P4B266 PCI IRQ Sharing Question

[Wolfram]

Being a newb, not sure how to interpret the PCI slot/IRQ sharing chart in the user guide, found here on page 36.

Any help would be appreciated. Am installing sound card, lan, raid controller, agp card.
Thanks!

 

[bozo1]

In most cases, just stick your cards in any slot and let Windows deal with it.

 

[mikebb]

Windows, by design, utilizes shared IRQ's and in most cases it doesn't cause any problems. Just slap the cards in anywhere.


Anand FAQ on IRQ sharing

 

[JellyBaby]

Put the controller in slot 2, NIC in 4 and audio card in #6. That ought to do it with minimal if any sharing.

 

[Papercup]

so are you saying that when that table says 'used' it means that nothing shares with it?

I would say 'not used' for that!

I thought you shouldn't use the 'used' ones, only the 'shared'.

Can anyone clear this up?

 

[mikebb]

That table really means nothing at all, since you're using WinXP, and it will override IRQ settings you make in the BIOS.

Straight from MS KnowledgeBase:



<< Manually assigning IRQs to PCI slots in the System BIOS as a troubleshooting method may work on some non-ACPI systems when using a standard PC HAL, but these settings are ignored by Plug and Play in Windows if ACPI support is enabled. >>



ACPI support will be enabled by default in Win XP as long as you have a ACPI compatible MOBO, which every current one is. Disabling ACPI is NOT recommended unless you have serious problems, as you lose features like standby, and you're bound to cause more problems.

Bottom line is, just plug the damn cards in anywhere and Windows will share them correctly in 99% of situations. There is no performance or anything else to be gained by screwing around with IRQ's in the BIOS.

 

[Wolfram]

Thanks for the info folks! Still haven't had the time to put it together yet, but sounds like it won't be a problem.