modern pci-e slot layouts...

Memphis Raines · 2 Apr 2010 at 00:50

I have been running my current board for about 2 years i think, and recently i hooked up my usb DVB-T tuner for use with win7 Media centre...

and tbh the usb tuner aint great, so i was looking at a new internal tuner card, of which there are a few nice decently priced pci-e 1x cards about

so ok, this may be the only thing i can think of that i need a pci-e 1x slot for tbh but anyway

My problem is (to me anyway) obvious..
the first slot on the far right, is blocked by the NB and the other 2 are blocked by my GFX card and its cooler...

I guess i could resort to old PCI... but what i dont get is why put the slots in locations where its really obvious your not going to be able to use them..

(and i had thought about putting the gfx card in the 2nd slot, but thats only 4x anyway as its a P35 chipset board)

cmndr_andi · 2 Apr 2010 at 02:03

Are you sure that both PCI-e x1 slots on the left are fully covered by the GPU cooler. A dual slot cooler should only cover the one next to the blue slot (Tho you could be using an aftermarket cooler that occupies more than 2 slots).

I don't see why you can't use the orange slot, it may only be x4, but that is plenty for a x1 PCIe card. Or is that problem that it will drop the Blue slot down in speed if the orange is occupied?

Personally, I would suggest getting a PCI card unless you have a specific PCIe one in mind. You will have much more clearance from your GPU, there is plenty of bandwidth for TV and the range of PCI cards is much larger than PCIe ones.

CooK1E · 2 Apr 2010 at 12:11

Isn't the height of the NB cooler the same as the PCIe device? Mine looked pretty much the same (as in it wouldn't fit) but when used there is like 1mm of space.

Memphis Raines · 2 Apr 2010 at 22:39

cmndr_andi said:
Are you sure that both PCI-e x1 slots on the left are fully covered by the GPU cooler. A dual slot cooler should only cover the one next to the blue slot (Tho you could be using an aftermarket cooler that occupies more than 2 slots).

I don't see why you can't use the orange slot, it may only be x4, but that is plenty for a x1 PCIe card. Or is that problem that it will drop the Blue slot down in speed if the orange is occupied?

Personally, I would suggest getting a PCI card unless you have a specific PCIe one in mind. You will have much more clearance from your GPU, there is plenty of bandwidth for TV and the range of PCI cards is much larger than PCIe ones.

Dont know if a 1x card in the 2nd 16x/4x slot will effect the other 16x slot, and i have a pretty big cooler with a 120mm fan strapped to it hah!

I will have a look for a PCI twin tuner DVB-T card instead... just a bit rubbish the way that the boards are laid out with 1x slots in random places... even current boards are laid out the same

CooK1E said:
Isn't the height of the NB cooler the same as the PCIe device? Mine looked pretty much the same (as in it wouldn't fit) but when used there is like 1mm of space.

no chance of that one like, the NB cooler is as high as the memory...