News ASUS STRIX B350I GAMING

It is happening

https://www.inet.se/produkt/1901045/asus-rog-strix-b350-i-gaming

Price: 199$

 

[d10ng]

Typical, so to utilise an nvme in pcie 3 and use both slots you'd need a second nvme.

Think there's still a few pcie 2 nvme sticks on the market, right?

 

[CTD4X4]

Is this available in the USA yet? Can't seem to find it for sale.

 

[Mortis Angelus]

Typical, so to utilise an nvme in pcie 3 and use both slots you'd need a second nvme.

Think there's still a few pcie 2 nvme sticks on the market, right?

There should be no difference in what you use as long as it has the correct M.2-socket. PCI-e 2 and 3 are compatible with each other as far as I know; the only difference is the speed limit. And since PCIE 2x4 is 2 gigabyte/sec there should be no issues running most NVMe drives. However, Samsung's NVMe-drives do reach speeds of 3.5 gigabytes/sec.

I do wonder why they opted to make the second slot Pcie2X4 since there should be more than enough PCIe-Lanes on Ryzen in order to have 2x PCIE3x4 M.2 slots

 

[d10ng]

I already have a 960 evo but had planned a m.2 sata for the other slot, glad I didn't buy it before the board. I'll look for a slower nvme for the back.

 

[Sean Crees]

There should be no difference in what you use as long as it has the correct M.2-socket. PCI-e 2 and 3 are compatible with each other as far as I know; the only difference is the speed limit. And since PCIE 2x4 is 2 gigabyte/sec there should be no issues running most NVMe drives. However, Samsung's NVMe-drives do reach speeds of 3.5 gigabytes/sec.

I do wonder why they opted to make the second slot Pcie2X4 since there should be more than enough PCIe-Lanes on Ryzen in order to have 2x PCIE3x4 M.2 slots

I did a little more digging on this, and apparently its a limitation of the chipset. I also checked some benchmarking websites, and the only nvme drive i could find that could outpace pcie 2x4's 2GB/s spec is the 960 pro, and that was only burst speeds not sustained speed. So it shouldn't make too much of a difference with current gen hardware.

 

[Mortis Angelus]

I did a little more digging on this, and apparently its a limitation of the chipset.

Thanks for the info mate! I just don't understand this then:

Ryzen CPUs provide 24 PCIE 3x lanes. Say you use 16 for GPU, that leaves you 8 additional lanes. That in itself should allow for 2x PCIe 3x4 M.2 slots (which is also depicted in the picture; green left box).

But sure enough, the AM4 chipset only support PCIe 2.0, and since M.2 uses a x4-interface they cant utilize the x8-speed of the chipset.

But point is: Why don't they use all PCIe lanes form the CPU first?

I also checked some benchmarking websites, and the only nvme drive i could find that could outpace pcie 2x4's 2GB/s spec is the 960 pro, and that was only burst speeds not sustained speed. So it shouldn't make too much of a difference with current gen hardware.

But I guess Asus thinks no one will be ballzy enough to have 2x Samsung 960 PRO SSDs...

 

[Ionrent]

 

 

[Mortis Angelus]

Two random guesses on the strange PCIE lane distribution:
- Trace length issues
- ‎The WiFi card is running off the CPU

True. But can trace length really be an issue on ITX compared to say a full eATX?
And WiFi could be running through that Chipset PCIE 2 M.2 interface instead.

 

[Choidebu]

Okay.. guess I have to reiiterate what I said some pages ago:

Yes current ryzen cpu have 24 pcie 3.0 lanes. Of those,

16 is reserved for dgpu. X370 enables CF/SLI by splitting these into 2 x8 lanes.

4 is reserved for communication to chipset.

4 is free. This is why all boards have 1 m2 nvme slot, easy wiring I guess. So on all current boards the first m2 slot for nvme drive is handled directly by cpu.

Now all chipset adds incremental (by 2) pcie 2.0 lanes and general purpose i/o like sata, sata-e and usb.

Starting from A320, it adds 4x pcie 2.0. It does not allow overclocking.
B350 adds 2, so that makes it 6x pcie 2.0 - used for wifi (x2 I presume) and in this particular asus rog strix b350-i board, adds 1 m2 slot running at 4x pcie 2.0
X370 adds another 2, while also enables multi-gpu.

I learnt this when researching how asrock board can have 6 sata ports when B350 supposedly only have 2 dedicated sata and another 2 from repurposed sata-e lanes.

For more info on other stuff the chipsets adds like usb and sata see https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2763-amd-chipset-comparison-x370-b350-a320

Hope that clears it.

 

[Choidebu]

Double posted. Deleted

 

[Ionrent]

 

 

[Choidebu]

This is why X370 is wasted on a mini itx board. Only one pcie slot anyway; cant do multi gpu. Extra usb and sata, great but board realestate makes it harder to design. And most ended up sharing same layout with b350 variant anyway. Some states better overclocking, but I have yet to read hard conclusion whether this is true. Plus the smaller you go the thermal is becoming more challenging which offsets the need to oc.

 

[SeñorDonut]

This is why X370 is wasted on a mini itx board. Only one pcie slot anyway; cant do multi gpu..

Bifurcation.

 

[bruub]

Today I asked newegg if they had an eta of when their first shipment would arrive. They said there was no eta and in their system they did not see an order placed for them.

 

[Rousseau]

F&!K I'm getting annoyed with this. It'll cost me an extra CAN$75-100 to order it from Europe but that might be what I'll have to do. I emailed the Asus rep again but he didn't reply.

 

[bruub]

F&!K I'm getting annoyed with this. It'll cost me an extra CAN$75-100 to order it from Europe but that might be what I'll have to do. I emailed the Asus rep again but he didn't reply.

I also emailed him last night. I'm hoping for a reply today.

 

[d10ng]

Definitely out in Europe I have mine now.

 

[tommy_po]

yep, in Poland i ordered it already last Sunday, the price is around 210$

 

[Rousseau]

Screw it... i just ordered a 8600K and an MSI Z370I.

 

[MarcParis]

ahah, i won't comment that choice, especially on a topic dedicated to Ryzen MB..