Call for help: do you have an SLI mobo and non-video-PCIe card?

[BoB-O TiVo]

Hey all,

A bunch of us are trying to figure out (as seen in in this thread) if the 2nd SLI slot will work as a PCIe x8 slot when the mobo is set up in SLI mode. If you have an SLI mobo and any non-video-PCIe card, could you do an experiment for us?

The experiment:
1) Put your mobo into SLI mode.
2) Plug your video card in the normal, first, PCIe x16 slot.
3) Plug your other PCIe card in the second PCIe x16 slot.
4) Boot your system.

The big questions are:
1) Does your system boot?
2) Do you have a good video signal?
3) Does the other PCIe card work?
4) When using the other PCIe card (network traffic, IO, etc.), do you maintain clean video corruption?
5) Is your system performance normal?
6) If you answered "yes" to all the above, what mobo do you have?

Thanks a ton,
BoB

 

[czech09]

Why?

If you don't have money for SLI don't do it. If you don't have money to get a PCI-E card stay with AGP. It's as simple as that...

 

[DermicSavage]

Just because it's called SLI mode doesnt mean you HAVE to run two video cards...
That mode just changes the active lanes to each slot, which traditionally would be used for video cards. It really doesnt matter what you put in them, since the PCIe is the interface, not the controller.

So to answer your question, it will work fine(although I havent heard of any cards that ARENT vid cards, and use more than a 1x slot)

 

[Dillusion]

there are no PCI-E cards out right now besides RAID cards and video cards...

 

[BoB-O TiVo]

Just because it's called SLI mode doesnt mean you HAVE to run two video cards...
That mode just changes the active lanes to each slot, which traditionally would be used for video cards. It really doesnt matter what you put in them, since the PCIe is the interface, not the controller.

So to answer your question, it will work fine(although I havent heard of any cards that ARENT vid cards, and use more than a 1x slot)

If you read the linked thread, this is called into question.

BoB

 

[BoB-O TiVo]

there are no PCI-E cards out right now besides RAID cards and video cards...

We're wondering for the use of a RAID card. The RAID cards are quite expensive, but I understand that some universities have PCIe net cards.

BoB

 

[BoB-O TiVo]

Why?

If you don't have money for SLI don't do it. If you don't have money to get a PCI-E card stay with AGP. It's as simple as that...

I have the money for SLI and a PCIe graphics card. What I don't have is the money to waste on the restocking fee for a PCIe RAID card if this experiment won't work.

Thanks,
BoB