Supermicro X9 Series PCIe 3.0 Slots: Full Specs & Guide
Supermicro X9 series motherboards, like X9DRi, feature robust PCIe 3.0 slots for GPUs, RAID cards, and 10GbE NICs. Ideal for servers and workstations, they support up to 4x x16 slots at 8GT/s bandwidth. This article details compatibility, configs, and upgrades.
Despite age, X9 remains cost-effective for homelabs with dual Xeon E5.
PCIe 3.0 Slots Breakdown on X9 Series
X9DAI: 2x x16, 2x x8 slots, bifurcation support.
Max throughput: 16GB/s per x16 slot, perfect for multi-GPU.
Compatible Cards & Configurations
RTX 40-series fits with BIOS tweaks; NVMe RAID excels.
- Quad NVIDIA A100 SXM
- 10x SATA via LSI 9300
- Dual 100GbE Mellanox
BIOS Settings for Optimal PCIe Performance
Set to Gen3, enable Above 4G Decoding.
Monitor via IPMI for slot usage.
Upgrading X9 PCIe Slots in 2024
Adapters for PCIe 4.0 bridges; cooling mods essential.
- Slot risers for airflow
- EPS power extensions
- ECC RAM pairing