So it's been years since I built a PC - since I think 2007 in the Core 2 Duo days. Back then I was just messing around and making a OC'd gaming rig. These days my needs are a bit more demanding - multi-core and RAM are what I need most, with PCI expansion a close second, and storage third.
I've been using a Mac Pro tower for far too long, but have no desire to give Apple any more money, so I'm looking at building a system based on x99.
Thing is, none of the boards announced thus far have the kind of PCI expansion I am looking for.
For x79, the AsRock Extreme11 board was as close as it got, with an Asus workstation board a close second. I believe both of those used PLX switches (the AsRock had two of them I think) to allow full quad 16x bandwidth, with 7 slots. I realize that this is overkill for most, but I need the ability to expand -- and while I may not use quad 16x, one or two 16x with several left over at 8x would be ideal. (The extreme 11 says it can do x16/8/8/8/8/8/8, which would be perfect).
But it seems the newer boards do not offer this sort of thing... all are 'limited' to the 40 lanes (or 28 - NO WAY!) offered by the CPU. I even saw specs for the asrock x99 ex11 but it didn't mention any PLX and the PCI features seemed pretty standard. The main feature is (again) a SAS chip on board, which is nice but not necessary (I have two SAS cards already - though not having to use one would be nice I suppose).
I realize that PLX switch isn't ideal, or magical, but for future expansion I'd be willing to spend a bit extra on the motherboard.
I suppose the other option for now is to get a lower-end board and wait and see?
Do you guys think a board like this will be available eventually? Anyone know anything for certain? Maybe I missed something?