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PCI Express X16 Riser Card, will it impede my card?

Rimfire

Rimfire

Rimfire

Associate
Joined
12 May 2010
Posts
50
Location
Walsall
Hi guys,

Got a query for the more knowledgeable amongst you (i.e everyone apart from me lol)

I've been suffering from high temps and fan noise on my xfire setup because my cards are so close on my GA X58- UD3R mobo so I was thinking of buying a flexible PCI Express X16 Riser Card to allow me to move the cards a slot apart. Am I correct in thinking that it is basically just a simple extension and it won't have any effect on the performance of my card, or will it end up being a hideously complicated and futile procedure involving bottlenecks and incompatibility etc etc? If anyone could answer this for me I would be most grateful! :D
 
It would work fine, but unless you've got extra PCI slots you won't have enough clearance to secure the card to the PCI slots of the case.
 
Not sure how this will work in a normal case as the bottom of your GPU and riser card will clash with the mobo/adjacent PCI/PCIE sockets.

Edit: I guess technically, if it's the second card it doesn't actually need to secured into the case, bit dodgy mind in case it came in contact with anything else and shorted stuff!
 
Jokester said:
Not sure how this will work in a normal case as the bottom of your GPU and riser card will clash with the mobo/adjacent PCI/PCIE sockets.

Edit: I guess technically, if it's the second card it doesn't actually need to secured into the case, bit dodgy mind in case it came in contact with anything else and shorted stuff!
Click to expand...

Marvin said:
It would work fine, but unless you've got extra PCI slots you won't have enough clearance to secure the card to the PCI slots of the case.
Click to expand...

Lol, appreciate the concise explanation there! :p

I've moved my wifi card from a pci to a pci-e slot to free up some space, I have 3 pci slots but one is too low down to fit my card there because the psu gets in the way so I'll move the bottom card down. It doesnt matter if I block off that pci with the cooler as I won't need it anyway. Atm I've got about 1cm clearance between the cards, but I've worked out I can get myself about an inch and a half if I move the bottom card down into the spare spot I have so that'll be fine!

Just glad to know the riser won't affect my performance!
Thanks for the help! :D
 
It's not that we're concerned about, more that the PCI slot will physically get in the way of the card+riser, so you won't be able to secure it to the case as you normally would, unless you have 9 PCI brackets on your case (which you don't by the sounds of things).
 
The PCI riser would effectively require your card to be positioned somewhere other than directly over an existing PCI/PCI-e slot in the normal fashion.

I'm not sure but you might be able to fit the second card higher in the PCI slot securing area with a ghetto mod of some kind. There's nothing to say that you have to secure the second card to a PCI slot at all. You could have it sitting on the floor of your case or hanging from something.

I dont think the wiring of the riser makes much difference to the running of the card electrically.

Custom box. Or is it a photoshop?
FastraII-1.jpg
 
Marvin said:
It's not that we're concerned about, more that the PCI slot will physically get in the way of the card+riser, so you won't be able to secure it to the case as you normally would, unless you have 9 PCI brackets on your case (which you don't by the sounds of things).
Click to expand...

Ah right, now I get you, Didn't think about that! :confused:

Bit of a ball ache this crossfire, I've been having nothing but problems with it since I installed my second card 4 days ago anyway, game crashes, system lockups etc, not to mention the fan noise and lack of space on my mobo :mad:

Dont know what to do tbh, may end up sending the card back to oc'ers and sell my other card and just buy a single 6970 or something, unless I can figure out a way to stop all the problems I'm having. :(
 
If you have space in your case you can get flexible PCIe risers. I've used these in the past, not for GPUs admittedly, but they should work fine

Edit: skim reading fail :p
 
I have exactly the same issue with mine using the same motherboard. The cards are almost touching each other when using the x16 PCIE slots and I can't use the 3rd x8 slot as the hard drive cage gets in the way.

My options are :

1) Get a different motherboard where the PCIE are spaced differently. Would have thought most motherboards have the slots in the same place though ? If anyone can recommend an equivalent replacement that would be helpful.

2) Watercool. Pretty expensive as I'd be looking at 2x GFX and a CPU block along with radiators, pump etc

3) Change the case. Really like the case though and again it incurs cost and hassle changing over.

4) Use a flexible riser and ghetto fix it. I was thinking just use longer PCI screws and hang the card off them (bear in mind the FT02 has the motherboard turned 90 degrees). Costs about £20 in total so seems worth a try
 
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