Does order of cards in PCI slots really make a difference?

[Mohamed110]

I'm building an XP 1700+ rig right now and I'm running the Maxtor 80GB ATA/133 hard drive (which comes with the ATA/133 controller card). I just called up Maxtor to see why my system was taking so damn long (2.5 minutes) to boot up to Win XP Pro and he asked which slot I have the controller card in. I said farthest from the processor. He said it should be in the slot closest to the processor. He said that should fix my problem...

I'll give it a try, but I'm wondering... Does PCI card position really make a big difference? What kind of PCI cards would I want closer to the motherboard and which ones will survive if they're farther out? Thanks a ton!

 

[rbV5]

I'll bet you've got a NIC card trying to resolve your IP during boot, slowing it down, and PCI slot 1(closest to the processor on my rig) shares resources with the AGP slot, so I generally leave it empty. My promise RAID card is installed on my last PCI slot, works fine. It just requires a bus mastering PCI slot. Some cards can be picky about which slot they are installed in, but I doubt thats your problem in this case.

 

[Mohamed110]

<< and PCI slot 1(closest to the processor on my rig) shares resources with the AGP slot, so I generally leave it empty. >>



I'm running an ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV graphics card which takes up the AGP slot. Does this mean it wouldn't be a good idea to install the ATA/133 controller card in slot 1?

 

[Nothinman]

I'm running an ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV graphics card which takes up the AGP slot. Does this mean it wouldn't be a good idea to install the ATA/133 controller card in slot 1?

IRQ sharing is common and usually works well, although sometimes you have sh!tty cards that don't operate correctly and have problems sharing IRQs. I have no idea if either of those cards have problems sharing IRQs, I would try it and only move it if you started getting strange BSODs.

 

[Mohamed110]

Well, I was getting BSODs when trying to put the computer into Stand By mode and I switched the cards around so that the ATA/133 controller card is now in slot 1. The only problem I'm having now is the SLOW AS HELL bootup times. It's at the Windows XP Professional screen (with the moving bar) for 2 minutes, 15 seconds.

What the heck is goin' on?

 

[Mohamed110]

<< Well, I was getting BSODs when trying to put the computer into Stand By mode >>



Never mind... Still getting that BSOD.