Motherboard Mad Scientist thoughts on a X299/Skylake-X/mITX motherboard...

[Boil]

Imagine an ITX MB that takes advantage of the extra direct to the CPU PCI lanes that the Octo core & up i7 CPUs provide (what is it in Haswell-E & Broadwell-E, 24 for the 6 cores & 40 for the 8+ cores...?); utilizing same with x16 for GPU & four x4 dedicated to 4 U.2 connectors on the MB...

Yes, U.2, no SATA, just U.2; one could pack in four Intel 750 Series 2.5" SSDs, or their overpriced Optane replacements...!!!

And I want to see support for quad-channel RAM & four SO-DIMM sots...!!!

X299 ITX MB / 12-core Skylake-X CPU / 64GB DDR4 quad-channel RAM / RAID 0+1 Optane array / Titan ITXp GPU

;^p

 

[jeshikat]

U.2 is a dead end, I think 2-3x M.2 and Mini-DTX would be a better way to use the lanes.

 

[Boil]

U.2 is a dead end, I think 2-3x M.2 and Mini-DTX would be a better way to use the lanes.

Come on man, four U.2 ports, one for each band member...! ;^p

 

[Therandomness]

Come on man, four U.2 ports, one for each band member...! ;^p

Except there's like, 3 products which use U.2.. and even then, you can't actually use Optane as actual storage, it's just a cache.

 

[Boil]

Except there's like, 3 products which use U.2.. and even then, you can't actually use Optane as actual storage, it's just a cache.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/intel-optane-technology.html

Optane is also slated (and there are shipping Data Center-oriented AIC SSDs) for use in a variety of consumer & professional SSDs, in a variety of formats (M.2 SSD / 2.5" SSD / AIC SSD).

The 2.5" SSDs will most likely come with either U.2 or M.2 cables...

 

[Phuncz]

Yeah I believe U.2 has a future if it's picked up in time. Both SSD manufacturers and board manufacturers need to step up on this one.
Intel's Optane SSDs (not the cache crap they also pulled with SSDs many years ago) will also be sold in U.2 variant which still has a place inside the datacenter.

But for desktop usage, it's up to companies like Samsung, SanDisk, Crucial, WD and others to also start offering PCIe U.2 SSDs. Though that time may never come if no one except Intel offers a U.2 drive in the consumer market (the SSD 750 is).

 

[Boil]

Yeah I believe U.2 has a future if it's picked up in time. Both SSD manufacturers and board manufacturers need to step up on this one.
Intel's Optane SSDs (not the cache crap they also pulled with SSDs many years ago) will also be sold in U.2 variant which still has a place inside the datacenter.

But for desktop usage, it's up to companies like Samsung, SanDisk, Crucial, WD and others to also start offering PCIe U.2 SSDs. Though that time may never come if no one except Intel offers a U.2 drive in the consumer market (the SSD 750 is).

But for the SFF / ITX niche market, the 2.5" U.2 SSDs would be ideal; as our sole PCI slot is taken up by the GPU...

Now, Intel offers a M.2 cable in addition to a U.2 cable for the current crop of 2.5" 750 Series SSDs, I am sure they will do the same with the Optane versions...

But, my whole (unspoken) point is ditching M.2 & SATA on an ITX MB, and replacing with four U.2 ports allows for multiple SSDs with a more compact connection.. (and justifies the higher core count CPUs, because with the four x4 U.2 ports, we would need the extra PCI to CPU lanes said CPUs provide)..

And this is a hypothetical X299 MB, so being able to RAID up (I would go 0+1, redundant stripes) to four 2.5" Optane SSDs would go with the whole HEDT thing...

 

[nox]

DTX would be a better use, it will give flexibility. Want extra data ports? use a raid card. Want to ditch the onboard sound? fine. want 4 extra NICS? also fine. Also needs to be physically x16 so the crazies can use two GPU's and unraid on it.

replacing the 2 dimm slots with 4 sodimm also gets a thumbs up too but not so worried about this.

can also replace the big block of sata connectors with one SAS to save space, and the ATX PSU connector needs to be shrunk too. that thing is comparatively huge just package a custom conversion cable/one that plugs in to a modular PSU.

 

[Therandomness]

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/intel-optane-technology.html

Optane is also slated (and there are shipping Data Center-oriented AIC SSDs) for use in a variety of consumer & professional SSDs, in a variety of formats (M.2 SSD / 2.5" SSD / AIC SSD).

The 2.5" SSDs will most likely come with either U.2 or M.2 cables...

The current M.2 variants cannot be accessed by windows. The datacentre version is larger because since they have larger storage, they need more cache.

 

[George__Sm1th]

That is a dream board man. It would cost hundreds though.

 

[EdZ]

Except there's like, 3 products which use U.2.. and even then, you can't actually use Optane as actual storage, it's just a cache.

The current M.2 variants cannot be accessed by windows. The datacentre version is larger because since they have larger storage, they need more cache.

The current m.2 Optane drives can be installed, formatted and used just like any NVME m.2 drive. PCPer even did testing with the drive on its own as a boot drive (no other drives in the system).

 

[Therandomness]

The current m.2 Optane drives can be installed, formatted and used just like any NVME m.2 drive. PCPer even did testing with the drive on its own as a boot drive (no other drives in the system).

Well I did not know that.. Still, capacity isn't worth it for the price when used like that.. Could just get an SP550, enjoy slower, yet still quite fast speeds, and 2-4 time more capacity.

 

[jeshikat]

But, my whole (unspoken) point is ditching M.2 & SATA on an ITX MB, and replacing with four U.2 ports allows for multiple SSDs with a more compact connection

U.2 uses a very bulky, non-customizable cable though.

M.2 is way nicer for cable management (since there isn't one). Boards with a combination of U.2 and M.2 would be nice, but all U.2 would be a pain to deal with.