I recently bought this motherboard, based on descriptions on pcpartpicker.com and B&H’s website. Both sites claim the board has 5 PCIe x16 slots (2x version 4, and 3x version 3). But I have the board in front of me, and while it certainly has full length slots, most of the pins are missing in all but one of them. Closer examination of the MSI website has this to say:
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5x PCI-E x16 slot
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PCI_E1 Gen PCIe 4.0 supports up to x16 (From CPU)
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PCI_E2 Gen PCIe 3.0 supports up to x1 (From Chipset)
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PCI_E3 Gen PCIe 4.0 supports up to x4 (From Chipset)
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PCI_E4 Gen PCIe 3.0 supports up to x1 (From Chipset)
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PCI_E5 Gen PCIe 3.0 supports up to x1 (From Chipset)
Have I been swindled? Am I just stupid or ignorant?
What you got is normal for a consumer board. To get thst many full 16x pcie slots like you expected would require a stupid expensive motherboard and a stupid expensive CPU. But I agree that the communication is misleading. Usually good specs list each slot by physical size and electrical connectors.