CPU and PCI-e Lanes, I am a bit confused and need some help.

[enigma27]

Hi All.

Im getting confused when it comes to PCI-e lanes and Ryzen so need a little help.

Basically I am putting a machine together that will run server software (Unraid) and using it to host 2 Windows 10 Virtual machines for the kids to use.

The machine is based on a Ryzen 1700 CPU which I believe has 20 PCI-e lanes in total.

I have been looking at motherboards with both dual PCI 16 slots and 2x Nvme slots

I need to run dual GPU and 2 NVME drives and I understand with most motherboards either x370 or x470 will knock the 16x slots down to 8x which is fine but that only leaves 4 pci-e lanes left for the NVME drives.. will adding two NVME's even work? or like the graphics cards will they be limited to PCI-e 2x?

I could just use a couple of sata drives but already have the NVME's spare.

any help appreciated.

 

[enigma27]

Thank you sir that has been really helpful.

I am guessing though if for instance I wanted to throw into the mix adding a couple of PCI 1x USB 3 cards into other PCI slots as well as both GPU's and both NVME's that would cause issue? I think i can get around this by using the USB headers.

 

[enigma27]

snip

 

[enigma27]

perfect thank you.