My new Z490 rig - is it possible?

[Smiggy]

Hello everyone. 🙂


I don't think Asus official support will be able to answer my question, so I'd ask you guys. I'll be purchasing a high performing desktop machine using the upcoming ROG MAXIMUS XII EXTREME.

I don't understand specifications very well, so please be gentle. This will be second major rig since 2014.

My proposed specifications will be:

CASE: Corsair 1000D
Display: Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ
CPU: Intel Core i9-10900K Unlocked 10th Gen Desktop
GPU: Dual - ROG Strix GeForce® RTX 3080Ti via NVLINK x2
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus XII Extreme
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DD4 32GB
MS2: SSD 960 PRO NVMe M.2 2TB – Windows Installation
MS2: SSD 960 PRO NVMe M.2 2TB x3
SSD: Samsung 860 QVO 4TB 2.5” SATA SSD/Solid State Drive x4 in RAID 0
HDD: 16TB Barracuda HDD
SOUND: Integrated Motherboard
WIRELESS NETWORKING / BLUETOOTH: Integrated Motherboard
POWER SUPPLY: HX Series™ HX1200 — 1200 Watt 80 PLUS
OS: Windows 10 Professional to be installed on one of the M.2 drives


Hard drive space if something I'll need LOTS of. Looking to back up all my emulations games, PC games and over a hundred Blu-Ray/4K movies.

[Falkentyne]

That is a huge case.

If you're using three 2 TB NVME drives you will need to use the dimm.2 slot for one of them. This will also force the first PCIE x16 slot into x8 mode.
One of the SATA ports will be deactivated if the PCIE/SATA combo M.2 onboard slot is used. I don't remember which port.
I don't see a problem with anything else, but I am not a storage person.

[Smiggy]

Falkentyne wrote:
That is a huge case.

If you're using three 2 TB NVME drives you will need to use the dimm.2 slot for one of them. This will also force the first PCIE x16 slot into x8 mode.
One of the SATA ports will be deactivated if the PCIE/SATA combo M.2 onboard slot is used. I don't remember which port.
I don't see a problem with anything else, but I am not a storage person.

The slot going from x16 to x8 - sorry, what does that mean?

[Falkentyne]

Smiggy wrote:
The slot going from x16 to x8 - sorry, what does that mean?

The dimm.2 slot shares PCIE lanes with the CPU, so occupying it will force the first x16 PCIE slot to run at x8.
Rocket Lake CPU's which will also work in your motherboard later will support full PCIE 4.0 so this won't happen with RKL. But Coffee Lake is still running in "Legacy" mode (basically, same mode as Z390 platform).

[Smiggy]

Falkentyne wrote:
The dimm.2 slot shares PCIE lanes with the CPU, so occupying it will force the first x16 PCIE slot to run at x8.
Rocket Lake CPU's which will also work in your motherboard later will support full PCIE 4.0 so this won't happen with RKL. But Coffee Lake is still running in "Legacy" mode (basically, same mode as Z390 platform).

Thank you, but in laymen terms does it mean one of my 2 TB NVME drives will run slower?

[Robot_Sonic]

I thought I need more space but this computer is going to be one gigantic storage :cool: