USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, Motherboards, And Overcoming Bottlenecks

22khz

March 31, 2010 9:27:32 AM

"Should you instead opt for an X58-based machine, these potential bottlenecks won't be an issue."

Why is that? I would like to buy an Asus P6X58D Premium but I'm not if these bottlenecks won't be an issue. Please clarify

More about : usb sata 6gb motherboards overcoming bottlenecks

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Lmeow

Motherboard Authority

March 31, 2010 11:02:31 AM

I believe it's something to do with X58 chipsets having an extra PCI-e 16x lane, so there won't be any bandwidth issues. Apparently SATA III/USB 3.0 use some PCI-e lanes on P55 motherboards, and you need a specific controller or more lanes to overcome the P55 board from having to lower the bandwidth or disable its PCI-e lanes. TBH, I'm not fully sure, but something to do with that. I could be wrong though...

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22khz

March 31, 2010 11:44:05 AM

Lmeow said:

I believe it's something to do with X58 chipsets having an extra PCI-e 16x lane, so there won't be any bandwidth issues. Apparently SATA III/USB 3.0 use some PCI-e lanes on P55 motherboards, and you need a specific controller or more lanes to overcome the P55 board from having to lower the bandwidth or disable its PCI-e lanes. TBH, I'm not fully sure, but something to do with that. I could be wrong though...

I wasn't sure about that either but after looking at the Core i Series Chipsets specs on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_chipset#Core_i_Serie... it seems that you are right.
X58 has QPI with a bus speed of 6.4 GB/s and 36 PCI-E 2.0 lanes vs P55 which has the old DMI with 2GB/s and only 8 PCI-E 2.0 lanes.

Thanks

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