Will a PCI-E 1x card work in my 2nd SLI slot?

I have a DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR motherboard w/ an 8800GTX graphics card and a Highpoint SAS raid card in the only PCI-E 1x slot..... so will this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106014

Work in the open 8x graphics slot? Thx! I dont wanna buy it and it not work... My OS is running on the SAS card....

Yep. It should work just fine... not 100% sure if there will be any problems due to SLI though. I know that 8x is backwards compatible with everything before it, so you should be set if the board allows it.

CompuTamer said:

Yep. It should work just fine... not 100% sure if there will be any problems due to SLI though. I know that 8x is backwards compatible with everything before it, so you should be set if the board allows it.

Click to expand...

Yea I wasn't sure if a 1x card would fit in the 8x slot... can't quite use the only 1x slot since the SAS card is there.....hmmm I just setup LACP on my NAS and I want a NIC that supports LACP on my PC so I can move files to and from the NAS at breakneck speed.....

I dont think the Marvell and Nvidia Nic's really do bonding/teaming unfortunately......

ya should fit in just fine, but there might be a problem if you have only a certain amount of pcie lanes for the two 16x slots. I know there are some intel boards that can run one full 16x or two in 8x 8x. if your board does something similar when you plug the new card in, you might bottle neck the 8800gtx as its all or nothing in that case.. 16 or 8x nothing in between.

BUT it could be the sli dr has full pcie lanes so my whole "problem" becomes mute lol.

So ya it will fit in juts fine give it a try.

nd4spdbh2 said:

ya should fit in just fine, but there might be a problem if you have only a certain amount of pcie lanes for the two 16x slots. I know there are some intel boards that can run one full 16x or two in 8x 8x. if your board does something similar when you plug the new card in, you might bottle neck the 8800gtx as its all or nothing in that case.. 16 or 8x nothing in between.

BUT it could be the sli dr has full pcie lanes so my whole "problem" becomes mute lol.

So ya it will fit in juts fine give it a try.

Click to expand...

Honestly I don't think an 8800GTX would know the difference between a x8 slot and a x16.

I tried moving my SAS RAID card down to the 2nd SLI slot to see if it fits, and it fits... but it sits really close to the 8800GTX... not sure if thats a problem tho... ?

ratbuddy said:

Honestly I don't think an 8800GTX would know the difference between a x8 slot and a x16.

Click to expand...

Taken from DFI's site:

SLI / Single VGA Mode
SLI mode - 2 SLI-ready graphics cards (use identical cards) on the PCI Express x16 slots. - Each x16 slot operates at x8 bandwidth. When the graphics cards are connected via the SLI bridge, the total bandwidth of the two graphics cards is x16.
Single VGA mode - 1 PCI Express graphics card on the PCIE1 slot will run at x16 bandwidth. - The other PCI Express x16 slot (PCIE4) will run at x2 bandwidth.

I have SLI disabled right now since I'm only using one card... so looks like it should be fine?

That NIC is only 1x so it should work in a 2x slot right... no bottlenecks?

enkrypt3d said:

Taken from DFI's site:

SLI / Single VGA Mode
SLI mode - 2 SLI-ready graphics cards (use identical cards) on the PCI Express x16 slots. - Each x16 slot operates at x8 bandwidth. When the graphics cards are connected via the SLI bridge, the total bandwidth of the two graphics cards is x16.
Single VGA mode - 1 PCI Express graphics card on the PCIE1 slot will run at x16 bandwidth. - The other PCI Express x16 slot (PCIE4) will run at x2 bandwidth.

I have SLI disabled right now since I'm only using one card... so looks like it should be fine?

That NIC is only 1x so it should work in a 2x slot right... no bottlenecks?

Click to expand...

Yep, it'll work perfectly.

yup looks like you should have no problems at all.

Thx guys - my only concern is heat since it will be sitting so close to the 8800GTX... but its a small card so it wont be covering the fan, just a few ventilation slots near the back of the card... anything to worry about?

Actually I think I'm wrong this NIC is a 4x card... not sure if its worth putting a 4x card in a slot that will only be running at 2x....

"Compatible with x4, x8, and x16 full-height PCI Express slots" But I dont think my board will support this though..... thoughts?

Well I had an idea and I moved the SAS card to the other graphics slot...... and come to find out the SAS performance has increased somehow! I'm getting 120MB/s on the SAS card when before I was only getting 60-70MB/s ..... that's odd! But i'll take it hahaha! So now I have an open 4x slot - just ordered the NIC!

Interesting note after further research:


"The additional PCIe x1 and x4 slots present on the board use an interesting scheme to divide the additional 4 lanes of PCI Express between themselves. When the SLI switch is 'off' and a full 16 lanes are devoted to the top PCIe x16 slot for one video card, both the x1 and x4 slots each use a single lane of PCI Express bandwidth, while the second PCIe x16 slot gets the last two lanes. When SLI is enabled, the two PCIe x16 slots get 8 lanes each, the x1 slot between them is disabled and the top PCIe x4 slot gets a full four lanes..."

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1768&page=2 from this URL.... I wonder if I can enable SLI and still use the SAS card on the 2nd slot? doubtful huh....?