PCIE Lanes and M.2

[Puggaard]

Hey people.

 

I'm gonna upgrade my rig to Skylake, now im not aiming for super high-end, but i am aiming for quite the rig.

My question is, with a 6700k processor in a z170 motherboard, would i be able to run 2x GTX 980's and a M.2 SSD?

[Glenwing]

2 minutes ago, Puggaard said:

Hey people.

 

I'm gonna upgrade my rig to Skylake, now im not aiming for super high-end, but i am aiming for quite the rig.

My question is, with a 6700k processor in a z170 motherboard, would i be able to run 2x GTX 980's and a M.2 SSD?

Yes, the M.2 slot uses auxiliary PCIe lanes separate from the 16 lanes used for the graphics card slots.

[Simon771]

Z170 krait gaming should do the work: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170-KRAIT-GAMING.html#hero-overview

It supports M.2 slot for SSD and it also support 980 SLI.

And also good for overclocking.

 

It cost around 140€, so from looking what other components you are using, I guess 140€ will be good price for you.

[Puggaard]

I was looking at the MSI m3: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170A-GAMING-M3.html#hero-overview

Will this do?

[Simon771]

1 minute ago, Puggaard said:

I was looking at the MSI m3: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170A-GAMING-M3.html#hero-overview

Will this do?

Pretty much same motherboard as I mentioned, just in differend colors

Yes it will do what you are asking.

[Puggaard]

Thanks a lot, The M3 motherboard fits way better in sense of color scheme to my parts.

[NumLock21]

Well Krait Gaming has 3 x16 slots and M3 only has 2. But M3 have right angle SATA so long video cards will not cause a problem.

They will on the Krait because they're straight up. Installing a gpu like GTX 970 and all 4 sata ports are blocked off, leaving with only 2 sata ports. They won't be a problem if you're using a Fury X or R9 Nano. MSI fixed that problem with the Krait R6 Siege, but it cost more.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170A-KRAIT-GAMING-R6-SIEGE.html

[Puggaard]

Only issue i see, is that i can't find anywhere that the M3 supports SLI.