ISO: LGA 1151 Compatible CPU Supporting 2 GPU SLI and PCIE SSD Raid

[MysticalFists]

Howdy,
I game a ton, but I also create a lot of videos and video rendering. Due to that, I've only really been looking at LGA 2011v3 chips. I continue to hear again and again that the Z170 mobo's are the only ones capable of running multiple M.2 or PCIe SSD's in a bootable Raid format; however, when I check into the latest and greatest Z170 chips, such as the Skylake 6700k, I'm seeing they only support 16 PCI lanes. From what I'm seeing, they could support 1 GPU and 2 PCIe SSD's in x4 format, but I'm also wanting the ability to run 2 GPU's together. Is there a CPU compatable with this setup? If not, anyone want to suggest a good mobo for a 6850K LGA 2011v3?

Thanks in advance!~

 

[Ecky]

All 1151 CPUs have 16 PCIe lanes. You can still run dual AMD GPUs this way, but not NV GPUs. To run both SLI and have 8x lanes available for two PCIe or M.2 SSDs, you'll need one of the 28-lane 2011v3 CPUs. However, I recommend strongly against using RAID with SSDs, and also against using SLI.

nVidia is slowly dropping support for SLI because it's becoming less useful for games using modern rendering techniques - I can dig up an article if you're interested, or you can simply take my word for it. GTX 1070 and 1080's no longer support 3- or 4-way SLI, and the 1060 does not support it at all, and it may well be dropped from driver support entirely within a few years.

Regarding SSD RAID, it's generally a bad idea because SSD controllers don't always play nicely with one-another, and in some ways RAID can negatively affect performance (assuming you're using RAID-0 and not RAID-1). Larger drives are faster than slower drives, so it's almost always better to buy a single larger SSD than two smaller ones.

I would advise that you buy an M.2 SSD instead of a PCIe one, unless you have a very specific use. Samsung's M.2 950 Pro outperforms all consumer PCIe SSDs and is less expensive than most of them, and it doesn't take up any PCIe slots. You can run a single large M.2 950 Pro and a pair of NV GPUs on an 1151 CPU.

 

[MysticalFists]

Hmmm,
That's what I was thinking and it's part of the reason I'd been looking at 2011v3's. Hell, I'm actually only considering the 40 PCI lane CPU's at the moment, but it was the stability of running multiple PCIe SSD's that made me question if I should get a 1151. I don't plan to run two GPU's right from the get go, but wanted it as an option. As you stated though, I see a lot of people recommending against running PCIe SSD's in Raid, so I think I'll just go back to my original selection of 2011v3's and know that I can have 1 big M.2 SSD, such as the Samsung Pro 950, which is what I was looking at already. Still gives me room for expansion later with the 2011v3, and I don't have to question dropping from 6 to 4 cores, as I do a lot of CPU intensive things besides gaming. Thanks a ton Ecky!~