Z170 PCI Lanes...will it work?

[therealTJ]

I pop my LTT forum cherry with this one!

 

I currently run a 6700k on an ASUS Z170 Extreme with two Titan X's, two Samsung 850 Evo SSD's, and two Seagate HDD's. I boot to one of the SSD's and use the other for project work (with the HDD's being recent archives not on the NAS). 

 

If I were to run a U.2 (or M.2) drive connected to my mobo, would that utilize the 4 lanes on the chipset and leave the other 16 CPU lanes to my GPU's (running in 8x and 8x)?

 

I have the 10Gbps ASUS adapter card occupying one of the PCI 4x slots, but I do not use it at the moment as I work from home. If I were to move to the office that has a 10Gbps network, would I still be able to run both GPU's, a U.2 (or M.2), and the card?

 

Merry holidays and happy other days that are not holidays too!

 

 

[TheGleaner]

Pcie lanes mostly depend on the cpu.(if I recall right)

The 6700k only has 16 lanes, if that helps.(according to intel arc)

 

So I think you wouldn't have enough lanes to do that, if I understood you right.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Check the manual for the u.2 drive. It should work off the chipset and the 10gbe should work at the same time. 

[zMeul]

why haven't you checked the manual? http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/MAXIMUS_VIII_EXTREME/E10739_MAXIMUS_VIII_EXTREME_UM_WEB.pdf

starting with page 1-23: using the u.2 will disable the m.2 and vice-versa; using a m.2 SATA drive will disable some (2 I think) SATA ports

[therealTJ]

The first thing I did was checked the manual, and I understood that I could run either a M.2 or U.2, but not both, with the M.2 disabling the SATA Express controller. 

 

Assuming there is a dedicated 4 lanes on the mobo for SATA Express/M.2/U.2:

-U.2 retains both U.2 AND SATA Express functionality. 

-M.2 retains SATA Express functionality only if the M.2 is in PCI mode. 

 

What I do not understand is if the 10Gbps adapter utilizes the mobo's dedicated PCI lanes, that presumably the  SATA Express, M.2, and U.2 use. I'm coming to the conclusion that the 16 lanes on the CPU (per intel ARC) are used by the GPU's, so the question is about the 4 other lanes, (as the mobo supports 20 total, 4 implied on the mobo).  

[SmashinMachine]

3 hours ago, therealTJ said:

The first thing I did was checked the manual, and I understood that I could run either a M.2 or U.2, but not both, with the M.2 disabling the SATA Express controller. 

 

Assuming there is a dedicated 4 lanes on the mobo for SATA Express/M.2/U.2:

-U.2 retains both U.2 AND SATA Express functionality. 

-M.2 retains SATA Express functionality only if the M.2 is in PCI mode. 

 

What I do not understand is if the 10Gbps adapter utilizes the mobo's dedicated PCI lanes, that presumably the  SATA Express, M.2, and U.2 use. I'm coming to the conclusion that the 16 lanes on the CPU (per intel ARC) are used by the GPU's, so the question is about the 4 other lanes, (as the mobo supports 20 total, 4 implied on the mobo).  

You have 16 Lanes from CPU

and 20 Lanes from PCH that together are 36 Lanes

 

First three PCIE Slots use the CPU Lanes

with x16/x0/x0

        x8/x8/x0              =                  16 LANES from CPU

        x8/x4/x4

 

ASUS z170 boards use 4 lanes from PCH for the Last PCIE Slot. Not from CPU

So you can use fourway CFX with x8(CPU)/x4(CPU)/x4(CPU)/x4(PCH)

z170 Chipset has 20(!) Pcie 3.0 Lanes to use in five sets of four lanes, and these could be used four GPUs as well. (theoretically!!!)

The last PCIe Slot shares bandwith with m.2 in most ASUS MBs 

 

But in your case the u.2 and m.2 share 4 lanes from PCH and your last pcie has another 4 lanes  from PCH that shares the lanes with Sata Port 5 and 6

 

There are Lan Controller, Audio controller, USB controoller, Sata Controller, PCIE x1 slots  etc that use the lanes from PCH too.

 

PS: Sry for my bad english

 

 

[SmashinMachine]

14 hours ago, therealTJ said:

I pop my LTT forum cherry with this one!

 

I currently run a 6700k on an ASUS Z170 Extreme with two Titan X's, two Samsung 850 Evo SSD's, and two Seagate HDD's. I boot to one of the SSD's and use the other for project work (with the HDD's being recent archives not on the NAS). 

 

If I were to run a U.2 (or M.2) drive connected to my mobo, would that utilize the 4 lanes on the chipset and leave the other 16 CPU lanes to my GPU's (running in 8x and 8x)?

 

I have the 10Gbps ASUS adapter card occupying one of the PCI 4x slots, but I do not use it at the moment as I work from home. If I were to move to the office that has a 10Gbps network, would I still be able to run both GPU's, a U.2 (or M.2), and the card?

 

Merry holidays and happy other days that are not holidays too!

 

 

If you use the LAST PCIe Slot, yes you will able to run the SLI because the last PCIe Slot run over PCH but you have to set the PCIe mode from default to x4 in Bios.

If the last pcie Slot is occupied, Sata Port 5 and 6 will be disabled, because they are sharing the lanes

[therealTJ]

SmashinMachine I understand what you are saying, thanks for the clarification. So if the U.2 and M.2 share PCH lanes with the last PCI slot with the 10Gbps adapter, it would be one or the other? Or because there is 36 lanes total I will still not have saturated the lanes? 

 

Instinctually I think having GPU's in SLI at 8 lanes each, a M.2/U.2, and the 10Gbps adapter would all work.

[SmashinMachine]

18 hours ago, therealTJ said:

SmashinMachine I understand what you are saying, thanks for the clarification. So if the U.2 and M.2 share PCH lanes with the last PCI slot with the 10Gbps adapter, it would be one or the other? Or because there is 36 lanes total I will still not have saturated the lanes? 

 

Instinctually I think having GPU's in SLI at 8 lanes each, a M.2/U.2, and the 10Gbps adapter would all work.

No, no The last pcie slot share with sata 5 and sata 6 ports in your motherboard Asus maximus extreme viii.

That has nothing to do with your m2 or u2 in your motherboard.

 

You can not use the m2 and u2 together, because m2 shares the lanes with u2

 

But it should work with your setup-.