Quick questions on two M.2 SSD RAID 0 with ROG RAIDR on MAXIMUS IX CODE

[chamberlin]

Hello, I'm about to rebuild my ROG gaming machine which can be seen here: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/chamberlinak47/builds/.

Once complete, it will be used primarily for X-Plane 11, driving three large screen curved Samsung 1080p LCD TVs, and my existing ASUS 21:9 ultra wide monitor.

I've decided to get an i7 7700K and a GTX 1080Ti (when it's available). Therefore, I'm having to ditch my MAXIMUS VI FORMULA motherboard for the new IX CODE, so I can run the new processor. I'm also planning on keeping the 780Ti installed alongside the 1080Ti, for extra monitor outputs which X-Plane 11 can drive (for fairly static information displays etc.). So I need the dual PCIe 16x slots that the CODE has.

I currently have my Win 10 64bit OS on the ROG RAIDR PCIe based SSD, and I'd really like to keep it there for the move to the new system. I know it's not the fastest drive out there, and can be tricky to setup in the UEFI word, but I'd really prefer to just swap this PCIe based SSD drive to the new MB and (hopefully) continue on without much fuss. Is this possible?

I'm also planning on getting two M.2-2880 SSD drives, to be run in RAID 0 for the game drive. I found this perfect ROG article here which confirmed how to set up the SSD drives in RAID 0: https://rog.asus.com/articles/guides/how-to-install-two-m2-ssds-in-raid-0-on-maximus-ix-motherboards...

Will employing the two SSD drives in RAID0 complicate things with the existing ROG RAIDR installation? What's needed in the UEFI settings to accommodate the RAIDR when using the RAID0 M.2 slots? Anything?

Just one more question I have, is related to the ROG RAIDR drive, and the available PCIe slots on the IX CODE motherboard. I think it's doable, but wanted some confirmation from the experts.

The CODE has the following Expansion Slots with the one caveat below (*1)
2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8, gray)
1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black) *1
3 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x1

*1 The PCIe x4_3 slot shares bandwidth with PCIex1_3. The PCIe x4_3 is default set at x2 mode.

So my thoughts are that the two video cards will occupy the two x16 slots, the ROG RAIDR will be on the x4 slot, and the two SSD will occupy the M.2_1 and M.2_2 storage slots. There would be nothing connected to any of the three PCIe x1 slots. As you can see from the caveat above, the x4 slot shares bandwidth with one of the x1 slots and is defaulted to x2 speeds. I'm guessing that I can somehow disable x1_3 and get the x4 speed back for my ROG RAIDR drive.

Does this all sound doable? Thanks in advance for any help before I pull the trigger!

[chamberlin]

60+ views and no comments from ASUS? I'm about to drop some hard earned coin here as soon as I can get confirmation - Does JJ check this forum?

[JustinThyme]

Firstly, keep your shirt on, this is an enthusiast forum sponsored by ASUS. While a few ASUS reps do frequently pop in with different levels of activity this isn't an official ASUS support page, just other users helping each other that in the world of outsourced call centers these days often is better alternative.*

The Z270 chipset was developed specifically for the Kaby Lake CPU family so the 7700K will work as intended. *One problem I see is while you can populate two graphics cards there is only one set of drivers and a 1080Ti will be defaulted to the slower card and a waste of money. *Can't run them in SLI either. You will also be limited to the resolution of the TV monitors making a nice high res display a bit on the ugly side.*

You can run a PCIe drive in the PCIe 4 without disabling the other two and still get full speed. They do share bandwidth but only if the X1 slots are populated.

You don't have two x16 slots, you have 1 x16 and 1 x8. When you populate the second slot you have two x8.

Running 2 M2s won't be an issue. Just be advised that if you choose to run them in RAID you won't get the full speed (not that you will notice it anyhow if you did) due to the still ever lasting DMI bottleneck. Sequential reads won't go up but you may gain a little on writes. *
**

[chamberlin]

Thanks for the response Justin - I do appreciate the help, even for an overly excited PC dabbler like myself....over the last 25+ years of computer building I know just enough to get in trouble, but never put in enough time to become a serious over-clocker, etc. and have to start over as a newb every 4-5 years!

Anyways, so no go on keeping the 780Ti alongside the 1080Ti huh...Oh well that's a bummer, but I guess that opens up an opportunity to just build another computer out of it and the old MB, 4770K CPU and 32GB of RAM that I can't recycle on the new build (or sell it all off as a set). I hadn't thought about how the NVidia driver set would treat two cards from different chipset generations.

Thanks for the explanation on the PCIe x16 slots too...I think I have the same limitation on my current board too now that I remember... So the proper way to read the spec is that there are two x16 *capable* slots, so either of them can be run at x16 (and the other at x8), but not both x16 at the same time; otherwise the lanes are split @ x8 between the two. OK got it.

And it sounds like I'm good to go with my ROG RAIDER PCIe x4 OS drive as long as I don't populate any of the x1 slots... I assume it will still be a gamble to just transfer it over to the new motherboard and hope it can update the OS as needed for the new board architecture. I can't imagine many people have tried to do an OS main board swap with a ROG RAIDER before, as most (sane) people would do a clean Win 10 install...

Good to go on the M.2 stuff, but I'm surprised the read speeds wouldn't be much improved by having them in RAID0 in this case. So still DMI bottlenecks to contend with (something about the limitations of a packet-based switch PCIe protocol if I remember correctly?).

Regarding the crappy 1080p resolution TV monitors, I would certainly prefer 4K curved sets for each position, but aside from the huge price increase (I got two 49" curved and one 55" curved Samsung sets for only $1500 total), I'm constantly hearing from the flight sim community that it would be nearly impossible to get decent frame rates on all three 4K displays at once (plus other monitor(s) for panel gauges etc.). So that's why I committed to 1080p, favoring smooth, high frame rates over high resolution. I don't think a (single) 1080Ti will change anything in that regard? I'm hoping that with a slightly over-clocked 7700K, it should be able to handle at least three 1920x1080 screens at around 60 FPS with some juice left over, since it is designed to process a 3840x2160 @60hz image.

Thanks again-