Hmmm, on Cubix site support, I read :
Connect as many Xpanders as you have available PCIe x 8 slots in the host computer
PCIe x 8 slots, not PCIe x1 ! This has to be confirmed, but it is written.
For what I have been told recently, the cable link transfer speed is not important during the rendering process, but it is much important during the loading of the scene.
I am currenlty doing a test on an animation of 35 frames of a scene requiring 290 MB of VRAM, on a GTX 260 mounted in a Cubix-Xpander which is connectet to a PCIe 16x 1.0 : For a rendering time of 4 seconds (at 32 samples per pixel), the loading time of each frame is 124 seconds ! More than 2 minutes per frame .
At this speed, the whole 35 frames animation requires 72 minutes of loading for 140 seconds of rendering !
For more samples per pixels, the ratio will decrease a bit, but not so much.
If you consider that the tested scene weights only 290MB, on a PCIe x 16 (even if it is a 1.0) the loading time(so, the transfer speed of the PCIe link) seems to be a very critical factor ! I doubt that PCIe x 1 are usable.
For what I have tested so far, my fears are confirmed and the current loading time for animation is really beyond what I consider as acceptable.