Mars Theran
Tribal Liberation Force
Minmatar Republic
426
   |
Posted - 2012.11.25 00:26:00 -
[1] - Quote
What you are looking for is a Motherboard with a PCIe 3.0 interface on it. If you have that, then the motherboard can handle the data throughput. If you have a CPU which is capable of enabling PCIe 3.0, then the CPU can handle it. CPUs have a bandwidth capability, just like anything else to, and you can find Intels on ark.
As linked, you are looking for a 3rd generation processor. Second generation doesn't have the capability. Intels 'Northbridge' is on the CPU now, so the only chipset you have to worry about is the Southbridge, or storage controller and that will be essentially as advertised capability on the motherboard.
I'm not sure about AMD anymore, but generally assume you will run into multiple potential bandwidth issues if you go that route.
Basically, if you use Intel, all you need to avoid the bottleneck is the appropriate hardware for the job. RAM is maybe a small exception, but DDR3 used on the hardware in question is of minimum specification and aside from overclocking, doesn't exceed 1333MHz. That means that without an OC, your system hardware including RAM, will pretty much perform as expected consistently.
Obviously, if you check the ark, you'll find bandwidth specifications for the CPU along with other detailed specifications. This will give you an idea of what the CPU can handle, but it is also fairly standard in the LGA 1155 socket CPUs: 25.6 GB/s.
On your board, you are looking for more capable PCIe lanes. Assuming you don't use them all for GPUs, you shouldn't choke your bandwidth on Storage. It's basically a balancing act, but a good motherboard should be more than capable of handling a GPU and 2-4 SDDs without any real issues.
Anything you plug into a PCIe slot uses bandwidth, and your SDDs or HDDs are using some of those lanes too. This is why more capable set ups rely on a board with more capable PCIe lanes. More is better, provided you don't try to stuff everything onto the same lanes anyway.
It can get a bit complicated if you're really trying to squeeze every last bit out of it, but you probably won't need to even bother unless you are benchmarking and loading everything for it. So really, it depends on your intended use for it and your expectations.
Hard to answer this question in any short detail, or summarize how you could go about getting exact capabilities out of a system with specific hardware for one purpose or another.
Much easier to just suggest 3rd Gen. i5, a mid-to-high end motherboard supporting PCIe 3.0, a PCIe 3.0 GPU, 4-16 GB of 1600MHz*(*OC) RAM with Heatspreaders, (Kingston KHX, Patriot, Corsair, G.Skill,, Mushkin, or whatever.), your SDDs in either a pair mirrored or 4 mirrored and Striped in RAID 1+0, a decent PCIe Soundcard, and whatever you like to go with it.
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Mars Theran
Tribal Liberation Force
Minmatar Republic
428
|
Posted - 2012.11.25 01:04:00 -
[2] - Quote
Xenuria wrote:
Thank you!
You have been very helpful.
FYI PCI-E SSDs can go to several GBp/s Transfer speeds. One of the SSDs I am looking at is 2-3 grand and fits in a PCI-E slot. It has a transfer rate of 1GB/s. Obtaining a SSD that by itself does 6~Gb/s is not the hard part. You won't find them on newegg but that dose not mean they can't be bought by civilians.
np  I know of the Revodrive and the newer offerings from OCZ; pricey but amazing. In this case, your primary concern is your PCIe capability, and of course, amount of RAM. I'd look at 16-32 GB of RAM for one of these, and a motherboard with multiple PCIe lanes. Probably even start looking at Xeons and Enthusiast Server/Workstation Boards. Almost a must given the expense.
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