? about intel haswell with Z97 chipset

[BigXor]

My MB has 4 PCIe connectors that run at x8 speeds when all are populated. I thought with intel haswell there are only 16 PCIe lanes.

How do they get a total of 32 PCIe lanes?

(I'm new to the intel platform, so be kind).

 

[MiniKnight]

They use PCI-E switch chips. In concept similar to a networking switch. So you have 6x8 PCI-E lanes. 4x8 to the slots and 2x 8 (or 1x16) to the CPU.

 

[BigXor]

How does that affect PCIe card performance?

For instance I have a
MSI 750Ti video PCIe 3.0 x16
Plextor M6e 256GB SSD boot drive PCIe 2.0 x2
Dell H810 Raid controller PCIe 2.0 x8
LSI 9211-8i Raid controller PCIe x8
2 - Intel NIC PCIe x1 cards

If they are sharing lanes does it matter what slot order they are in?

I know the video card is running x8 now, but that's OK for my use.

 

[Patrick]

I have not looked at that particular design. With current technology the network switch is a good analogy. If you were doing some sort of CUDA hadoop - might get nervous. Likewise if you are in a storage benchmarking competition. Otherwise, I would say if the cards all work then you should be OK. Compatibility is usually the trick with the switches.

 

[BigXor]

Excellent, both of your replies are helpful to my understanding.

I'm using the Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming GT motherboard as a media server in a Norco RPC 4220 case.