Ribbons vs board x16 slots

[MrTeal]

This might be kind of a newb question, but are there disadvantages to using 1x to 16x ribbon adapters vs using a board with 4 actual double spaced PCIe x16 slots? When I see many high power mining rigs there seems to be a large number running 990X chipsets with four physically mounted PCIe x16 connectors, but if a x1 to x16 ribbon works well enough why spend the extra money on such a board vs just getting a board with two x16 and two x1 for 1/3 the price?

[1713893474]

1713893474

[1713893474]

1713893474

[1713893474]

1713893474

[RyNinDaCleM]

Get the cheapest board, with the most PCIe slots (of any width). For mining, the data is very small, so you don't have to use the on-board slots. Plus you can keep your GPU's cooler by spacing them farther apart. But you still need to be able to support the cards somehow.

If you use this computer for everyday computing, you should put one card in a physical x16 slot.