"According to a VR-Zone.com report by our old colleague Lars G. Nilsson, it appears Intel is pushing for PCI-Express x2 interface simply because PCI-Express x1 just doesn't provide enough bandwidth and PCI-Express x4 is just simly too wide and complicates things, chip wise. Intel appears to be pushing for implementation of PCI-Express x2 due to the fact that current SATA controllers and USB 3.0 controller for that matter really need more bandwidth and are currently limited to PCI-Express x1 or x4 in some cases that sounds like overkill and makes things a bit more comlicated for motherboard implementation."