Available boards with multiple PCIe slots for sane prices

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richms

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#311859 21-Feb-2024 13:52

With the upcoming death of windows 10, its probably time I look at getting something newer than 4th gen so I can upgrade to 11.

But I have many PCIe cards (not graphics cards) which seems to be poorly catered for these days, as the board I have at the moment has 3 slots that are x16 sized, but 2 of them are partially wired so fine for the 4x cards I have in them.

With the death of SLI, it seems that its all single x16 slot and a couple of token x1 slots which are not even open ended.

I have just been looking thru PB Tech for boards. But if anyone knows of a decent full ATX sixed board that can take several x4 cards somewhere else locally, that would be good too.

Not interested in splashing out on threadripper or epic or anything like that just to get a few more devices in the machine.

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mentalinc

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#3198357 21-Feb-2024 14:09

If you're moving that many gens, do you need the PCIe cards or does the motherboard have what you are looking to add already included?

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richms

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#3198360 21-Feb-2024 14:15

mentalinc:

If you're moving that many gens, do you need the PCIe cards or does the motherboard have what you are looking to add already included?

HDMI capture, SAS card, and a 10gb nic with SFP are the 3 cards in one machine, another machine has SAS card and NIC and a graphics card, third doesn't have too much but I like to keep all my computers on identical hardware for when I have failures.

I could probably replace the HDMI capture with a USB box, but that's something I don't want to have to bother researching into what ones suck the least, after being burned by crap that youtubers rave about I need to check that it will actually capture what I send into it.

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nztim

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#3198377 21-Feb-2024 14:52

Would Four X16 slots work?

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richms

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#3198385 21-Feb-2024 15:14

nztim:

Would Four X16 slots work?

That would be perfect if its not some esoteric high end workstation board that costs more than I want to put into the whole upgrade just to get myself over this upcoming mass obsoleting event.

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yitz

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#3198388 21-Feb-2024 15:24

There's no way Windows 10 support will end October 2025, will be extended just like 98/XP, if I had to guess to 2027 at least, will probably announce 1 year extension to 2026 by end of this year.

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#3198395 21-Feb-2024 15:39

richms:

nztim:

Would Four X16 slots work?

That would be perfect if its not some esoteric high end workstation board that costs more than I want to put into the whole upgrade just to get myself over this upcoming mass obsoleting event.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MBDGBM61234/Gigabyte-B760M-C-mATX-Motherboard-For-Intel-12th13

Two Fiddy too much?

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richms

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#3198413 21-Feb-2024 15:49

Thats in the price range I was hoping for, I was really hoping for a full size board, not micro as both the sas card and the nic I have are hot beasts. I think they will both fit in a single wide slot, but I would expect them to cook up being packed in like sardines there. thats probaby why I never saw that one as I was filtering by ATX sized.

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nztim

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#3198422 21-Feb-2024 16:27

richms:

Thats in the price range I was hoping for, I was really hoping for a full size board, not micro as both the sas card and the nic I have are hot beasts. I think they will both fit in a single wide slot, but I would expect them to cook up being packed in like sardines there. thats probaby why I never saw that one as I was filtering by ATX sized.

As soon as you want Full ATX the price explodes!

https://www.flashtrend.co.nz/asus-pro-ws-w680-ace-intel-lga1700-atx-workstation?gad_source=4&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7u3jhr67hAMVkw97Bx2aogYKEAQYAyABEgJkffD_BwE

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richms

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#3198440 21-Feb-2024 16:49

nztim:

richms:

Thats in the price range I was hoping for, I was really hoping for a full size board, not micro as both the sas card and the nic I have are hot beasts. I think they will both fit in a single wide slot, but I would expect them to cook up being packed in like sardines there. thats probaby why I never saw that one as I was filtering by ATX sized.

As soon as you want Full ATX the price explodes!

https://www.flashtrend.co.nz/asus-pro-ws-w680-ace-intel-lga1700-atx-workstation?gad_source=4&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7u3jhr67hAMVkw97Bx2aogYKEAQYAyABEgJkffD_BwE

Yeah thats the problem. Back in the SLI days there were a crapload of boards with spaced out 16x slots on it, but it seems that the requirement has gone so its only workstation type things that have it now.

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nztim

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#3198448 21-Feb-2024 17:04

richms:

Yeah thats the problem. Back in the SLI days there were a crapload of boards with spaced out 16x slots on it, but it seems that the requirement has gone so its only workstation type things that have it now.

Even that board only has two spaced slots!

the other two packed in like sardines

Think SFP+ cards and SAS cards the mobo manufacturers only expect them to be installed in servers.

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snj

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#3198454 21-Feb-2024 17:35

Seems you need to go for the Intel Z-series chipset based for the spaced out ones, a few boards like https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MBDMSI61525/MSI-Z790-GAMING-WIFI-ATX-Motherboard-Socket-LGA170 and the NZXT Z790 ones have 3 spaced out slots.

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#3198458 21-Feb-2024 17:54

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/tuf-gaming/tuf-gaming-x570-plus/techspec/

2x 16 and 3x 4 slots, dont know the availability now though, will take a 3000 or 5000 ryzen processor

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#3198657 22-Feb-2024 10:48

Jase2985:

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/tuf-gaming/tuf-gaming-x570-plus/techspec/

2x 16 and 3x 4 slots, dont know the availability now though, will take a 3000 or 5000 ryzen processor

There are only x16 and x1 slots on that, the intel based one that snj posted looks like the winner. More than I really want to pay but it will get the job done.

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#3199932 25-Feb-2024 20:01

yitz:

There's no way Windows 10 support will end October 2025, will be extended just like 98/XP, if I had to guess to 2027 at least, will probably announce 1 year extension to 2026 by end of this year.

Microsoft have quite clearly said support won't end then.. it's just not going to be FREE, same as W7 ESU etc.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/extended-security-updates

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BadCo

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#3199948 25-Feb-2024 21:36

richms:
Thats in the price range I was hoping for, I was really hoping for a full size board, not micro as both the sas card and the nic I have are hot beasts. I think they will both fit in a single wide slot, but I would expect them to cook up being packed in like sardines there. thats probaby why I never saw that one as I was filtering by ATX sized.

The lanes on desktop Boards are limited, for example the one linked above:

Expansion Slots
CPU:
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 4.0 and running at x16 (PCIEX16)(PCB rev. 1.0)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
Chipset:
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 3.0 and running at x4 (PCIEX4)
2 x PCI Express x16 slots, supporting PCIe 3.0 and running at x1 (PCIEX1_1, PCIEX1_2)