Its stupid they did this on X870E. And BIOS optimizations ae better for it for Ryzen 9000 and 9000 X3D chips. Yet they force you to use only 1 NVME direct to CPU without cutting GPU slot lanes in half.

Or you can use X670E/B650E, but BIOS updates are not as good nor optimized for Ryzen 9000 and 9000 X3D CPUs. That is not acceptable manufacturers are gonna do this if they are gonna force USB 4 taking CPU PCIe lanes from us. I understand newer chipsets are better for newer CPUs, but not acceptable they force USB 4 taking up 4 CPU PCIe lanes on us so they should optimize X670E/B650E just as much for Ryzen 9000 series and 9800X3D/9950X3D in such case.

Part of it AMD's fault for making USB4 mandatory on X870/X870E, but the mobo vendors can put it on chipset they do not have to take up 4 CPU PCIe lanes to knock down 1 NVME drives when so many more are better off having 2 dedicated NVME X4 lanes to CPU without touching the dedicated 16 GPU lanes to CPU than stupid USB4 Type C.

 

Or you could do what I have done with my X870 Crosshair Hero, use the sas port to attach another nvme drive and have 4 m.2 drives

without affecting the PCIE x16 slot

Regards

 

I didn't realize there were consumer motherboards with SAS ports, that's pretty cool. I already ordered an x870 Tomahawk though. Its 4th M.2 socket gets cut to 4x2, but the PCIE16 isn't sharing bandwidth. I can live with that. Maybe a good thing I didn't know about that Hero board, I probably would have went for it and spent another $330!

 

Hi...

for the sas cable:

Amazon.co.uk

for the sas adapter:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C53MGH47?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

 

Very nice. How do you have that adapter mounted and connected? Any photos of it?

Very interested since I need to use four m.2 SSDs and don't want to limit the primary 16x slot to 8x. I have one drive for my main OS and three 8TB m.2 drives in RAID-0.

 

Hi....

Haven't permanently mounted yet as still testing my system...

will probably mount it on the inside of the psu cover....

 

Thank you for the photo.

I decided to skip the Hero and get the X870E Strix. Both have Nitro Path and the power delivery on the Strix is already overkill for a 9800X3D. The Strix has a full-length slot at the bottom connected to the chipset. M.2 slots 4 and 5 at the bottom also connect to the chipset. I have my three 8TB nVME drives connected to those (with the one in the 16X slot using a 4X adapter card). Still have my fully functional 24TB RAID-0 array. My PCI-E 5.0 OS drive is connected to M.2 slot 1. My 4090 still has all 16X lanes.

 

The problem with the Taichi is that once you fill the M.2 slots with NVMe drives you're done. The bottom PCIe slot can't be used unless you don't mind the GPU being castrated to x8.

I have an X870E Carbon and I can't use one of the M.2 slots without gimping the GPU. HOWEVER, I can use the bottom PCIe slot to add an x4 NVMe add-in card with support for four NVMe without affecting the ability of the GPU to run at x16. These work fantastic. SABRENT 4-Drive NVMe M.2 SSD to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter Card [EC-P3X4]. Or, you can use the PCIe slot for something else if you need to. You're far better off having a properly functioning PCIe slot, and sacrificing the use of one M.2. You lose the ability with the Taichi because any use of the second slot comes at the expense of the GPU. It may as well not even have that PCIe slot.