PCIE lane help

[Brennlamb]

Hi, I'm planning on doing a mini-itx build, and I'm debating using the new skylake i7 6700k, but I want a M.2 PCIE ssd, but I don't want to hamper my graphics performance, as the 6700k only has 16 pcie lanes and using the ssd would only allow 8 lanes for my gpu.  I could do an x99 system, but the one mini itx mobo I know of doesnt have an m.2 slot, and I'd really like the extra performance of the ssd.  I'm just really confused about the performance impact of pcie lanes.  I watched Linus' video on the topic but I'm still not totally sure of the benefits or consequences of using a single gpu on an 8x lane as compared to a 16x lane, from what I understand, there really aren't any performance drawbacks between a 16 and 8 lane in sli, and I assume that is the same in a single card, but if the are fine with just a 8x slot, why not ship the card with an 8x connector instead of 16x?  Another question I had was whether it was possible to increase the number of available pcie lanes through any additional hardware, because i feel that would be nice, even though I haven't found anything about it being possible and it would solve my dilemma if there was something I could use to allow the m.2 ssd and gpu to utilize their full pcie bandwith.

[dragoon20005]

the new skylake chipset has lanes just for SSDs and PCI-E expansion slots

 

the GPU still gets full x16 unless you go for dual GPUs

[Brennlamb]

ok, thats great, thanks for the help

[Fetzie]

The chipset has 20 lanes for storage and network devices.

[dragoon20005]

The chipset has 20 lanes for storage and network devices.

16 from the CPU

 

4 from the chipset

[i_build_nanosuits]

16 from the CPU

 

4 from the chipset

i think the Z170 chipset now provide more than 4 additionnal lanes.

 

EDIT: well...it looks like it can provide ''up to 20''

...so yeah you can plug all kind of storages and sh!t on these boards and your graphics cards will just fine.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2015/08/05/intel-releases-skylake-cpus-with-z170-chipset-and-mainstream-ddr4-support/

[NumLock21]

16 from the CPU

4 from the chipset

20 from the chipset not 4 for z170 & q170. Least I've seen was 8, think it was the h110 or b150.