How will a Core Card work with a split PCI-Express Mobo?

[silver80]

Hi. I have the Asus
P5N-E SLI Motherboard. It has two PCI EXPRESS 16 slots. It is designed so that when using dual graphics cards it shares the 16 lanes between the cards.

What I want to do is use the one for graphics like I currently do, and put a Digidesign Core Card in the other, for Pro Tools.

Any ideas on how/if this will work properly and how it will change the performance of Pro Tools?

Thanks!

[eddierodriguez]

are you on HD1 with just one card?

why don´t you use the pcie 1x slot?

the second graphics-slot is 8x only and i doubt that it can downscale to 1x.

most of the motherboards i´ve tested gave me problems on the 16x/8x/4x slots. the cards won´t be recognized by winxp or winxp tries to install the bridge-to-bridge drivers and freezes. same on vista and win7.

[Fullsound Recording]

Yea the Bridge to bridge will install and then render the cards not usable in that slot. Been there done that.

[silver80]

Oh wait... Does the PCI-E Core Card only need a 1 speed slot to operate? The cards length looks like it's for an 8 or so. So what speed PCI-E does it need to operate?

Thanks!

[silver80]

Ah ha... I see now the cards are PCI-E 1X. Weird.

I guess because I typically work with PCI versions it seemed different. So yeah I can use the 1X for an HD1 which solves the question.

Lovely!

[dbjp]

Wow, this is great to know!
I was under the impression that the PCIe Core and Accel cards needed at least 8x slots. Now I can go and find so many options available in the market!
Does anyone have a link where Digidesign states that the PCIe cards work in x1 slots?

[dbjp]

Hmm.

Here's what I don't understand.
Mac Pro's come with:

1) 2 PCIE x16 slots.
2) 2 PCIE x4 slots.

And obviously the core card in the x16 slot plus accel cards in x4 slots work fine. So I'd actually be scared of putting those cards into x1 slots.

[eddierodriguez]

some slots downscale to x1 perfectly. the macs do.

most x4 work

x8 and x16 slots may not when they´re physically fixed to x16 or x8.

digidesigns pcie-cards are x1 physically (the length of the pins)

x1 cards are compatible to all pcie-slots, but many motherboards have fixed x16 and x8 slots.

[dbjp]

Originally Posted by eddierodriguez

some slots downscale to x1 perfectly. the macs do.

most x4 work

x8 and x16 slots may not when they´re physically fixed to x16 or x8.

digidesigns pcie-cards are x1 physically (the length of the pins)

x1 cards are compatible to all pcie-slots, but many motherboards have fixed x16 and x8 slots.

Hey, thanks for that Eddie. Very interesting.
Most of the MB sites don't seem to go into too much details on that, so I guess the best way is to keep a lookout for MBs with plenty of x4 + x1 on them.
This thread's really helped me. I was on the verge of going for the ASUS MB with six 16x slots! Close call.

[eddierodriguez]

Originally Posted by dbjp

Hey, thanks for that Eddie. Very interesting.
Most of the MB sites don't seem to go into too much details on that, so I guess the best way is to keep a lookout for MBs with plenty of x4 + x1 on them.
This thread's really helped me. I was on the verge of going for the ASUS MB with six 16x slots! Close call.

there are many board out there.

x1 slots are safest, and with HD1 or HD2 you have tons of motherboard-options.

which asus-board do you mean? i might check it out next time, maybe it works.