Gigabyte X670E AORUS Master

[kapone32]

sorry for resurrecting the thread but i've been trying to read block diagrams for the past hour and my head is about to explode lol

im looking to get a X670 board and was looking at the x670e Master or the cheaper X670 AORUS ELITE AX but i have 4 nvme drives. i plan on using all 4 m.2 slots. when doing this, will the top PCI 16X slot drop to 8X when using all m.2 slots? or will it stay on 16x?


by the looks of the block diagram for the Master, it shows PCI express 5.0 bus with the line and having the X16 slot on it as well as 2 M.2 slots both 4X to the cpu. so i would think that using one or both of those m.2 slots would drop the 16X slot to 8X right or am i reading the diagram wrong?

I've been looking at motherboards all night trying to figure out which one to get and i saw that the ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-E GAMING WIFI 6E board will drop the 16X slot to 8X if you use one of the M.2 slots.

from what i see, the ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-F version does not do this but im trying to see if the gigabyte boards do this?

LMK thanks

I have the Strix E. X670E boards can have the ability to split CPU lanes. What you need is to have the MB wired to the CPU. With the Strix E Asus have added a 2nd 5.0 drive and connected it to the 2nd Pcie slot. Meaning that the top slot runs at x8 and the 2nd slot runs at x4 if you put a drive in that slot. The board that had just pure lane splitting from the top 2 PCie slots is actually the MSI Carbon if price is the mitigating factor in your purchase. I have 7 M2 drives installed using Adapter cards and a WD AN 1500.

 

[atm743]

I have the Strix E. X670E boards can have the ability to split CPU lanes. What you need is to have the MB wired to the CPU. With the Strix E Asus have added a 2nd 5.0 drive and connected it to the 2nd Pcie slot. Meaning that the top slot runs at x8 and the 2nd slot runs at x4 if you put a drive in that slot. The board that had just pure lane splitting from the top 2 PCie slots is actually the MSI Carbon if price is the mitigating factor in your purchase. I have 7 M2 drives installed using Adapter cards and a WD AN 1500.

Is the gigabyte x670 aorus elite ax drop the 16x to 8x if I use all 4 m.2. ????

 

[ir_cow]

Is the gigabyte x670 aorus elite ax drop the 16x to 8x if I use all 4 m.2. ????

Here is the review https://www.techpowerup.com/review/gigabyte-x670-aorus-elite-ax/

 

[Darkholm]

I have the Strix E. X670E boards can have the ability to split CPU lanes. What you need is to have the MB wired to the CPU. With the Strix E Asus have added a 2nd 5.0 drive and connected it to the 2nd Pcie slot. Meaning that the top slot runs at x8 and the 2nd slot runs at x4 if you put a drive in that slot. The board that had just pure lane splitting from the top 2 PCie slots is actually the MSI Carbon if price is the mitigating factor in your purchase. I have 7 M2 drives installed using Adapter cards and a WD AN 1500.

Sorry to resurrect this thread but I also have question regarding this X670E PCI-E sharing.
Some boards do have shared connectors, some don't.

Also bought X670E-E second hand so no returning it. My wishes are to have 4x NVMe drives, 2x 2TB which I have: Kingston KC3000 which is Gen4 and Samsung 970 Evo Plus which is Gen3. Plan is to buy 2x 4TB Kingston KC3000 and have 3x Gen4 + 1x Gen3.

With all NVMe slots populated and neither is Gen5, will this board still give 8x on 1st "GPU" slot instead of 16x, no matter of which generation NVMe is which populates shares slot 3, even if there is "slowest" Gen3?

Thanks.

 

[kapone32]

Sorry to resurrect this thread but I also have question regarding this X670E PCI-E sharing.
Some boards do have shared connectors, some don't.

Also bought X670E-E second hand so no returning it. My wishes are to have 4x NVMe drives, 2x 2TB which I have: Kingston KC3000 which is Gen4 and Samsung 970 Evo Plus which is Gen3. Plan is to buy 2x 4TB Kingston KC3000 and have 3x Gen4 + 1x Gen3.

With all NVMe slots populated and neither is Gen5, will this board still give 8x on 1st "GPU" slot instead of 16x, no matter of which generation NVMe is which populates shares slot 3, even if there is "slowest" Gen3?

Thanks.

Yes the first PCIe slot is at least x8. There are 3 5.0 drives available but that does not matter, then you have another one that is 4.0. The other thing though is that 2nd slot will run at x4 (Your 3rd 5.0 drive) so a PCIe adapter card allows for 5 (up to 4 5.0). There is no lane sharing with SATA as I also have 3 SATA drives connected. If you still want more the 3rd PCI slot is at 4.0x4 but you could get a WD AN 1500 and have a nice RAID drive to add there as well. That drives has a controller on the PCB. That makes the card work in any slot from x2 to x8. As it is PCIe 3.x8 you should get a nice 6000+ Mhz sequential as it is a RAID 0 contorller.

 

[Darkholm]

So, bottom line - whatever generation of NVMe drive I put in M.2 slot 3, I will have x8 in 1st PCI slot for GPU?

 

[kapone32]

So, bottom line - whatever generation of NVMe drive I put in M.2 slot 3, I will have x8 in 1st PCI slot for GPU?

Yes and that is 5.0 so you get the same bandwidth as a full x16 slot running at 4.0 so that is non issue.

 

[Darkholm]

Oh, so GPU slot will have x8 Gen5 which is equal x16 Gen4 which my current GPU supports? And I do not have to worry about, just fill those M.2 slots ?

 

[kapone32]

Oh, so GPU slot will have x8 Gen5 which is equal x16 Gen4 which my current GPU supports? And I do not have to worry about, just fill those M.2 slots ?

Exactly.

 

[Darkholm]

Thank you very much. I almost got totally pissed and sold everything
When assembly occurs, I will install 970 Evo Plus in slot 3 immediately so later I can just put 2x 4TB into 2 and 4.
Thanks again

 

[ir_cow]

Oh, so GPU slot will have x8 Gen5 which is equal x16 Gen4 which my current GPU supports? And I do not have to worry about, just fill those M.2 slots ?

If you have a GPU that is Gen5 (none are out). 8x is equivalent to Gen4 16x. Otherwise it is just a Gen4 8x slot. But the loss is pretty low. Like 5 fps at most with a RTX 4090.

 

[Darkholm]

As per advice from the other place, got even better advice and will go with Expansion PCI card and bottom PCIe slot (PCIEX16_3). It will suffice for 970 EVO Plus Gen3.

Will use 2x slots with "CPU" lanes + 2x slots (M.2 + PCIe x16) with "chipset" lanes and GPU will work nicely with x16. M.2_3 will stay free forever Goddamn Asus. That's what I deserve, I told that I will never again buy their new MBO, so I bought this second hand. Read ton of review data, watched numeorus YT videos and I did not notice this horse$hit in the manual. Oh well, life goes on
Thanks again everyone for help and advices.

 

[kapone32]

As per advice from the other place, got even better advice and will go with Expansion PCI card and bottom PCIe slot (PCIEX16_3). It will suffice for 970 EVO Plus Gen3.

View attachment 363260 View attachment 363261

Will use 2x slots with "CPU" lanes + 2x slots (M.2 + PCIe x16) with "chipset" lanes and GPU will work nicely with x16. M.2_3 will stay free forever Goddamn Asus. That's what I deserve, I told that I will never again buy their new MBO, so I bought this second hand. Read ton of review data, watched numeorus YT videos and I did not notice this horse$hit in the manual. Oh well, life goes on
Thanks again everyone for help and advices.

AM5 is sweet when everything is rock solid. If I had to do it again I would have got the MSI Carbon. That is only because I already have expansion cards (Asus) that can hold up to 4 M2 cards and I prefer RAID 0 on one device across 2 drives vs 2 different ports on the MB. For SATA it is fine though. M2 are so convenient due to their form factor though.

 

[Darkholm]

AM5 is sweet when everything is rock solid. If I had to do it again I would have got the MSI Carbon. That is only because I already have expansion cards (Asus) that can hold up to 4 M2 cards and I prefer RAID 0 on one device across 2 drives vs 2 different ports on the MB. For SATA it is fine though. M2 are so convenient due to their form factor though.

Well, I had 3 X670E boards up for the grabs. MSI Carbon, Asus Strix-E and Aorus Master. Decided for Asus because Carbon was "bulk edition", no box or accessories only in anti-static bag and no warranty. Aorus had one broken RAM clip (not a big deal, I tried and RAM cannot fall out) and without accessories with warranty od 18 months. Strix came with most completed bundle and had longest warranty (26 months still) although WiFi antenna is missing but I couldn't care less, never use them on previous 3 WiFi boards All 3 were in 15 EUR price range and below/around 300 EUR which was pretty good price for high end boards.

 

[Darkholm]

If you have a GPU that is Gen5 (none are out). 8x is equivalent to Gen4 16x. Otherwise it is just a Gen4 8x slot. But the loss is pretty low. Like 5 fps at most with a RTX 4090.

As per advice from the other place, got even better advice and will go with Expansion PCI card and bottom PCIe slot (PCIEX16_3). It will suffice for 970 EVO Plus Gen3.

View attachment 363260 View attachment 363261

Will use 2x slots with "CPU" lanes + 2x slots (M.2 + PCIe x16) with "chipset" lanes and GPU will work nicely with x16. M.2_3 will stay free forever Goddamn Asus. That's what I deserve, I told that I will never again buy their new MBO, so I bought this second hand. Read ton of review data, watched numeorus YT videos and I did not notice this horse$hit in the manual. Oh well, life goes on
Thanks again everyone for help and advices.

Here is the "workaround" for everyone who wants to run 4x NVMe drives on boards like X670E-E where M.2 socket 3 drops GPU slot to 8x.
Works as it suppose to. R/W speed basically same as in M.2 MBO slot, only temperature is 8-10°C higher during heavy load but well below 75°C. This SSD is for games only so it will be OK.

For the info, item is IcyBox IB-PCI208-HS Adapter Card. Looks good and it is not noticable in black case and it is bundled with low profile bracket also. Good stuff from IcyBox