Motherboard X570 Bifurcation

GreatWhiteElephant

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Jan 4, 2020
11
1
Is there a list of motherboards that support bifurcation? Specifically X570 or alternative AM4 chipset motherboards? I've looked through a few motherboard manuals and don't see this option specifically listed. I have a challenging wireless environment in my house, and no easy way to run ethernet to my gaming room, which has lead me to use an ASUS PCI-E 4 antenna wireless card in order to get the throughput I need to my gaming rig. I'm looking to downsize to a more portable ITX rig and realizing the only way I can get both a dedicated video card and a long range/high performance wireless adapter like this is if I use PCI-E bifurcation to split the PCI-E slot into two x8 ports. Does anyone see any issues with doing this? Having a single GPU + wireless card? I'm looking at the Sliger SM560 case specifically, which can be ordered with a bifurcation cable and supports 3 PCI slots. They also warn this is for "advanced users" - are there more steps involved other than turning this feature on in BIOS, installing drivers for each card, and it just working?
 

GreatWhiteElephant

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Jan 4, 2020
11
1
Don't bifurcate use an m.2 to pcie adapter, like this one R43 "STX", with the gigabyte x570i, it has an m.2 header on the back of the board.

That is very interesting... Have you used the Gigabyte X570i motherboard? It has very mixed reviews on both Amazon and Newegg, which makes me hesitant to try it. In fact the only high end AMD board I’m seeing with decent reviews seems to be the Strix x570i.
 

GreatWhiteElephant

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Jan 4, 2020
11
1
I emailed Sliger and they responded the ASRock X570 board also does bifurcation, but unfortunately that board has bad reviews, too. I think I’m going to give up on bifurcation for now and either use something like what W4RR10R posted, or find another solution. There are a few USB wireless cards purpose built for long range. They are slower speed, but they should work for what I’m trying to do. I also may just break down and find a way to get ethernet to my gaming room.
 

W4RR10R

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jan 29, 2019
211
211
That is very interesting... Have you used the Gigabyte X570i motherboard? It has very mixed reviews on both Amazon and Newegg, which makes me hesitant to try it. In fact the only high end AMD board I’m seeing with decent reviews seems to be the Strix x570i.
I personally haven't used that board (currently rockin a 3400g in an Asrock a300m with a vega nano on an m.2 adapter from the same company). My main thought was why run your gpu at 8x if you don't have to and that board because is had a second m.2 in a convenient place.
 
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GreatWhiteElephant

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Jan 4, 2020
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I personally haven't used that board (currently rockin a 3400g in an Asrock a300m with a vega nano on an m.2 adapter from the same company). My main thought was why run your gpu at 8x if you don't have to and that board kust had a second m.2 in a convenient place.

Yea I agree with the not running card at 8x. It doesn't really affect today's GPU's (according to analysis by Gamers Nexus) but I also tend to keep my gaming rigs for 4-6 years and upgrade the video card during that time. Who knows what GPU's in that time frame will or won't be affected by.

I'll figure something out. I appreciate the help!
 

Aki

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Aug 9, 2016
100
97
That is very interesting... Have you used the Gigabyte X570i motherboard? It has very mixed reviews on both Amazon and Newegg, which makes me hesitant to try it. In fact the only high end AMD board I’m seeing with decent reviews seems to be the Strix x570i.

That was my answer to lawtsai in the x570 ITX board thread, who was also concerned about the reviews. Of the two boards that were sold at the computer store I work at, none had any problems yet. But beyond XMP and fan curves there was nothing tweaked on the board and the use case is just a normal gaming pc, nothing fancy. It's also a sample size of two which really isn't worth anything, but so are most reviews on amazon and similar sites imho. I'll also mention that I'm not here to defend the board, but to state what I think about the reviews. I would like to give a RMA rate on the Asrock board, but it's not listed on Mindfactory.
A lot of the reviews were complaining either about DOA, it dying fast or no video through the motherboard. I would guess that the "high" "DOA" rate in the comments is a combination of people not understanding that their is no onboard GPU on most Ryzen CPU's and it being the first and only mini ITX board for quite a while. Hence a lot of people bought it when ZEN 2 was still new and got to experience launch issues. Reading the reviews is a bit frustrating, since you regularly see that it is a user and not a motherboard error.
Concerning the "dying early problem: On Mindfactory (large German retailer) the board has a 3% RMA rate, which is in line with other boards sold in their store in a similar price range.

Edit: I should also mention that this is just my view as someone who is comfortable with modding with a dremel and a soldering iron.
 
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GreatWhiteElephant

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Jan 4, 2020
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That was my answer to lawtsai in the x570 ITX board thread, who was also concerned about the reviews. Of the two boards that were sold at the computer store I work at, none had any problems yet. But beyond XMP and fan curves there was nothing tweaked on the board and the use case is just a normal gaming pc, nothing fancy. It's also a sample size of two which really isn't worth anything, but so are most reviews on amazon and similar sites imho. I'll also mention that I'm not here to defend the board, but to state what I think about the reviews. I would like to give a RMA rate on the Asrock board, but it's not listed on Mindfactory.


Edit: I should also mention that this is just my view as someone who is comfortable with modding with a dremel and a soldering iron.

This is a great analysis, I appreciate it. I've found that Newegg component reviews in general tend to be unusually negative and problematic. I'm not sure why, but if you cross-check almost any item on Newegg versus every other website, the Newegg reviews tend to be the most negative or having experienced the most problems. In this case, the Gigabyte board reviews are negative on several websites, but I agree with what you said and the reasoning behind it.

Mindfactory sounds like a great resource for me to bookmark for future parts checking. Thanks again.
 
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roadkill612

Case Bender
New User
Apr 6, 2018
2
1
Is there a list of motherboards that support bifurcation? Specifically X570 or alternative AM4 chipset motherboards? I've looked through a few motherboard manuals and don't see this option specifically listed. I have a challenging wireless environment in my house, and no easy way to run ethernet to my gaming room, which has lead me to use an ASUS PCI-E 4 antenna wireless card in order to get the throughput I need to my gaming rig. I'm looking to downsize to a more portable ITX rig and realizing the only way I can get both a dedicated video card and a long range/high performance wireless adapter like this is if I use PCI-E bifurcation to split the PCI-E slot into two x8 ports. Does anyone see any issues with doing this? Having a single GPU + wireless card? I'm looking at the Sliger SM560 case specifically, which can be ordered with a bifurcation cable and supports 3 PCI slots. They also warn this is for "advanced users" - are there more steps involved other than turning this feature on in BIOS, installing drivers for each card, and it just working?
Yep - its an old matter now, but would using ur home power wiring as a network via adapters be a solution for the OP?
 

roadkill612

Case Bender
New User
Apr 6, 2018
2
1
Is there a list of motherboards that support bifurcation? Specifically X570 or alternative AM4 chipset motherboards? I've looked through a few motherboard manuals and don't see this option specifically listed. I have a challenging wireless environment in my house, and no easy way to run ethernet to my gaming room, which has lead me to use an ASUS PCI-E 4 antenna wireless card in order to get the throughput I need to my gaming rig. I'm looking to downsize to a more portable ITX rig and realizing the only way I can get both a dedicated video card and a long range/high performance wireless adapter like this is if I use PCI-E bifurcation to split the PCI-E slot into two x8 ports. Does anyone see any issues with doing this? Having a single GPU + wireless card? I'm looking at the Sliger SM560 case specifically, which can be ordered with a bifurcation cable and supports 3 PCI slots. They also warn this is for "advanced users" - are there more steps involved other than turning this feature on in BIOS, installing drivers for each card, and it just working?
ASUS list
 
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