Hey everyone! I'm about to build a new PC and I'm leaning towards ASUS ROG motherboards, specifically the Crosshair Hero, Apex, or Extreme. It's been a while since my last build, and I've lost track of the latest tech developments, especially since I've stepped away from PC gaming for a bit.
I'm getting familiar with PCIe 5. I understand it's important, but I'm concerned about how M.2 drives might impact the lanes available for my GPU. I'm looking at using a 9800X3D processor with 32-64GB of RAM at 6000MHz CAS30, alongside a 5090 GPU, hopefully overclocked. I'd like to use two M.2 drives, but I want to maximize my M.2 slots without compromising GPU performance. My core question is: Can I run the 5090 in the main PCIe slot at 16x while using one PCIe 5 M.2 for games and one smaller PCIe 4 M.2 as a boot drive? Or will I need to limit the number of M.2 drives or skip the PCIe 5 M.2 entirely? I'm okay with cutting back on M.2 drives if necessary, but I want to take full advantage of current technology. Performance is my top priority since I've got a 4K PG32UCDM monitor, so FPS takes precedence over loading times. Any advice or insights would be super helpful!
1 Answer
All those ASUS boards will support two NVMe drives at X4 alongside a GPU at X16. However, if you’re looking for a more flexible PCIe layout, MSI boards like the Tomahawk might be a better fit. They allow multiple NVMe drives to operate at PCIe 5.0 without cutting down your GPU lanes. I'd personally recommend going with the Tomahawk over those ASUS options for better versatility!
That's great to know! Just to clarify, can I still use PCIe 5 with those MSI boards? And can you specify which M.2 slots would be best for running both M.2 drives effectively?