Problem using 3 card system in a mixture of PCI-x and PCI slots

[kirkgale]

As people on this board will know, there is still no i7 motherboard available in the world with 3 contiguous PCI-x slots, while at least one has 2 PCI-x slots and one PCI slot which are right next to each other (i.e., the Supermicro X8SAX board used by at least myself and Third Eye Studios who, together with at least undergroundcubby and DigitalMetal all have the same need for an i7 PC to stably run an HD3 system).

Unfortunately as the pioneer, my system is stable only when using the Core card and one Accel Card in the two-afforded PCI-x slots (when also inserting the 2nd Accel card into the PCI slot, “PT not responding” and freeze up behavior occurs shortly after booting PT in response to mere VI window dragging or opening/closing etc.).

I have been working with Supermicro support for these 3 weeks using a non-published BIOS update from them which newly sports a PCI-x slot frequency adjustment menu (e.g., 33, 66, 133, etc. including Auto mghz settings). The question is whether I should take it off “Auto” and dumb down the PCI-x slots to 33 mghz or what (the Supermicro guy suggested to keep on Auto which would generally mean its running @ 133)...

But perhaps Digidesign or other tech experts have a more seasoned opinion for our PT purposes...?

[x9blade]

hello kirkgale try finding a mobo with 5 slots like my q6600 loaded gigaabyte, which is not made anymore .
was wondering if you were in communications with someone at supermicro maybe you could ask them to build as a 5 slot mobo for an I7. good luck to you

[DigitalMetal]

Hi x9blade,
i remember speaking to you about getting my gigabyte board up and stable did you ever get any stability from yours?
I ditched mine along time ago in favour of the Asus P5wDG2-WS pro and not had anywhere near as much trouble,
Whats stopping you getting a second hand 64 bit Magma Chassis? they can be got pretty cheap now on ebay.

Kirkgale,
I have my HD3 in a Magma 64 bit PCIX Expansion Chassis but run 2 PCI powercore cards too,
I wonder what the supermicro board would be like running the chassis on just one of its PCIX slots,
Unfortunately im not about to buy a board CPU and RAM just to try it out,

[lifer]

Umm.. this has 4 PCI slots which work with PCIx cards..
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...rboard-LGA1156

This has 3
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...rboard-LGA1156

As does this
http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?P...780&ms=msso094

They should all work fine. I use a 33mhz slot motherboard and never had any problems.
Personally I am planning to get the ASUS one as a replacement for my current board so I can use an i7 cpu.

[sunburst79]

Keep in mind the PCI HD cards are the 64bit form PCI slot factor they are NOT actually PCI-X. Later Revisions of the PCI-X spec made the slots backwards capable with 64bit cards so running the cards at 33MHz should be just fine.

[kirkgale]

Lifer,

I should have specified that my i7 (the 965 extreme) is from the 1 year ago generation which I understand can’t be used in the 3 boards you mention (all being LGA1156 Socket / P55 chipset boards). Please let me know if I am wrong.

Sunburst79,

Right….no wonder the cards are said to work stuffed into PCI slots even with those extra card teeth hanging in the air.

So, you’re saying there’s hope if I tell my BIOS to dumb down the 2 PCI-x slots to 33 mghz (i.e., the match the mghz of the 3rd-Accel card stuffed into the PCI slot)?

I’ll report over the weekend.

[DigitalMetal]

Originally Posted by sunburst79

Keep in mind the PCI HD cards are the 64bit form PCI slot factor they are NOT actually PCI-X. Later Revisions of the PCI-X spec made the slots backwards capable with 64bit cards so running the cards at 33MHz should be just fine.

SO you are saying that running PCIX HD Cards in PCIX 133Mhz Slots has no benefit over running them in PCI 33mhz Slots ?
If you are do you have any certified proof of this from digidesign?

What about the 64 bit expansion chassis?
My P7 magma chassis is 64 bit PCIX with a PCIX host card, so all 7 slots have to squeeze down one 133MHz connection, surely thats beneficial over a 32bit expansion chassis too ?

Does anyone know if there is a way i can monitor how much bandwidth a single pci card is utilizing on my system ?
Or how much is going through a chosen slot?