Please refer to the Newegg picture:
Pic
As you can see, the master slot is near the bottom and the slave is closest to the top. Apparently, a paddle card is used to ensure that a single card gets 16x (I think). I have no problem with this because it probably makes more sense for most people to give up their PCI slots over their 1x PCI-E slots (or maybe not??).
Anyway, I have an ATI 4850, which is installed in the master slot and the paddle card is installed in the slave slot. Because I am on a budget and have lots of old (but very good) IDE equipment (HDs and burners), I would prefer to reuse that equipment rather than have to go out and buy SATA drives.
The issues:
1) Unfortunately, there is only one IDE channel onboard for my primary HD. Therefore, I need to use my PCI UltraATA133 card to run my dvd burner. My PCI card fits into the last PCI slot and is short, but about 20-25% of the GPU fan is going to directly blow against the PCI card. Is that an issue? Is the PCI card blocking too much of the GPU airflow? (Note: these cards do not touch)
2) The next issue: When I actually plug in the IDE cable into the PCI card, the back of the IDE cable end sits against the PSU. It doesn't seem to put any pressure on the PCI card, but the configuration is nevertheless crowded.
Some options that I have thought of:
1) A PCI-E 1x ATA133 card at Microcenter for $25 (but lose the use of a perfectly good PCI UltraATA card)
2) Move the video card to the slave slot to free up those PCI slots. Is this feasible? What do I do with the paddle card? Can anyone confirm that they have done this with this board without a problem? Performance difference between 8x and 16x slots?
Pic
As you can see, the master slot is near the bottom and the slave is closest to the top. Apparently, a paddle card is used to ensure that a single card gets 16x (I think). I have no problem with this because it probably makes more sense for most people to give up their PCI slots over their 1x PCI-E slots (or maybe not??).
Anyway, I have an ATI 4850, which is installed in the master slot and the paddle card is installed in the slave slot. Because I am on a budget and have lots of old (but very good) IDE equipment (HDs and burners), I would prefer to reuse that equipment rather than have to go out and buy SATA drives.
The issues:
1) Unfortunately, there is only one IDE channel onboard for my primary HD. Therefore, I need to use my PCI UltraATA133 card to run my dvd burner. My PCI card fits into the last PCI slot and is short, but about 20-25% of the GPU fan is going to directly blow against the PCI card. Is that an issue? Is the PCI card blocking too much of the GPU airflow? (Note: these cards do not touch)
2) The next issue: When I actually plug in the IDE cable into the PCI card, the back of the IDE cable end sits against the PSU. It doesn't seem to put any pressure on the PCI card, but the configuration is nevertheless crowded.
Some options that I have thought of:
1) A PCI-E 1x ATA133 card at Microcenter for $25 (but lose the use of a perfectly good PCI UltraATA card)
2) Move the video card to the slave slot to free up those PCI slots. Is this feasible? What do I do with the paddle card? Can anyone confirm that they have done this with this board without a problem? Performance difference between 8x and 16x slots?
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