Question Pcie bifurcation (split one pcie 3.0 slots into 4) (For USB addin cards and a sound card, to pass to VM's)

Hardware Motherboards
1

Good day readers.

What I want to do is spit a PCIE slot 4 ways. I know my mother board can do it (Asrock Rack ROMED8-2T, ( ASRock Rack > ROMED8-2T ))

On these four slots I want to have:

  • 2 USB expansion cards
  • 1 Sound card

But from what I’ve seen everything as rare or expensive.

Some examples are:

(No idea about cost, availability or if it shill ship to South Africa) - GPU-Oriented x4 PCIe 4-Way Splitter | Amfeltec Corporation

(No idea about cost, availability or if it shill ship to South Africa) - QIP4X-PCIE16XB03 | PCIe 4.0 Expansion Solution | PCI Express 4.0 x16 Bifurcation Riser Card | QIP4X-PCIE16XB03

(A bit too expensive and i would still need a riser cable, increasing costs) - PCIe bifurcation PCI Express bifurcated Riser Card ITX to ATX x4x4x4x4 - 1W | eBay

So my question is would this (XT-XINTE PCI-E Adapter Card PCIe 1 to 4 Riser Card 1X to 16X Slot Mining Card | eBay) give me full access to my hardware?

I am running Unraid and would like to

So there is my question, would this (XT-XINTE PCI-E Adapter Card PCIe 1 to 4 Riser Card 1X to 16X Slot Mining Card | eBay) give me full access to my two USB cards and sound card?

It’s cheap, can be retro fitted to my 4U server chassis, Is available for me to ship to South Africa.

Thank you

2

There is a long thread here about all things related to PCIe splitting: A Neverending Story: PCIe 3.0/4.0/5.0 Bifurcation, Adapters, Switches, HBAs, Cables, Backplanes, Risers & Extensions - The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Apparently the cross-compatibility and quality are quite variable. PCIe <= gen3 seems easier than gen4, though, and for your needs it sounds like gen3 signal will suffice.

This thread and this one contain a discussion about, and in the latter case an example of, using the ASRock boards’ SlimSAS connectors to connect PCIe devices such as USB controllers. If these connectors are unoccupied in your system, that could perhaps be an option?

3

Thanks for the info.
I don’t have any slimsas connectors but I have 2 minisas which I think can be converted to 1 slimsas but I plan on using those for storage.

Optionally I could get a pcie to slimsas card but with the card, the cables and a slimsas to female pcie (x3 at the minimum), it gets quite expensive (prob around $500).

and at that point I may as well go with something like this: plus an extension/riser

But you’ve given me a lot to think about, so thank you.

A note*
I read that USB 3.0 runs at about 5Gb which is a little more than pcie 3.0 at 4X (around 4gb)

I realize that no matter the bifurcation method, "splitting the pcie slot " will reduce speeds

But if I got a pcie 3.0 4 way splitter and 4 of those mining riser cards that would be a theoretical 4 way split.

which I cant think of any particular reason for that not working.

maybe even if I got a riser card that has 2 input on it, i could have 2 risers at 5Gb and 1 riser at 10. This would be great as one of my USB cards is going to be used for and Oculus rift.

Would there be any reason in particular why this wouldn’t work?
Is it even possible to do a 4X, 4X, 8X split?

Thanks

4

This topic was automatically closed 273 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.