Bifurcation support on a Mini ITX board

[Schmov17]

Hey everyone, hoping some of you could help me out a bit. I'm in the planning phase of a home data server build. I'm hoping to use a Mini ITX board and 2 RAID cards, and using a PCIe splitter (such as http://www.ameri-rack.com/ARC2-PELY423-C7_m.html) to connect both cards.

Splitters like this can work, so long as the motherboard supports PCIe bifurcation. The splitter manufacturer gave me a few model numbers that support this feature, but I was hoping to find a few more board options. I'm wondering what determines if a board supports bifurcation and how I would be able to find out if other boards than just the ones listed support it.

Any input is appreciated.

 

[wangotango]

I would get a list of boards that meet your requirements and then simply contact them. (Amerirack)

DFi are industrial and high quality. Supermicro are excellent boards and more than likely will support bifurcation but they are more money.

A Supermicro MBD-X10SLV-Q-O will probably work but at 179.00, it's worth a call.

If that is out of your range, just find some that are not and call them.

 

[artvscommerce]

Unfortunately I don't have any thing to contribute, but I was just curious what type of chassis you had in mind. Any reason why an ITX is more appealing than a MicroATX?

 

[Schmov17]

Thought I'd resurrect this thread, as I am still looking for an answer and had some new ideas on the matter.

To answer Artvscommerce's question, I'm planning on doing a custom case mod, so have the main case area be for the drives and cram a tiny mobo and cards in the corner.

I have some questions as to the mechanics of PCIe, for anyone with higher knowledge of bus data and motherboard design and are willing to entertain my ignorance. The current/recent generations of Intel i series processors have a fairly open PCIe layout, that makes it easy for board designers to implement multiple configurations of different number of PCIe slots and other connections on a board. A normal size board with 2x PCIe x16 connections can support 2 GPUs and automatically configure them into x8 x8 connections.

My question is why wont a splitter card (like the link in the OP) connected to a current mobo see it as 2 x8 devices and automatically configure it as such? I understand that the order of the pins has to do with it but I'd appreciate any explanation as to what the difference between the two is.

Thanks

 

[thesmokingman]

Thought I'd resurrect this thread, as I am still looking for an answer and had some new ideas on the matter.

To answer Artvscommerce's question, I'm planning on doing a custom case mod, so have the main case area be for the drives and cram a tiny mobo and cards in the corner.

I have some questions as to the mechanics of PCIe, for anyone with higher knowledge of bus data and motherboard design and are willing to entertain my ignorance. The current/recent generations of Intel i series processors have a fairly open PCIe layout, that makes it easy for board designers to implement multiple configurations of different number of PCIe slots and other connections on a board. A normal size board with 2x PCIe x16 connections can support 2 GPUs and automatically configure them into x8 x8 connections.

My question is why wont a splitter card (like the link in the OP) connected to a current mobo see it as 2 x8 devices and automatically configure it as such? I understand that the order of the pins has to do with it but I'd appreciate any explanation as to what the difference between the two is.

Thanks

It cannot auto split the lanes, the board has to have the appropriate chipsets to split the lanes. The *splitter board would then have to have a chipset itself I'm guessing.

From your link that splitter is only supported by specific server class mb's, and only if the add-on board supports bifurication.