AMD AM4 X370 Motherboards with 8 pcie slots

jtabb1256

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Most AM4 boards have at most 7 pcie slots (5 actual pcie slots + 2 M.2 OR 6 actual pcie slots + 1 M.2).

But, I've found a couple that have 8. The ASRock Fatal1ty X370 GAMING X and the MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon both have 6 pcie + 2 M.2.

The MSI board says, "PCI_E6 slot will be unavailable when installing M.2 PCIe SSD in M2_2 slot", so not all pcie and M.2 slots can be filled on it.

The ASRock has some "up to ...." phrases that make me think it might also be handicapped.

Does the ASRock have the same handicap? If so, is there any AM4 motherboard that has 8 pcie slots that can be used simultaneously?
 

ragnar-gd

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Isn't there a limit of the chipset(s) how many PCIe-lanes can be used? I'd read about the max PCIe-Lanes of your chipset. Many boards have slightly more slots than PCIe-lanes (GPU-slots usually using up 16 or 8, sometimes 4), so you can choose which slots to take, but still experience a limit.
 

jtabb1256

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Based on what I've read, the Ryzen R7 1700 has 24 lanes.

According to Intel's website, the Celeron G3900 only has 16 lanes, but the guy in the video in the link below was able to use all 8 connections with it on an Asus Z-270P.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=51&v=NtxMhBWcxW0

I don't know if I'd be mining with this new system, but I am really curious as to how the Celeron can handle more overall PCIE connnections than the r7 1700.

I'm thinking it has to be how the motherboard is designed that allows all 8 connections to be used at once, and I was wondering what motherboards for AM4 can do that, if any.
 

ragnar-gd

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Solution

TLGalenson

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Nov 19, 2016
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You probably know of these, but that is 6-slot:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/11359/biostar-am4-mining-motherboards
Don't hold your breath, but some augures say Gigabyte prepares an 8-slot board - for Threadripper... and Mining... just i have no reliable source, so its just a rumour yet.

Also, look at this screenshot:

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screenshots/970x546/2018/01/Gigabyte-X470-Aorus-Gaming-7-Wifi-pcgh.jpg

I have the above Biostar tb350-btc running 9 gpus. The only catch is I cannot get full overclocking on the cpu because the MB doesn't apparently support LLC parameters. OBTW, I am running Linux. I haven't tried it with Windows.

The trick to running 9 is to use set the "mining board parameter" to "over" rather than 6 gpus. Don't forget the "Over 4g" enable and it is good to find the "performance" setting to get the Pcie to run as fast as possible.

Other notes. It won't boot with 9 gpu's unless that "over" is toggled.
I have to disable the cpu boost (CPB) or Seti@home crashes.

I doubt it is a good gaming MB. But for straight ahead BOINC/Seti@Home gpu-based crunching it does work.

HTH,
Tom