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PCIe slots on the Asus Z170-A

typographie
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I'm using the Asus Z170-A. I have a single GTX 770 installed in the top-most PCIe x16 slot (the one the manual recommends) and a PCI sound card.

 

Problem is, Asus placed the legacy PCI slot so close to the top PCIe x16 slot that the two cards have only a few millimeters of clearance between them. When the case is turned upright, the video card sags enough that it makes contact with the sound card and bends it slightly. At the moment, I've placed some tiny felt pads on the sound card to make sure there is a non-conductive contact point between the back of the sound card and the GTX 770's cooler, but I fear for the sound card when it's being pushed against like this. Additionally, the sound card is blocking half of one of the 770's fans, which can't be doing the air flow any favors.

 

If I were to install the GTX 770 in the second PCIe x16 slot instead, would it have the full 16 lanes of bandwidth? If not, would there be a setting in the BIOS to force x16 bandwidth to that slot? I've looked, and if such a setting exists, it's buried somewhere.

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Check your manual for the logic board, it will tell you which slots are x16.

 

And yes you should have the full bandwidth or however your GPU needs even if you placed your single GPU on the 2nd x16 3.0 slot.

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The board has 2 x16 slots and one x16 slot running at x4.

 

I'm guessing that the x4 one is the bottom and last slot.

 

So you're fine with the 2nd slot.

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The important thing to ask yourself is, "Is the PCI Express slot you want to use PCH or CPU controlled. If its CPU then it doesnt matter what slot you stick it in as most Z170 boards offer dual x16 slots.

 

Hope thats the answer you where looking for.

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do you need a sound card for that board?  I guess if the card has a decent headphone AMP...

 

But couldnt you just put the sound card in any other pci slot?  My understanding is that sound cards hardly saturate a 1x pci lane so they can go anywhere

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Check your manual for the logic board, it will tell you which slots are x16.

 

And yes you should have the full bandwidth or however your GPU needs even if you placed your single GPU on the 2nd x16 3.0 slot.

 

The slots are full-length PCIe slots complete with the locking mechanism at one end. The board refers to them as PCIE x16_1, PCIE x16_2, etc.

 

Here are the relevant tables screenshot'd from the motherboard manual. I may be missing something, but they don't seem to answer my question in a way I can really decipher on my own. In particular, I'm not sure what the 'N/A' means in the second table.

 

yN4bYLi.png

 

A good way to check is to see how many pins there are on the PCI-E slot. I had to check from my own Z170-A and I can tell you that only the top slot has all the contact pins.

 

So I think the top one is faster than the lower two, unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the answer. I know the card won't perform appreciably slower in x8 mode, so I may just give it a shot anyway.

 

do you need a sound card for that board?  I guess if the card has a decent headphone AMP...

 

But couldnt you just put the sound card in any other pci slot?  My understanding is that sound cards hardly saturate a 1x pci lane so they can go anywhere

 

It is a legacy PCI slot, as in the old pre-PCIe standard. There's only one on the board, so unfortunately it's not so simple as just relocating the sound card.

 

I had hoped I could keep the thread away from the card itself because I know this is a risk of thread derailment, but it's an older Creative X-Fi card. I know I'm not going to make any audiophile friends by saying this, but it sounds objectively better than the board's Realtek ALC 892. I'm willing to consider the possibility that I'm just not configuring things properly, but the ALC 892 doesn't even seem to be aware of all my speakers. Even set to 5.1 mode (using 5.1 speakers), it ignores my subwoofer and half of my satellite speakers. It did the same thing on my last motherboard, a Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3, which used the same audio solution.

 

The X-Fi card immediately sounds better before I even make any adjustments in the driver, and that's why I'm having some issues parting with it.

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..

 

Hello, have you made some progress with it? I'm having a similar problem. My video card is actually 2.5 slot and it's imposibile to instal my Asus sound card, because my board has only 1 PCI slot and the video card is in the way. I've the video card in the 2nd PCIe X16 (x8 speed) slot but i have no video signal on the monitor. Also, there a red LED next to the 1st PCIe X16 slot that is ON when my card is in the 2nd slot.

 

My board is Asus Z170-A with 6600k; GPU is Zotac AMP! 970 and Asus Xonar DG. Can anyone advise? How do I enable the 2nd slot to funtion properly?

 

(i also have a PCIe x1 wifi card, if that matters somehow).

 

Thank you in advance.

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I've the video card in the 2nd PCIe X16 (x8 speed) slot but i have no video signal on the monitor. Also, there a red LED next to the 1st PCIe X16 slot that is ON when my card is in the 2nd slot.

 

I tried it with the same results. The board expects the main video card to be in the top slot. I don't see any way around it in the BIOS, unfortunately.

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That sucks. At least you can use your card :) , but i do have a sugestion for you: PCI 32 Bits Flexible Riser Card Extender Cable Extension Adapter. Perhaps you can move your card somewhere else. Too bad you got such a nice case. Would be a damn shave to get the hammer out.

 

I think i;ll use that and put my card in 8th expansion slot that my Fractal has.

 

The Closet: i5 6600K @ 825-4635 MHz || Asus Z170A || Fury 16GB DRR4 @ 2198 MHz CL14 || Zotac GTX 970 AMP! @ 1555/7900 MHz || Antec TP Classic 550 || Samsung EVO 840 250 GB || Fractal Design R4

The Folder: Acer V5-573: i5 4200u @ 800-2600 MHz || Embedded 4GB DDR3 @ 1600 Mhz || 120 GB SSD

The TV SmallBox: MSI Windbox: Celeron 1037u @ 1800 MHz || 2GB DDR3 @ 1333 MHz || 500 GB || WiFi bgn

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@typographie mate, I've solved this :) . I've placed my wifi card in the 1st PCIe x16 slot and move the video card in the 2nd. That red VGA LED is off now.

 

But there is a downside to this: my internet conection with the wifi card there is shit; don't know if it's related, i'm just sayin'. But that's another story; am not getting into it.

 

Cheers.

The Closet: i5 6600K @ 825-4635 MHz || Asus Z170A || Fury 16GB DRR4 @ 2198 MHz CL14 || Zotac GTX 970 AMP! @ 1555/7900 MHz || Antec TP Classic 550 || Samsung EVO 840 250 GB || Fractal Design R4

The Folder: Acer V5-573: i5 4200u @ 800-2600 MHz || Embedded 4GB DDR3 @ 1600 Mhz || 120 GB SSD

The TV SmallBox: MSI Windbox: Celeron 1037u @ 1800 MHz || 2GB DDR3 @ 1333 MHz || 500 GB || WiFi bgn

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@typographie mate, I've solved this :) . I've placed my wifi card in the 1st PCIe x16 slot and move the video card in the 2nd. That red VGA LED is off now.

 

But there is a downside to this: my internet conection with the wifi card there is shit; don't know if it's related, i'm just sayin'. But that's another story; am not getting into it.

 

Cheers.

The Closet: i5 6600K @ 825-4635 MHz || Asus Z170A || Fury 16GB DRR4 @ 2198 MHz CL14 || Zotac GTX 970 AMP! @ 1555/7900 MHz || Antec TP Classic 550 || Samsung EVO 840 250 GB || Fractal Design R4

The Folder: Acer V5-573: i5 4200u @ 800-2600 MHz || Embedded 4GB DDR3 @ 1600 Mhz || 120 GB SSD

The TV SmallBox: MSI Windbox: Celeron 1037u @ 1800 MHz || 2GB DDR3 @ 1333 MHz || 500 GB || WiFi bgn

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