is there such a thing as a PCIe 1 x16 Gen 3.0 to 4 x4 or x8 or x16 Gen 3.0 card?

[TheTexasR.A.T.]

I have five PCIe slots (two x16 Gen 3.0, two x8 Gen 3.0, and one x1 Gen2.0) on my motherboard and ten PCIe slots in the case, and I want to turn one PCIe x16 Gen 3.0 slot into four PCIe x4 Gen 3.0 slots to fully populate the case. Five slots (of which one will house this adapter card), plus four more make nine, with a spare one just in case I ever get a double sized Graphics card (if I only install a single slotted COM port, or there is a double slotted COM port PCIe card that I may install that will take up the last slot of the case).






I found three different cards that are on the right track,
yet one only has two slots x8:


and another goes on to add a third slot - one x16 slot plus two x8 slots:


while this last one has four slots - three x8 PCIe 2.0 Slots, and one x16 PCIe 2.0 Slot:


But as noted this third one, as close as it came, is only Gen 2.0 [the other two do not say], and I really want it in Gen 3.0 as I plain on having a NVME M.2 SSD PCIE Gen 3 card installed in the very bottom slot of the case being the fans are blowing from the bottom upwards and will be able to blow dirrectly accross the NVME M.2's heatsink without any other PCIe cards or cabling interupting the air flow.


Does any one know if there is such a card which goes from a single x16 slot to four slots in either x4, x8, or even x16 in Gen 3? And a black pc board would be iceing on the cake. I know I would have to do some fancy origami with the cabling, yet it is doable.

 

[Robert17]

What MB? What CPU? Older CPUs can only handle up to 16 or 20 lanes (really old CPUs don't know what PCI is). Some of the latest CPUs are capable of 24 lanes, and server chips/boards can go much higher. So splitting up a slot isn't multiplying, it's dividing.

 

[TheTexasR.A.T.]

It is a ASRock X399 Professional Gaming Fatal1ty motherboard, and a Ryzen Threadripper 1950X CPU has a base clock of 3.4GHz, an all core boost frequency of 3.7GHz, and a four core boost up to 4.0GHz, and a 4.2GHz XFR boost on four cores if thermal headroom is available. The Threadripper CPU has 18 cores, 32 threads, and 64 PCI Gen 3.0 lanes (of which four of the lanes are dedicated solely to the X399 Chipset). Which give 60 Lanes left over for the rest, of which it has two PCIe slots x16 Gen 3.0 lane, two PCIe slots x8 Gen 3.0 lanes, and one PCIe x1 Gen 2 lane, and Three NVME M.2 PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 lane ports. Which makes for a total of 7 devices that can use the CPU lanes.

And being 12 lanes will get wasted if a PCIe card that only has 4 lanes (say the NVME M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSD adapter card) is inserted into a PCIe slot on the motherboard with 16 lanes, and being there are a total of 10 PCIe slots in the CaseLab Magnum THW-10 case, and being the 8 SATA port on the mother board are not enough to connect upward of 18 of the 26 5.25" bays on the front oif the case, I figured to split one of the x16 lanes into 4 of x4 slots to get use of the other 12 PCIe lanes while at the same time adding a plethora of versatile ports and drives by populating the 5 extra PCIe slots and the 26 5.25" bays in the front of the case.

I will be putting two SATA Express to M.2 adapters in two of three Ultra M.2 ports as well to help in this endeavor of connecting so many devises to make one super PC for doing all kinds of data transfers via every imaginable avenue. This will still leave me 1 Ultra M.2 port for something or another if at all possible. The main reason I am wanting to install a NVME M.2 SSD into a PCIe slot instead of a Ultra M.2 port is so that I can have a heatsink on it, of which the motherboard does not provide, being I do not want to meet up with any thermal throttling of the SSD. And the input fans for the case are in the bottom blowing upward which will be blowing right on the NVME M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSD PCIe adapter cards heatsink being I will put it in the bottom PCIe slot of the case. Plus I needed two of the Ultra M.2 ports to convert over to SATA Express for 2 USB 3.1 Gen 2 A ports and two USB 3.1 Gen two C ports in two of the 5.25" bays on the front panel of the case.

So aside from the multiple PCIe cards in the back and the two aforementioned USB 3.1 Gen 2 A & C ports" in the front of the case - I plan on having two all in one card readers with USB 3.0 Gen 1 and USB 2.0, plus eSATA ports, then two 3.5 floppy drives, 2 Tape drives, 2 fan controllers (for the 8 140mm bottom input fans), two Lightscribe enabled Blueray DVD burners, four tooless trayless SATA Hotswap bays, two IDA ATA tooled trayed Hotswap bays, for a total of eighteen devises on the front panel, and then six SATA trayed Tooled Hotswap bays that will not be hooked up to use as drawers to collect USB thumb drives, floppy disc, an assortments of mini cards, a couple of eSATA+USB 3.0 to SATA 22 pin connecter, a handful of 3.5" SATA SSDs and perhaps some other cable adapters too boot.

Make no mistake about it this PC Tower is not intended nor ever will be used for gaming. It is to be a work station that can do as much as unfathomably possible as needs so arise.

And after all that I still have one Ultra M.2 port to do something or another with, just not sure yet but I believe I figure that one as time passes. But yeah, for now I am just trying to hunt down one little ole PCIe adapter. Any thoughts?

 

[Robert17]

This is too much to try to digest and understand what your question(s) is(are). Can you condense your post to one or two questions?

 

[Dolk]

So technically PCIe can be split by using riser cards that you linked in your first post. However I don't know how much you can trust the reliability of the cards. They may work or they may not, it all depends on how well they were designed. PCIe is tricky when you start to do splitting like this. Each PCIe diff pair (or lane) must be routed correctly or you will not be able to communicate. Same goes for the clock signal and reset signal.

Outside of all that, you can do what you are saying but you are asking for more utility than what is intended by the motherboard. Are you honestly going to use all these ports, burners, and the like all at the same time? All for you to do so if you are, but do know this is going to a be a trial and error effort.

Do note that risers come in a few flavors: Expander and replicators. Expanders are what you posted where it takes a number of PCIe lanes and splits them across multiple ports. Replicators are those with PLEX chips on them, this is a x16 to multiple x16 ports. Replicators would be harder to get to work in this setup, as they require very precise routing for the PLEX chip to do its job properly.

 

[TheTexasR.A.T.]

This is too much to try to digest and understand what your question(s) is(are). Can you condense your post to one or two questions?

I want to turn one PCIe x16 Gen 3.0 slot into four PCIe x4 Gen 3.0 slots.

The ones I posted above are Gen 2 adapter cards and would not be ideal in a Gen 3 system running a modern day SSD off of.

Does any one know if there is such a card which goes from a single x16 Gen 3 slot to four Gen3 slots in either x4, x8, or even x16? And a black pc board would be iceing on the cake.

 

[Robert17]

Still confused. Are you wanting a card that will run NVMe SSDs (modern) or a PCI-e to SATA adapter?

 

[TheTexasR.A.T.]

So technically PCIe can be split by using riser cards that you linked in your first post. However I don't know how much you can trust the reliability of the cards. They may work or they may not, it all depends on how well they were designed. PCIe is tricky when you start to do splitting like this. Each PCIe diff pair (or lane) must be routed correctly or you will not be able to communicate. Same goes for the clock signal and reset signal.

Outside of all that, you can do what you are saying but you are asking for more utility than what is intended by the motherboard. Are you honestly going to use all these ports, burners, and the like all at the same time? All for you to do so if you are, but do know this is going to a be a trial and error effort.

Do note that risers come in a few flavors: Expander and replicators. Expanders are what you posted where it takes a number of PCIe lanes and splits them across multiple ports. Replicators are those with PLEX chips on them, this is a x16 to multiple x16 ports. Replicators would be harder to get to work in this setup, as they require very precise routing for the PLEX chip to do its job properly.

I like the idea of slitting the lanes as I will need to adapt some of them into six more SATA ports to completely connect the front stuff up. But the ones I posted above are PCIe Gen 2 and I think it would be best to stay with Gen 3, especially being I plain on having a NVME M.2 Samsung 960 Pro hooked up via one of the adapters PCIe slots, as a temporary place to put stuff till I figure where all I might want to move 'em to.

And no, I seriously doubt that I will use all the stuff at any one time (at least not every day), but I will be using them all and at most of the time I will be using many of them at once. I am building this machine so that I can multi task without having to wait between task for fear of overloading the CPU or RAM. I want to be able to move stuff from anything over to anything with ease, as I will be using this system as a data rescue and transfer machine, as well as a daily driver (making PDFs, editing videos, burning DVDs/Cds, email, social media, and of coarse surfing the web. And even to watch movies/videos on one of the four monitor screens). Also one of the reasons for the floppy drives and COM ports is it is easier to write programs in the floppies format, and only COM ports can be used in certain programming application and I want this machine to basically be able to do any and all when ever needed, including programming.

I plan on having four SSDs that can be hot-swapped out when needed, one with W7, one with Manjaro Linux, one with Android for PCs, and I will even try and Hackintosh one (or if I have to I will make W10 look like Mac just as a novelty item). And I have a Parted Magic Disc that can be loaded into the RAM when dealing with infected Drives/USBs/etc... so that the infections can not mess with my main OSs. This is another reason why I have hot swap bays and no real plans of having internal drives (except the one M.2 SSD that I plan on using just for momentary shelf space to put stuff till I figure where all I might want to move it to). And once an infected drive(s)/USB/etc... is dealt with I but merely will need to shut down and reboot with one of my OS installed SSDs and carry on from there with my normal day to day stuff.

So it is important, for this build to be complete, that I can find a Gen 3 PCIe splitter that splits one x16 into four X4.

 

[TheTexasR.A.T.]

- - - Updated - - -

Still confused. Are you wanting a card that will run NVMe SSDs (modern) or a PCI-e to SATA adapter?

I am wanting a PCI splitter to divy up one PCIe x16 slot into four PCIe x4 slots.

I plan on trying to make full use of the PCIe lanes, being x8 lanes will get wasted if I install a x4 card into a x16 slot.

I want to install two SATA to PCIE x4 adapter cards and one NVME M.2 SSD to PCIe x4 adapter card, and one firewire to PCIe x_ adapter card into the splitter to make full use of the x16 lanes in one PCie slot.

 

[Robert17]

What are you going to use for a GPU(s)? You state that you will be running four monitors. What resolution? How many GPUs? At some point, adapter or none, you will run out of PCIe lanes. Graphics uses them, m.2, SATA, it's a pretty long list. Splitting can only go so far.

 

[TheTexasR.A.T.]

What are you going to use for a GPU(s)? You state that you will be running four monitors. What resolution? How many GPUs? At some point, adapter or none, you will run out of PCIe lanes. Graphics uses them, m.2, SATA, it's a pretty long list. Splitting can only go so far.

One GPU:
AMD FirePro W9100 Graphics card - 32GB GDDR5, Black
Chipset: AMD FirePro W9100
Engine Clock: 930 MHz
Memory: 16GB GDDR5
Memory Interface: 512-bit
Max. Resolution: 4096 x 2160
AMD Infinity multi-display technology
6 Mini Display Port 1.2 outputs
512-bit memory interface
320 GB/s memory bandwidth
4K display resolution (up to 4096x2160)
2,816 stream processors (44 CUs)
5.24 TFLOPS single precision performance
2.62 TFLOPS double precision performance



It will only take up one x16 PCIe slot and thereby only use 16 of the 60 availible lanes from the Threadripper CPU. But it will take up two spaces. So I might go with the following optional GPU that only takes up one space, as well as the one x16 slot so that I can install another card in that slot.

ATI AMD FirePro W7100 8GB GDDR5 4DisplayPorts PCI-Express Video Card
Chipset: AMD FirePro W7100
Video Memory: 8GB GDDR5
Memory Interface: 256-bit
Max. Resolution: 4096 x 2160, Support 4x Display Monitors
Bus: PCI-Express 3.0 x16



But I really prefer the first GPU and may concider modifying the case to handle more PCIe cards, by cutting out the back side of another case and then splicing it into the back side of this one, whereby being able to use all PCIe lanes down to the very last one.

The reason that I am going with AMD's Ryzen Threadripper CPU is because it has plenty enough lanes to get the build done. It has 64 lanes, of which 4 are dedicaded to the X399 Chipset, leaving 60 more to play with. But I can not afford to waste many of them if any and that is why I will need a splitter as afore mentioned.

As it is it looks as if I will end up not using 4 of the 60 availible lanes, but I could get a second splitter (one x8 to two x4) whereby being able to take advantage of all 60 lanes. And if I can figure out what I would use them 4 lanes on I would do this as well. Plus I will still have one Ultra M.2 x4 port on the motherboard that I can convert to something as well, and will if I figure out just what and find an adapter to do so. But first things first, right.

 

[Robert17]

You've found as much as I, probably more. Once you get all your pieces, parts, bits, stuff and such in-house, post up a Build Log. We'd love to see it!!

 

[TheTexasR.A.T.]

You've found as much as I, probably more. Once you get all your pieces, parts, bits, stuff and such in-house, post up a Build Log. We'd love to see it!!

OK, thanks for trying to help run down one. I'll keep looking myself and hopefully they will make one before I finish the build.

And I will post the build here (with pics inside and out) as soon as I can get it all together.

 

[Dolk]

I don't know of any PCI-E Gen 3 riser splitters that are not custom made. I work in the server industry and we need to make our own, and it takes a considerable amount of effort and testing to design them. PCI-E Gen 2 was a lot more forgiving in tolerance.

However you have some good news, all the gens are backwards compatible. It may be worth it to try a Gen 2 board and see what kind of speeds you will get. I doubt you'll saturate the entire lane.

Ontop of this, did you know that some of the higher end X399 boards come with expander M.2 boards already? I think ASUS and GIGY both have a board that can seat 3-4 M.2s. If you are looking for speed I'd go that option. If you are going for density, you should be able to find a backplane board that can do PCI-E to Sata for raid purposes.

 

[TheTexasR.A.T.]

I don't know of any PCI-E Gen 3 riser splitters that are not custom made. I work in the server industry and we need to make our own, and it takes a considerable amount of effort and testing to design them. PCI-E Gen 2 was a lot more forgiving in tolerance.

However you have some good news, all the gens are backwards compatible. It may be worth it to try a Gen 2 board and see what kind of speeds you will get. I doubt you'll saturate the entire lane.

Ontop of this, did you know that some of the higher end X399 boards come with expander M.2 boards already? I think ASUS and GIGY both have a board that can seat 3-4 M.2s. If you are looking for speed I'd go that option. If you are going for density, you should be able to find a backplane board that can do PCI-E to Sata for raid purposes.

OK, I guess I can try them out.

I am mainly going for connectivity with the Threadripper and the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming MB has more all around ports to make use of. It has three ULTRA M.2 ports as well. All three support nVME PCIe x4 Gen 3, and can be ran in RAID natively from the BIOS/UEFI. But I will not be using two of them other than with SATA Express to M.2 adapter cards to make use of the x4 lanes that they provide in to hook up four USB 3.1 Gen 2 A and C ports.

And I know that RAID is faster but I do not trust RAID 0, as many have reported that something went wrong and they lost everything on the drive. I will mainly be using Samsung's 850 and 950 Pro 2.5" SSDs for my OSs, which is plenty fast enough for me. Yet I will reserve one Ultra M.2 port just in case I need to hook up any nVME drive to try and recover data from 'em [nVME SSDs].