✔ ☕ General Conversation Thread

542

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z270-GAMING-M3/Specification

Hopefully prices take a downward trend by then…

That board though, be sure to read the text in red on the page… or you may not be able to use the NVMe drive in that M.2 port…

EDIT

I forgot to mention that there are two slots, but I think they depend on what you have installed.

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This part:

• 2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (supports x16/x4 mode)*
• 4 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots
* The PCI_E4 slot will be unavailable when an M.2 SSD module has been installed in the M.2_2 slot.
** The PCI_E2 slot will be unavailable when an expansion card has been installed in the PCI_E3 slot.
** The PCI_E3 slot will be unavailable when an expansion card has been installed in the PCI_E6 slot.

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Ok, figured it out, if you use two M.2 ports, you lose your X1 slots.

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Basically, if you have another X16 slot card installed, you messed up…

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What have you got installed lol

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OK, a 1080Ti, so, you could add two M.2’s and get RAID support…

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Looked at the images, one port is 22110, so you could get one of any size you can find, but be careful if you get anything larger than 2280 twice…

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Also, I think you want to be using the Turbo M.2 for say your Samsung Pro drive, and the other for your standard or sleeper M.2 drive in future…

Download the user manual from that link and you can dig deeper before purchasing anything, there are a lot of traps to watch out for with that board.

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Also, if you wanted to, you could get a cheap M.2 2TB drive and grab a 32GB Optane accellerator stick to pair it with for improved performance.

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EDIT

You can ignore this part

Also… you should consider moving to the 2.5" drives sooner as those dormant 4x1TB 3.5" drives use a significant amount of power, perhaps upgrade to 4x1TB SSD 2.5" drives instead…

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Yep, a 2.5" SSHD uses around 1.8W~ [Could be wrong but going off a retailer’s website] whereas a typical 3.5" drive uses 6.8W+ [I know some hit 9W!] and that’s constant if you have them spinning all the time.

Interestingly I found a 2.5" SATAIII SSD pulls 2.7W~, and I know some NVMe M.2’s can average 3.5W~, hmm if your HDDs are hitting 9W+ then it might be a good move.

EDIT

The change could knock around $5/ month off your bill based on 24/7 spin up of four drives running constantly at 9W/hour with the roughly 3W difference so 6W/hour x 4 x 24/7/365 = 210.24W/Year. The roughly $5 calculation is based on what I pay per KW/H.

543

Thanks! I know my board has a lot of gotcha’s with m.2, sata and pci slots. Which is why when I was building the rig 2 years ago I just ignored the m.2, lol.

Just a 1080ti and I a pci-e wifi adapter.

People who reviewed this board all said it supports 2 PCIe NVMe SSDs

I read through the motherboard manual. They have a table showing all the “gotchas”. If I put a PCIe 2280 in the M2_1 slot, I do not lose any pci slots or sata. It doesn’t say if I lose the first PCIe x16 slot though? I am assume not or it would have stated it.

Here is the visual diagram of the possible m.2 layouts.

m2
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I never thought of the cost… I should invest in some lower wattage drives.

EDIT: I suppose I could try the m.2 and return it if it isn’t compatible.

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544

OH BOYO…

Worryingly it does not mention losing the 3 X1 slots…

You should be fine with using the 2 M.2’s however, that means you will probably with the 1 X1 slot being used, drop your X16 GPU to X8… but that is not clear right now…

So, if you do plan to go full M.2 NVMe, you might also lose that WIFI card, so, USB time… but be aware, if you do use the Wi-Fi card, you could potentially drop your GPU to X4, which I think it would only function at X8… but then again you can run them on X1…

Nobody ever does…

NVMe typically use M-Key… I doubt unless it was a failed drive, they would take it back. just make sure you are getting NVMe and you should be fine. naturally, ask for comparisons here, this thread I mean.

EDIT

Having a thought if the CPU gives out 16 PCIe lanes… then that means your GPU will drop to X8 bandwidth… you may notice a delay in loading times…

EDIT

This page has a very handy graph for reference:

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Lost track of why I keep saying 3x X1 slots, it has four…

545

Thank you for your help! I knew someone on here would have a lot of knowledge in this area.

The pci wifi card is on a x1 slot. I tried multiple usb wifi cards throughout the years, all have given nothing but grief. I gave up on usb wifi adapters.

I think I am just going to have to a lot more research on m.2 before I make a decision. Watch some reviews with people who have use my motherboard with m.2. That component wasn’t on my mind when I was building this rig 2 years ago.

If I have to, I will just buy a 1 or 2TB SSD and wait until my next rig in 2 years with a focus on the m.2 setup. At least the 1 or 2TB SSD will be forward compatible onto a new rig, especially if I start replacing those old spinning drives.

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546

Yes, just get one 2TB NVMe for now and you can continue using the Wi-Fi card, a heads up though, uhh, it is quite the jump in performance difference… going from SATAIII to NVMe…

547

Some coders make me feel like this sometimes…

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548

I definitely identify with the second one. :laughing:

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549

EDIT

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I would have gone to these events just for this band lol

550

Relating to recent topics, please don’t do this…

551

Does anyone know more of these?

552

Just putting this over here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ray-Tracing-Gems-High-Quality-Real-Time-ebook/dp/B07P5QV1Z5/ref=msx_wsirn_v1_2/258-6224240-2586411?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07P5QV1Z5&pd_rd_r=6514f024-7de2-4861-a522-821d8e462fb7&pd_rd_w=3DbOC&pd_rd_wg=ESTWA&pf_rd_p=e5eb819b-7287-48fe-800f-c0dd207121a9&pf_rd_r=AYAAFF8FQH7NMF5XP1B5&psc=1&refRID=AYAAFF8FQH7NMF5XP1B5

Hopefully some certain people @Tom @harry-cpp @Jjagg @KonajuGames @kosmonautgames and a few others take a gander…

And for future reference:

image
image940×848 226 KB

Blurb:
This book is a must-have for anyone serious about rendering in real time. With the announcement of new ray tracing APIs and hardware to support them, developers can easily create real-time applications with ray tracing as a core component. As ray tracing on the GPU becomes faster, it will play a more central role in real-time rendering. Ray Tracing Gems provides key building blocks for developers of games, architectural applications, visualizations, and more. Experts in rendering share their knowledge by explaining everything from nitty-gritty techniques that will improve any ray tracer to mastery of the new capabilities of current and future hardware.
What you’ll learn: The latest ray tracing techniques for developing real-time applications in multiple domains
Guidance, advice, and best practices for rendering applications with Microsoft DirectX Raytracing (DXR)
How to implement high-performance graphics for interactive visualizations, games, simulations, and more

Who this book is for:Developers who are looking to leverage the latest APIs and GPU technology for real-time rendering and ray tracing
Students looking to learn about best practices in these areas
Enthusiasts who want to understand and experiment with their new GPUs

image

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553

Crew Dragon 1

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554

You really need to jump on discord with all those videos and memes
Your like the only one not on there mr valentine.

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555

ahahaha, can’t keep up with that feed

556

Its more like a realtime chat forum.

557

That’s kinda the issue, trying to stay alive atm and sane, waiting for insurance to pop round before my house collapses in on itself atm :frowning:

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Also, packing up everything!

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I signed in but honestly cannot make sense of anything, is this a new discord server? I was signed up on one before…

558

If you’re still interested in benchmark data I have a new laptop. I’m assuming it will be about the same as other NVMe machines.

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559

Could always update the chart :slight_smile:

560

Here are my new laptop’s spec and run times:

ASUS VivoBook S15
AMD Ryzen 7 4700U 2.0GHz - 4.1GHz 8 cores/threads
RAM 12GB - 3200MHz
512GB SSD - NVMe Kingston OM8PCP3512F-AB

Debug 7-8 seconds
Release 43-45 seconds

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561

I will look at updating the benchmark thread later today if I remember where I put the data :slight_smile:

EDIT

@Synammon Thank you for your contribution, I have added it to both locations :slight_smile: your setup is intriguing and should help users pick out a good laptop there.