I am really looking for a board that has 2x ultra m2 slots each with pci-e 3.0 x4 connected to the cpu for a total use of 8 lanes, leaving me 8 lanes for a single gpu connected to cpu. I see skylake has updated the DMI and now you get pci-e 3.0 off the chipset so it is making it hard for me to figure out if I can get a board with 2x ultra m2 slots connected to cpu and 8x pci-e slot connected to cpu for gpu. Want my ssd's and gpu to run directly off the 16 cpu lanes.
From what I see the boards with 2 m2 slots have 1 slot that runs off sata and 1 slot that runs off pci-e. I think it's going to take skylake-e for that which is going to be my main build anyways.
I would really love an EATX skylake-e board with 6x pci-e 3.0 x4 ultra m2 slots that can be raided which is 24 cpu lanes and 1 16x cpu lanes slot for the gpu or 2 slot 8x lanes if you want dual gpu's. If it was fully up to me that is how i would like to use the 40 CPU lanes. I'll be lucky if they even put 4 ultra m2 slots in. Most likely 2-3 ultra m2 slots will be the norm.
See I really want a bunch of m2 slots because it's the best way to get pci-e 3.0 x4 connection for your storage. Sure you can get add in cards but I already will be using a dual or triple slot gpu and then at the bottom i'll already be using an asus essence stx II soundcard so I don't want to impede the air coming to my gpu which means i want atleast 3 slots of room for the gpu. if it takes up 3 spaces then the 3 spaces for room and then 1 space for sound card there's no room for the add in ssd.
If I just can't get more than a couple m2 slots I could get a 2.5" drive that is compatible with that little connector that intel uses for its pci-e x4 2.5" intel 750 drive. That could work nicely. The NZXT case has 2 spots that fit a 2.5" drive ssd perfectly. And with 2TB 2.5" drives coming out for 800 dollars I could get the 2TB of space I need in flash with 1x 2TB or 2x 1TB 2.5" drives connected with that sff cable that intel was showing that works with the 2.5" intel 750.
Or maybe when Samsung upgrades it's sm951 drive next generation with 3d v-nand there will be enough room to upgrade it to 1TB max. It should be out next year around skylake-e release and it will be a pretty ultimate drive with everything. 40nm MLC class endurance rating with some 48 layer v-nand, NVME protocol, top out at 1TB instead of 512TB, new higher performing controller. With a 1TB m2 drive i atleast have a good shot of finding a board with 2 ultra m2 slots off cpu, at least a good shot with skylake-e dont know if skylake can do that for me.
Shame that I even need 2TB of SSD space but these game installs are massively huge and you got to leave 25% of the SSD empty to keep it working in tip top shape. So thats really like 1.4TB of space when all is said and done. So I will either be using 4x 512GB sm951's, 2x of the sm951's successor in 1TB size or 2x of the 1.2TB intel 750 2.5" SSD with the SFF cable. Hope I don't have to go the super expensive intel route. And you don't get 400GB extra space with the intel's either when you take into account reserving 25% and formatting you get 1.5TB of space instead of 1.4TB. Basically by the time skylake-e comes out there will hopefully be a lot more choices in the pci-e 3.0 x4 ssd department.
Only need SSD's in my system because I have a Thecus N7710 7 bay nas storing all my media but that's a whole nother problem for a different thread.
From what I see the boards with 2 m2 slots have 1 slot that runs off sata and 1 slot that runs off pci-e. I think it's going to take skylake-e for that which is going to be my main build anyways.
I would really love an EATX skylake-e board with 6x pci-e 3.0 x4 ultra m2 slots that can be raided which is 24 cpu lanes and 1 16x cpu lanes slot for the gpu or 2 slot 8x lanes if you want dual gpu's. If it was fully up to me that is how i would like to use the 40 CPU lanes. I'll be lucky if they even put 4 ultra m2 slots in. Most likely 2-3 ultra m2 slots will be the norm.
See I really want a bunch of m2 slots because it's the best way to get pci-e 3.0 x4 connection for your storage. Sure you can get add in cards but I already will be using a dual or triple slot gpu and then at the bottom i'll already be using an asus essence stx II soundcard so I don't want to impede the air coming to my gpu which means i want atleast 3 slots of room for the gpu. if it takes up 3 spaces then the 3 spaces for room and then 1 space for sound card there's no room for the add in ssd.
If I just can't get more than a couple m2 slots I could get a 2.5" drive that is compatible with that little connector that intel uses for its pci-e x4 2.5" intel 750 drive. That could work nicely. The NZXT case has 2 spots that fit a 2.5" drive ssd perfectly. And with 2TB 2.5" drives coming out for 800 dollars I could get the 2TB of space I need in flash with 1x 2TB or 2x 1TB 2.5" drives connected with that sff cable that intel was showing that works with the 2.5" intel 750.
Or maybe when Samsung upgrades it's sm951 drive next generation with 3d v-nand there will be enough room to upgrade it to 1TB max. It should be out next year around skylake-e release and it will be a pretty ultimate drive with everything. 40nm MLC class endurance rating with some 48 layer v-nand, NVME protocol, top out at 1TB instead of 512TB, new higher performing controller. With a 1TB m2 drive i atleast have a good shot of finding a board with 2 ultra m2 slots off cpu, at least a good shot with skylake-e dont know if skylake can do that for me.
Shame that I even need 2TB of SSD space but these game installs are massively huge and you got to leave 25% of the SSD empty to keep it working in tip top shape. So thats really like 1.4TB of space when all is said and done. So I will either be using 4x 512GB sm951's, 2x of the sm951's successor in 1TB size or 2x of the 1.2TB intel 750 2.5" SSD with the SFF cable. Hope I don't have to go the super expensive intel route. And you don't get 400GB extra space with the intel's either when you take into account reserving 25% and formatting you get 1.5TB of space instead of 1.4TB. Basically by the time skylake-e comes out there will hopefully be a lot more choices in the pci-e 3.0 x4 ssd department.
Only need SSD's in my system because I have a Thecus N7710 7 bay nas storing all my media but that's a whole nother problem for a different thread.
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