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| System Name | RBMK-1000 |
|---|---|
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 7 5700G |
| Motherboard | ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming |
| Cooling | DeepCool Gammax L240 V2 |
| Memory | 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X |
| Video Card(s) | Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock |
| Storage | Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB |
| Display(s) | BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch |
| Case | Corsair Carbide 100R |
| Audio Device(s) | ASUS SupremeFX S1220A |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W |
| Mouse | ASUS ROG Strix Impact |
| Keyboard | Gamdias Hermes E2 |
| Software | Windows 11 Pro |
AMD's connectivity-rich Ryzen Threadripper HEDT platform may have an Achilles's heel after all, with reports emerging that it lacks support for booting from NVMe RAID. You can still have bootable NVMe RAID volumes using NVMe RAID HBAs installed as PCI-Express add-on cards. Threadripper processors feature 64-lane PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complexes, which allow you to run at least two graphics cards at full x16 bandwidth, and drop in other bandwidth-hungry devices such as multiple PCI-Express NVMe SSDs. Unfortunately for those planning on striping multiple NVMe SSDs in RAID; the platform lacks NVMe RAID booting support. You should still be able to build soft-RAID arrays striping multiple NVMe SSDs, just not boot from them. Pro-sumers will still be able to dump their heavy data-sets onto such soft-arrays. This limitation is probably due to PCI-Express lanes emerging from different dies on the Threadripper MCM, which could present problems to the system BIOS to boot from.
Ryzen Threadripper is a multi-chip module (MCM) of two 8-core "Summit Ridge" dies. Each 14 nm "Summit Ridge" die features 32 PCI-Express lanes. On a socket AM4 machine, 4 of those 32 lanes are used as chipset-bus, leaving 28 for the rest of the machine. 16 of those head to up to two PEG (PCI-Express Graphics) ports (either one x16 or two x8 slots); and the remaining 12 lanes are spread among M.2 slots, and other onboard devices. On a Threadripper MCM, one of the two "Summit Ridge" dies has chipset-bus access; 16 lanes from each die head to PEG (a total of four PEG ports, either as two x16 or four x8 slots); while the remaining are general purpose; driving high-bandwidth devices such as USB 3.1 controllers, 10 GbE interfaces, and several M.2 and U.2 ports.
There is always the likelihood of two M.2/U.2 ports being wired to different "Summit Ridge" dies; which could pose issues in getting RAID to work reliably, which is probably the reason why NVMe RAID booting won't work. The X399 chipset, however, does support RAID on the SATA ports it puts out. Up to four SATA 6 Gb/s ports on a socket TR4 motherboard can be wired directly to the processor, as each "Summit Ridge" puts out two ports. This presents its own set of RAID issues. The general rule of the thumb here is that you'll be able to create bootable RAID arrays only between disks connected to the same exact SATA controller. By default, you have three controllers - one from each of the two "Summit Ridge" dies, and one integrated into the X399 chipset. The platform supports up to 10 ports. You will hence be able to boot from SATA RAID arrays, provided they're built up from the same controller; however, booting from NVMe RAID arrays will not be possible.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
Ryzen Threadripper is a multi-chip module (MCM) of two 8-core "Summit Ridge" dies. Each 14 nm "Summit Ridge" die features 32 PCI-Express lanes. On a socket AM4 machine, 4 of those 32 lanes are used as chipset-bus, leaving 28 for the rest of the machine. 16 of those head to up to two PEG (PCI-Express Graphics) ports (either one x16 or two x8 slots); and the remaining 12 lanes are spread among M.2 slots, and other onboard devices. On a Threadripper MCM, one of the two "Summit Ridge" dies has chipset-bus access; 16 lanes from each die head to PEG (a total of four PEG ports, either as two x16 or four x8 slots); while the remaining are general purpose; driving high-bandwidth devices such as USB 3.1 controllers, 10 GbE interfaces, and several M.2 and U.2 ports.
There is always the likelihood of two M.2/U.2 ports being wired to different "Summit Ridge" dies; which could pose issues in getting RAID to work reliably, which is probably the reason why NVMe RAID booting won't work. The X399 chipset, however, does support RAID on the SATA ports it puts out. Up to four SATA 6 Gb/s ports on a socket TR4 motherboard can be wired directly to the processor, as each "Summit Ridge" puts out two ports. This presents its own set of RAID issues. The general rule of the thumb here is that you'll be able to create bootable RAID arrays only between disks connected to the same exact SATA controller. By default, you have three controllers - one from each of the two "Summit Ridge" dies, and one integrated into the X399 chipset. The platform supports up to 10 ports. You will hence be able to boot from SATA RAID arrays, provided they're built up from the same controller; however, booting from NVMe RAID arrays will not be possible.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
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