8800 GT and Asus P5K Deleuxe

Grinja

Member
Jul 31, 2007
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Hi ,
I'm gonna be getting a 8800GT soon and was wondering if the SATA ports on the ASUS P5K Deluxe will get in the way of installing a card this size?

Anyone with this combination run into problems fitting the card?

Any eperience will be appreciated.
Cheers
 

WaTaGuMp

Lifer
May 10, 2001
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Originally posted by: Grinja
Hi ,
I'm gonna be getting a 8800GT soon and was wondering if the SATA ports on the ASUS P5K Deluxe will get in the way of installing a card this size?

Anyone with this combination run into problems fitting the card?

Any eperience will be appreciated.
Cheers

I have the P5K-E and a GTX, its tight but does work.
 

QuixoticOne

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2005
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The other responder is correct.

At BEST it's VERY TIGHT, but marginally possible to preinstall some thin / whatever style
works for you / SATA cables before you put the 8800GT/8800GTX board in.

It'll be pretty much blocking a couple of your SATA ports, but if you don't need those ports
you could use other ones instead that aren't so much blocked.

I have some pictures that probably show the way it fits over the SATA ports if you're
interested in seeing them, let me know and I'll upload a link to them later on.

In my experience in general SATA cables don't latch very well under stress and they're pretty
"thick" and "inflexible" relative to their weak connectors / connector latches.

E.g. you CAN try to bend the cables around a tight corner, but what ends up happening is
the stress on the cable transfers a lot of that stress to its connector which then gets
loose / breaks / doesn't seat squarely etc.

My understanding from articles on the net is that SATA cables aren't all that immune
to data error problems due to them coupling electromagnetic signals to/from metal / electronic
objects or other cables that they pass close to.

So basically I'd look for a "thin" type of cable and try to gently curve it around the graphics board
and all your other stuff.

Also in an Antec Sonata 1.0 or Antec P180B mid-tower case there's VERY LITTLE room between
the back of the 8800GT/8800GTX (I have both) and the case frame for the drive bays.
In fact I couldn't install a drive in one of those mid-internal bays since it would be in the way
of the video card.

Any smaller of a case and the video card could be also too long for the drive bay sheet metal;
in my cases there's basically JUST enough room to put the P5K Deluxe motherboard in and then
the drive bays and I/O plates rise up in back and in front.

Don't even think about putting the 8800 in the secondary PCIE slot; it won't work at all, it's
only an x4 slot in bandwidth and the 8800 doesn't even initialize the driver when in one for me.

You probably won't be very happy if you try to insert / remove a SATA cable while the 8800 is
installed, though you could possibly click one in there if you're patient / lucky / dexterous.

 

WaTaGuMp

Lifer
May 10, 2001
21,207
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I have to admit the layout on this board is idiotic at best, what moron decided hey lets put the SATA ports right near a PCI-E slot that might use a vid card the size of Texas. Then they turn around and put the IDE port down at the bottom, I mean come on, overall though the board is very good, its just the layout thats pretty damn lame.
 

Grinja

Member
Jul 31, 2007
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Thanks for the input guys.
According to the manual the boot drive can connect to eiter SATA 1/2/5 so skipping the top row shouldn't be a problem.
Also right angled SATA cables were provided so that should help a bit.

A little of topic ... but are the red SATA ports any faster then the black?
I have 3 HDD, is it better to connect all to RED or attach some to the Black?

I have to say the IDE port is also in an inconvenient spot. I have a PCI Asus Xonar installed and it overlaps the IDE port by a 1cm.

Cheers.
 

WaTaGuMp

Lifer
May 10, 2001
21,207
2,506
126
Originally posted by: Grinja
Thanks for the input guys.
According to the manual the boot drive can connect to eiter SATA 1/2/5 so skipping the top row shouldn't be a problem.
Also right angled SATA cables were provided so that should help a bit.

A little of topic ... but are the red SATA ports any faster then the black?
I have 3 HDD, is it better to connect all to RED or attach some to the Black?

I have to say the IDE port is also in an inconvenient spot. I have a PCI Asus Xonar installed and it overlaps the IDE port by a 1cm.

Cheers.

I use port 1 and 2 for my boot and slave without issues, of course we already talked about the tight fit. :D