PCI-E 4x and 8x

dan_aka_jack

dan_aka_jack

dan_aka_jack

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Sorry for the dumb-ass questions...

I'm planning to buy a RAID card which requires an x8 PCI-Express socket. My current motherboard only has x16 and x1 PCI-Express sockets so I'll have to buy a new mobo. What are my options?

1) Can I put a PCI-Express x8 RAID controller into an x16 slot on an SLI motherboard. Or are the two x16 slots on SLI boards only usable for graphics?

2) If not, what motherboards have x8 PCI-Express sockets? Am I limited to expensive workstation boards?

Many thanks,
Jack
 
1) Don't know (hopefully someone else does as I'd like to know as well)

2) Your options depend on what CPU you intend to use.
 
The new nForce 590 SLI chipset has 46 PCI-E lanes so motherboards using the chipset will have 2 x 16x slots which leaves 14 lanes for 8/4/1 slots.

Gigabyte do one that has the following layout:

2 PCI Express x 16 slot
1 PCI Express x 8 slot
2 PCI Express x 1 slot
2 PCI slots

If you want something cheaper, you might be able to find something with one PCI-E 16x slot and one PCI-E 8x slot.
 
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I'm pretty sure pcie x8 and pcie x16 slots are the same physically. Graphics cards fit in a x16 slot and when in sli on older boards are effectively in a x8 slot
 
If you change the SLI jumpers on SLI NF4 motherboards you should get two 8x slots (the full length slots), so you'll still have enough bandwidth for your GFX card and have a full 8x slot for your RAID card.
 
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