIEx4 10G Nic

 

3090 (for emulation Linux VM). This will be replaced by a 3060 or 4060 in the near future, just had the 3090 around so I decided to use it for a bit.

 

Currently only some of the Sata drives are detected, which is almost certainly a PCIE limitation. The 3090 is also not detected in its current port, works fine in the top port with a rise of course. I have it in the bottom slot since I need access to all four slots and the riser is tricky to make work in the rack chassis it is in. 
 

My main questions:

 

Is there any way to make this setup work with this board? Even if that means maybe buying a x1 10G Nic instead of the x4 for example. I’m also open to ditching the Nic and using the onboard 2.5G if it’s the only option.

 

What is the best layout/order to put the cars in assuming I’m not able to use a riser?

 

Would upgrading to a different motherboard allow this setup work essentially as is? If so, what would be recommended? (The chassis fits ATX/MATX/ITX)

 

For anyone who made it through my rambling post, thank you! 

 

 

 

[Average Nerd]

7 minutes ago, Mentuis said:

ASUS Prime B650M-A

Are you sure this is your motherboard? This one only has 3 PCIe slots, but you listed 4 cards. (and only 4 onboard SATA ports, you list 6 SATA drives to be connected to the mobo)

[Mentuis]

I probably neglected to add some identifier, it’s this board.

 

 

[Average Nerd]

1 minute ago, Mentuis said:

I probably neglected to add some identifier, it’s this board.

 

 

The default lane config of this board (with your CPU) is

Slot 1: PCIe x16 4.0

Slot 2: PCIe x1 4.0

Slot 3: PCIe x1 4.0

Slot 4: PCIe x1 4.0

 

This means that any card with a interface wider than x1 will only be able to run at full bandwith in slot 1.

[Mentuis]

Sounds like a new board is the answer then, which isn’t too surprising. Would it make sense to with with like a Strix X670E-E? Only three slots, but if I drop the 10G Nic that could work.

[Average Nerd]

5 minutes ago, Mentuis said:

Sounds like a new board is the answer then, which isn’t too surprising. Would it make sense to with with like a Strix X670E-E? Only three slots, but if I drop the 10G Nic that could work.

That board would be better suited, yes.

Lane configs:

Slot 1: PCIe x16

Slot 2: disabled

Slot 3: PCIe x4

m.2_3: disabled

 

Slot 1: PCIe x8

Slot 2: PCIe x4

Slot 3: PCIe x4

m.2_3: PCIe x4 or disabled

[Mentuis]

If I am reading things correctly, it looks like the MPG X670E Carbon might be a great fit. Could you take a look at that one for me as well? Thank you!