Question re: PCI Express lane allocation on Asrock Extreme4-M.

[TrueWisdom]

Hey all:

I had a quick question for you re: the Asrock Extreme4-M mobo and how it handles its PCI-Express lanes. (You can find the board here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157294)

Basically, for whatever reason, Asrock placed the front audio panel jack right next to the top PCI-Express x16 slot. According to newegg's reviews, most big cards crush any cable plugged into this port. I've got a Radeon HD 5870, which is a fairly big card (~11", large HSF), and it would probably exert some pressure on any cable plugged into that front panel jack. Furthermore, I frequently use the front audio ports, so I'm a bit worried that this issue will irk me to no end if I buy the board.

Hence my question: can I stick my card in the 2nd PCI-Express x16 slot, rather than the first, without running into strange and unfortunate consequences? It's been a while since I put together a rig (last custom build was an Athlon X2, to give you some context) and I know that boards then and prior did not enjoy it when you chose nonstandard slots.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[nightspydk]

As long as you do not attempt to run sli, the answer would be yes. It should be possible to run *16 of the second lane. Go to bios set primary vga.

afaik..

Just to elaborate. SLI might need the primary lane in short.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

As long as you do not attempt to run sli, the answer would be yes. It should be possible to run *16 of the second lane. Go to bios set primary vga.

The problem is that most boards secondary slot is only electrically capable of doing 8x in the secondary slot. Unfortunately. I don't know specifically how the Extreme4-M is wired, but I'm guessing this applies to it as well.

 

[nightspydk]

Whoops man that is actually correct. Tho 8* is more than fine right.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Whoops man that is actually correct. Tho 8* is more than fine right.

It should not matter too much, we're talking single digit loss in performance...

 

[TrueWisdom]

Thanks guys. I'll keep that in mind. I'm also looking at a Gigabyte Board (D3H) because I don't plan on using SLI anytime soon, and I may edge towards that. Asrock does seem to be the manufacturer of choice on the boards nowadays, though.

 

[Kenmitch]

As long as you throw a IB chip in it i think it will work fine anyways. HD 5870 isnt pci 3.0 anyways. Doesnt pci 3.0 double the bandwidth from pci 2.0 which should make it a wash.