I wonder if this combo would work. I have now Zenith Extreme X399, although I don’t use the Hyper x16 v2 card with it, but I have it in the closet. 6 NVMe in slots around the board are just fine. I’ve heard that those x16 converter cards are tied to motherboard firmware. Is that true? I have other boards, but all are older, not supporting bifurcation, so I can’t test it in any way.
Truth to be told, I was set on purchasing Designare where I get card bundled and better slot placing, but while I love the XL-ATX flexibility of Designare I want to enter the TRX40 with lowest cost possible (because AMD screwed users in truly Intel fashion with X399->TRX40). I sit today whole day going in circles.
Purchasing Master over Designare that’s good (equivalent of) 300 $ less which is tons of money if Hyper x16 would work. I lose the superb slot placement and bundled cards, but I gain more practical E-ATX board which will fit with basically any case on the market supporting ATX.