After having some issues with my AMD Ryzen 5 3600 build, I moved to an Intel setup with a 12700K which has the UHD Graphics 770 iGPU.
I overlooked one significant detail when picking out the new motherboard. It has (2) x16 PCIe slots, (2) x1 slots, and (1) x4 slot. Problem is, I have a 1070 graphics card and two LSI 9211-8i cards to support my 12 drives. I assumed incorrectly that the LSI cards needed x4 when they really need a min of x8. Previous board had (3) x16 slots, so this wasn't an issue.
Right now, I'm using the mobo's onboard SATA connectors for 4 drives and plugging the other 8 into a single 9211-8i. This works, but since my new CPU has the UHD Graphics 770, it made me wonder if I could/should ditch the 1070 and just use the iGPU, thereby opening up the other x16 slot.
As a side question...It's been a while, but I remember seeing a way to add an expander to the 9211-8i that only needed power and not a PCIe slot. Is that better than swapping out the 8i for a 16i?
Thanks!
Matt