Concerns about shared resources for P4 motherboards (Asus, Abit)

[grit621]

I'm giving some very strong consideration to a P-4 rig. It'll be running Win2k and used for gaming, internet apps, office apps, CD-Rs, etc.

I'm concerned about PCI cards sharing resources. On my current P3 rig, only the NIC shares resources with one of the USB controllers. According to SoundBlaster (SBLive! card), Turtle Beach (Santa Cruz), VisionTek (GeForce 3), their cards should NOT share resources with anything else. I know that ACPI under win2k shows all of my PCI cards using IRQ 9 right now, and my system is stable and runs well. Are all of my cards REALLY running on IRQ 9, or is Win2k just MAPPING stuff, because according to BIOS when I boot up, all these devices are NOT on IRQ 9.

I was examining the Asus P4T and noticed that ALL of the PCI slots share resources with SOMETHING. AGP & PCI 2, PCI 4 & 1, and PCI 5 & USB. PCI 3 seems to be free.

I have a sound card (SBLive! but I'm willing to buy the Santa Cruz if necessary), NIC (3Com 905c), IDE RAID controller (Promise FastTrak 100), and SCSI controller (Tekram 390U3W).

- I have a Blue Orb on my VisionTek GeForce3, and cannot use PCI 1.
- According to what I can find, the VisionTekshould NOT be sharing ANY resources. That leave PCI 2 out.
- I could but a sound card in PCI 3, since it doesn't seem to share resources.
- I can put one of the one of the controllers in PCI 5, since they will share resources (USB).
- I can put EITHER the NIC or the other controller in PCI 4, leaving me one PCI slot shy.

Why oh why didn't they have AGP sharing with PCI1? Grrr.


I'm really lost and could use some help on this one, before I invest several hundred dollars.

Thanks.

 

[fkloster]

IRQ sharing? Wheres NFS4? He has 10 or more devices sharing 1 IRQ succesfully! (he made me eat my words )P4T is designed to allow PCI IRQ sharing without event. It should not be an issue with your setup. Also remember, in the P4T bios, you can manipulate which IRQs to use for PCI slots and disable stuff you don't use i.e. parallel ports & serial port IRQ's to free 'em up for your PCI stuff...

 

[grit621]

Also, can anyone comment on the use of the P4T vs. the TH7?

And how well to the AGP/PCI cards seat in the P4T considering the funny plastic/metal cover on the back? I have a full tower In-Win ATX case with an Enermax ATX 2.03 PSU, so no problem there, but I'm worried that the added depth of the board will prevent the cards from being able to be fastened to the case (won't they stick up a bit?)

 

[grit621]

oops, double clicked. Sorry.