need a mobo with crossfire and a pcie 4x at least.

[moomoopro]

So I got a RAID card, 3Ware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3ware 9650SE-4LPML only supports is PCIe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express x4, so it must be used in a PCIe x4, PCIe x8, or PCIe x16 slot.

I didn't realize but the mobo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobo I got( gigabyte x48 ds4) only has pcie 1x ports I tried putting the raid card in the 2nd pcie 16x videocard slot but it was having problems. I called their tech support and they think that that pcie16x can't support the card since its used primiarly for crossfire.

Do you guys have any recommendations on a crossfire board that has another pci-e 4x(at least) slot. Or maybe I could go with a p45 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_P45 board like ASUS P5Q Premium LGA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX.

What do you think I should do? is the p45 performance as opposed to x48 in crossfire really that crippled? I heard there wasn't too much of a difference.

 

[QuixoticOne]

erm pcie slots should be COMPLETELY downward compatible in the sense that any true fully equipped X16 or X8 slot should
accommodate any x4 or x1 card with absolutely no problem.

Sometimes slots are physically made x16 in physical size but they electrically are operating in x8 or x4 mode depending on the
design of the motherboard. I've never heard of an x16 or x8 physical size slot that shouldn't work with an x1 or x4 card in it though.

Try updating your BIOS maybe you have a BIOS bug, and try different settings of the "plug and play os installed?" bios setting,
and of course don't disable the PCIE slot in the BIOS if that's possible.

If they designed an x4 board but made it require a x8 or x16 slot to work they're idiots and haven't followed the specification or common sense, but I doubt they could be that bad...

Crossfire? I don't understand how you need that if you just need one raid card on pcie and one GPU unless you need two GPUs in CFx AND
the RAID card... The P45 should handle your RAID and one GPU nicely for most decent motherboards properly equipped.
The x38/x48 is a bit better but I don't see why you'd need one of those given your apparently modest (x4 RAID) system requirements and whatever (x16) or (x8) GPU you might want in addition.

 

[Foxery]

Unless you plan to have two video cards, ignore everything you've been told about "Crossfire" and forget the word entirely - it bears no relevance to your RAID issue.

Now, plugging the RAID card into the 2nd graphics slot is technically the correct move; what kind of problems did you have? (Using the 1X slots should also work just fine, but may or may not perform at full speed.)

 

[moomoopro]

well i just called up a techsupport guy and he said that the pcie 16x port was for graphic cards only. their tech support was outsourced so im not sure how much he knows lol.

and i want to eventually crossfire 2 graphics cards together...

as for problems, there were a lot. I would make a raid array and format the drive and give it a letter you know but then whenever I would reboot, it lost that data, and it would say that the raid array was not formatted despite just having formatted. Shortly after, all of my usb devices would stop working. The keyhboard would cut out and the mouse would stop working as well. It would also take like 5 minutes to boot up to vista ultimate 64bit. I tried like 3 times but it would do the same thing every time. I finally fixed it by completeling deleted the raid array.

I talked to the 3ware support people and they don't really know what the problem could be. Theyre thinking that it is the mobo though as they think the same thing that the pcie16x can only support videocards and not other pcie devices.

 

[sgrinavi]

I agree, I think tech support is blowing smoke up your butt.... in any case if you need 3 PCIe slots These DFI boards should do the trick

 

[moomoopro]

I called like 2 other guys who were asian and they were both were like "dey are for grafics card only!!!11!"

So are they right? or are you guys wrong?

 

[taltamir]

well if they are ASIAN then they must know.. right? [/sarcasm]

you came to the right place for real expert advice. I wont rehash what the guys here said, they already explained it. But the info here is more correct then your two asian friends who speak ebonics, and the tech support guy you spoke to.

 

[moomoopro]

Yeah, Im looking at some of the bios options...is there something I need to change?

So you think that the raid card is faulty?? or that the mobo is faulty(or bios need adjusting?)

 

[moomoopro]

god damn fucking gigabyte tech support is peice of shit. I sent an email to the tech support hoping an educated english person would respond but no I wrote out a response but this is all I got for an answer

" Hello,
Two PCIE card on mother board for graphic card only ( ATI Crossfire feature ) not 4x or 1x compatible with other devices ."

 

[Heidfirst]

X38 is known to have problems with some RAID controllers but I thought that they would have fixed that for X48 ...

You might want to check out the abit IP35 Pro as it seemed to be 1 of the most compatible P35s for PCI-E RAID cards.

 

[moomoopro]

hmm dang unfortunately those are deactivated at newegg. What about the p5q premium(4 pcie 16x slots) or deluxe(3 slots pcie 16x slots)???

 

[Heidfirst]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813127050