Quote Originally Posted by boostedevo View Post
I don't think you're being limit by 8x at all. I'll bet once you get 16x going, if you bench both ways, you'll see no difference.

As for the locked out setting, I was on F5 and just updated to F6 to check, but my options for changing Turbo/SATA3 are unlocked and selectable. I tried plugging things into the GSata and USB3.0 ports, changing all kinds of config options trying to see if something would make it unselectable, but I can't duplicate your problem.

Have you tried resetting CMOS and see if that opens it up?
Boostedevo is on the money. In the most extreme of instances, such as filling every possible port and slot with USB 3.0 and SATA3 drives while pushing SLI, have I seen the ports slow down a bit. But, let's be realistic. How many folks are going to be running a video game while saving/writing to their USB3.0 and SATA3 devices? You'll have to create a rather unrealistic setting.

As for 8x and 16x benchies, the performance hit is pretty minimal. And, that was while running another semi-unrealistic build - dual GTX295s. o_O The power consumption is ridiculous. I'll stick with dual GTX285s.