Intel P55KG Motherboard Question

[jpiszcz]

For the following motherboard:
http://www.intel.com/products/...KG/DP55KG-overview.htm

In the manual:

? Intel® Core? i7 and Intel® Core? i5 processors in an LGA1156 socket:
? 1 x16 PCIe 2.0 Graphics interface (operates in x8 mode when second slot
is populated)
? 1 x8 PCIe 2.0 Graphics interface

So one would presume(?) that the x8 slot cannot be used for anything else but a graphics card?

This motherboard (Intel P55KG) has 3 PCI-e slots x4 or lager, x4, x8, and x16.

I was wondering if two 3ware RAID cards could be used in this motherboard?

x4 - 4port
x8 - 16 port
x16 - graphics card

Does anyone have any knowledge of the compatibility between the card & chipset mentioned?

I opened cases with LSI(3ware) and Intel - they said they could not confirm or deny whether it was supported.

 

[deimos3428]

For whatever reason, people tend to focus on graphics when discussing PCIe. You can use any PCIe card in any PCIe slot, and performance will match the lowest common denominator.

For this specific board, if both of the blue PCIe 2.0 slots are occupied, they'll run at x8. If only the first of these is occupied, it'll run at x16. You want to put the graphics card in the first blue slot. If you don't really need 16 lanes for your GPU, you can put one of the RAID cards in the second blue slot and they'll both run at x8, and put the second RAID card in the x4 slot. (If you do need 16 lanes for your GPU, one of the RAID cards will be at x4, and one at x1.)

I suppose if you really dislike graphics for some reason, you could put the video in the x4 and leave x8/x8 for the RAIDs...

 

[Absolution75]

Originally posted by: deimos3428
For whatever reason, people tend to focus on graphics when discussing PCIe. You can use any PCIe card in any PCIe slot, and performance will match the lowest common denominator.

For this specific board, if both of the blue PCIe 2.0 slots are occupied, they'll run at x8. If only the first of these is occupied, it'll run at x16. You want to put the graphics card in the first blue slot. If you don't really need 16 lanes for your GPU, you can put one of the RAID cards in the second blue slot and they'll both run at x8, and put the second RAID card in the x4 slot. (If you do need 16 lanes for your GPU, one of the RAID cards will be at x4, and one at x1.)

I suppose if you really dislike graphics for some reason, you could put the video in the x4 and leave x8/x8 for the RAIDs...

That's not neccessarily true. A lot of RAID cards have strange incompatabilities with certain motherboards.

Though I can't answer the OP =/

Maybe/Probably?

 

[jpiszcz]

LSI(3ware) says...
The descibed scenario sounds possible, but is not something that we have tested. I would suggest contacting the motherboard manufacturer to verify that the secondary 16x length slot (8x lane width) is not dedicated for video via SLI or Crossfire support. So long as they agree that non video products can be used in this slot, I don't believe their should be an issue. Please do keep in mind, however, that this configuration is not tested by LSI/3ware

Intel says...
Thank you for choosing Intel. We were checking up on your case regarding an Intel® Desktop Board DP55KG and we can understand that you are looking for compatibility information with your controller. All of our Intel® Desktop boards does not have a compatibility list for controller cards or any other PCI Express or PCI devices. The only tested hardware list that we have is for processors and memories. Based on the fact that RAID, SCSI and any other mass storage controllers are most commonly used for server purposes, those devices are not supported by our desktop motherboards, however the device may or may not work and we can not guarantee the functionality of the device with our desktop boards. If you still want to use your controller card with our desktop boards we recommend to update the BIOS to the latest BIOS version.

--

Was curious if anyone out there had this P55 board and a 3ware raid controller or controllers-- trying to find a definitive answer. The manual also discusses SLI in the P55KG manual, so it makes me wonder on whether a RAID controller will indeed work in that slot.

 

[jpiszcz]

The product brief also says PCI Express Graphics for both of the slots connected to the CPU (x16,x8):

http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/prodbrief/322641.pdf

 

[Qbah]

I'd say write to Intel again and tel them you have several PCIe devices (sound card, wifi card and a TV tuner for example - those are in the same category, "not a graphics card" ) and would like to know if the other x16 slot can run anything else besides a graphics card. As others have stated, I saw mobos where only a graphics card would work in the other slot. So no idea how it is in your case.

 

[jpiszcz]

Thanks, it should work according to Intel.

"Yes, you can able to use non-graphics card in the x8 slot of DP55KG motherboard."