2nd 16x slot makes 1x unavailable?

[jaydub868]

The manual for the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 has the following quote: "When the second PCI Express x16 slot (PCIE_16_2) is in use, the three PCI Express x1 slots
become unavailable."

I have two questions:
If you populate the second PCI x16 slot with a 1x card (e.g. network card, tv tuner card, capture card, sata card, etc.), will the other three PCI Express 1x slots still be unavailable? I was hoping to populate all four PCI-E slots (other than the primary video card slot) with 1x cards.

If the answer to my first question is yes, is this a Gigabyte issue or a chipset limitation that applies to all motherboards that have two x16 slots?

 

[Joe_The_Dragon]

The p35 chipset only has 16+6 pci-e lanes 1 is for the lan and the other one is for the 2 of the Serial ATA 3Gb/s connectors.

 

[jaydub868]

OK, but if you populate the second 16x slot with a 1x card, doesn't that reserve sufficient lanes to deploy all PCIE slots?

 

[chookman]

If you use 2 video card's they will utilise all the lanes that the P35 chipset has. however, if you use 1 GPU and a 1 times card it will not utilise all lanes so therefore others will still be available.

Curiousity, what are you using that man 1x PCI-e slots with?

 

[jaydub868]

1 & 2. dual ati 650 combo pci-e tuners
3. top pci-e slot goes unused due to heatsink on gigabyte 8600gts that wraps around
4. future expansion

 

[Joe_The_Dragon]

If you are planing on a x4 raid card then it will take the lanes from the ati 650 combo pci-e tuners.