Can I stick a PCI-E x1 card into my 2nd PCI-Ex16 slot on my Asus A8N SLI?

[Compddd]

I have no use for sli and probably never will, but my Zalman VF700 vga cooler takes up the PCI-E x 1 slots between the 2 PCI-E x16 slots. I want to get the PCI-E version of Creatives new x-fi sound card, can I stick it in the 2nd PCI-E x16 slot on my asus? Will it even fit? Thanks!

 

[papaHesch]

compddd,


Should work fine in theory. The creative cards will just use the lanes it needs. I have had some problems getting my asus bord to recognize extra PCIe cards in the second x16 slot (which both 16x slots will run at 8x when both slot are being used). Just make sure you enable all jumbers/bios options for dual video cards etc.

 

[Weiman]

The second slot will work as a normal 1x slot when you're not using SLI (at least if you have the version with the selector card), so you should be fine. And yes, it will fit.

Originally posted by: papaHesch
Just make sure you enable all jumbers/bios options for dual video cards etc.

Uhmm, why would he do that for a sound card?

 

[papaHesch]

I have just noticed when using two cards (one vcard and somehting else) in the 16x slots on the A8N-SLI; that the pci-e lanes and the motherboard tend to be a little more stable with those options enabled. We are not even coming cose to using the bandwidth for 8x lanes even with a 7800GTX. I benchmarked before and after and it made no difference. You can also do it (as you stated) with the top slot being 16x and the bottom being 2x. I unfortuantly as mentioned have felt the pain on this setup and it just might be my board.