Motherboards, PCi placements

[MrWarren]

Is it me, or do most motherboards with 2-4 PCI-E X16's and PCI-E X1's always layout in a way that causes a 2slot+ sized graphics card to block the PCI-E X1 port.

 

What if I wanted to find a mobo that supports 4x GPU + an Elgato HD + An internal soundcard or something.

has anyone got a solution or any thoughts on this?

[Bananasplit_00]

yee this is a thing that they do, i hate it loads but luckely i had another 1x slot for my wifi card, something my motherboard didnt have with my previus PC

[SpaceGhostC2C]

You would need to find a conveniently spaced motherboard  

 

Most designs will let you plug a number of things, but not all of them simultaneously. However, even if you physically could, the system will not have enough PCIe lanes for all of them to work in the intended way (x16, x8, x4, etc), if at all, you would run out of lanes (just like, usually, plugging an M.2 SSD switches off, or reduces the lanes for, one of the PCIe slots, if it's PCIe, or one of the SATA ports, if it's a SATA drive).

 

Bottom line: even if you manage to plug everything, it may still not work. Take it as motherboards giving you optional combinations through this diversity of slots, even if no combination uses all of them simultaneously.

[LabRat]

i usually do look for this. my top slot, if I can compromise, is a 1x slot. only good spot for it.

[MrWarren]

If we could get a shoutout to a company or something to look into making a board for this purpose would be pretty sweet.

I mean if you think about the placement of Mobo audio ports (potentially Display ports too) if we removed those that gives a fair amount of space. And with how most cases have audio ports anyway that could work into our favor, having 2x PCIe-x1 on top, then the 2+ PCIe x16's beneath.

After all if we're adding our own High-end audio, or GPU we dont technically need audio ports or Display ports for our mobo.

 

@SpaceGhostC2C I'm not super familiar with how PCI lanes function, But I can understand what you mean. would there be a way to adjust it so they could make the most out of each PCI port, if they had the room?

[SpaceGhostC2C]

4 hours ago, CrownG said:

 

@SpaceGhostC2C I'm not super familiar with how PCI lanes function, But I can understand what you mean. would there be a way to adjust it so they could make the most out of each PCI port, if they had the room?

None that I know of.  It would be best to check the mobo's manual for information on what kind of limitations it has for expansion cards (there is a thread somewhere here by someone trying to use like 5 GPUs using PCIe raisers for a mining rig, but getting error messages due to insufficient lanes. I haven't followed it, but maybe there's something useful there). 

[SLAYR]

 

6 hours ago, CrownG said:

If we could get a shoutout to a company or something to look into making a board for this purpose would be pretty sweet.

I mean if you think about the placement of Mobo audio ports (potentially Display ports too) if we removed those that gives a fair amount of space. And with how most cases have audio ports anyway that could work into our favor, having 2x PCIe-x1 on top, then the 2+ PCIe x16's beneath.

After all if we're adding our own High-end audio, or GPU we dont technically need audio ports or Display ports for our mobo.

 

@SpaceGhostC2C I'm not super familiar with how PCI lanes function, But I can understand what you mean. would there be a way to adjust it so they could make the most out of each PCI port, if they had the room?

PCI slots are in a specific spot otherwise then the board could not be called ATX form factor, and then a special case would have to be designed to fit the new type of board. Removing audio/video is really only found on server boards and with non-enthusiast intel boards the video ports are there for the igpu. 

 

Most 4 gpu setups are a waste of money in the first place especially since I think this is for gaming since you mentioned an elgato, nvidia is even stopping sli support for over 2 cards on the 1000 series.

 

Can you fit a riser for the x1 card?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0054CIL46/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1471925987&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=pcie+1x+extender&dpPl=1&dpID=31V1cXJw8YL&ref=plSrch

 

Or custom watercool the gpus so they fit in a single slot.