1156 vs 1366 PCIe Bandwidth Comparison

Hello, all. I've been contemplating over a new build that would incorporate a high-end single video card and a SATA II (3GB/s) high-end SSD. The research I've done indicates that the 1366 platform benefits from having two PCIe x 16 support versus the 1156's single PCIe x 16. I'd like to understand how this applies to my desired setup.

Ultimately, I don't want to hinder the capabilities of my video card and SSD by having less bandwidth across the PCI-e bus. Do I have a valid concern? I'd like to get some basic background understanding of how all this works if possible. It seems to me that any relatively new video card is listed as a PCIe x 16 2.0 card which would theoretically eat up the entire PCIe bus on a 1156 setup. Of course taking into consideration my resolution would not be higher than 1920 x 1080 does the video card not eat up all that bandwidth?

On the SSD front, how much bandwidth would be left if my SSD were close to it's potential 3GB/s speed? In my mind, in a video game environment the SSD would utilize the PCIe bus for loading the game and then would free most of it back up for the video card to render.

In an attempt to keep this CPU-related, I would go with the i7-930 for the 1366 platform and the i7-860 for the 1156 platform.

Ok, I'm making this question way too long! lol

The 1156 actually has 24x pcie if i recall correctly, 16 for the main GPU, typically 4 for the second, and then the remaining 4 for sata and 1x slots.
Each pcie 2.0 lane does 500MB/second, so the SSD (which ought to run in the 180-250 MB/second) should fit into the 4x the PCH/SB/Sata controller has access to without too much of an issue.
I don't think it will limit your build.

The graphics run on a different buss. The pci e slots and the SATA for SSD ports are coming from the P55 chip set.
It's 3 Gb/s not 3 GB/s.
look at the diagram bellow of the P55 chip set, socket 1156

Awesome! That diagram really helped me decipher what's going on. Thank you very much!

That's the official version certainly, but i believe some mobos use some of the graphics PCIe lanes for other things. That's what is nice about PCIe, it'll work for anything

Interstingly, DMI is extremely similar to PCIe, it is in fact strongly based on PCIe with some intel additions (like the ability to do 133mhz stock and >200 in most cases. PCIe generally craps out in the 110-120 range).

Bobnova said:

That's the official version certainly, but i believe some mobos use some of the graphics PCIe lanes for other things. That's what is nice about PCIe, it'll work for anything

Interstingly, DMI is extremely similar to PCIe, it is in fact strongly based on PCIe with some intel additions (like the ability to do 133mhz stock and >200 in most cases. PCIe generally craps out in the 110-120 range).

Click to expand...

Direct Media Interface (DMI) is point-to-point interconnection between an Intel northbridge and an Intel southbridge on a computer motherboard.

Yes you can use your 16 lane graphics buss for other cards 4x 1x why would you do that then the extra slot you use for graphic card will only be 8X. Those 16x buss lanes go directly to the CPU MCH.