Question Do I have any options to use all three of my PCIe cards without holding back my GPU?

[Cyber_Akuma]

I am considering building a PC with a gigabyte z490 aorus pro ax board and a Noctua NH-D15 cooler, I already have the CPU on the way and was trying to finalize the board and cooler.

The problem is that this board seems to be lacking a third PCIeX1 port that many previous boards had, and because of that it could impact my GPU.

Currently I have three cards I want to use, from a previous dead build. My GPU (for now it's a GTX 1070, I know that won't bottleneck much, but I want to upgrade to RTX in the future and that can), a Soundcard that is PCIEx1, and a RAID card that is PCIEx8.

The problem is that my cooler will block the top PCIEx1 port because it is so big, and the other PCIEx1 port will be similarly blocked by the GPU. (I swear, WHY do they put these ports right under where the GPU would go and leave other parts of the board empty?). This just leaves me with a PCIex16 port, which is obviously where my GPU will go, and two PCIEx8 ports. The problem is if the second PCIEx8 port is populated, the PCIEx16 port will operate in PCIEx8 mode.

So far, it feels like my options are to either use a smaller cooler so the top PCIeX1 port is free (though it would be a tight fit right above the GPU), forfeit the Sound card, or use a riser to move it to one of the bottom two ports on my case that are below the motherboard (though that has the added annoyance of my sound ports being all the way at the bottom of the case... and I am not sure how stable a riser would be). But I want to see if I have any other options.

 

[popatim]

That wouldn't be a good board to get then.
Your screwed no matter what. The raid card needing an x8 slot drops your gpu slot to x8 mode also which I believe you are trying to avoid.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

The bottom PCIeX8 port does not effect the top PCIeX16 port, it's just the middle port which does. But my soundcard is only PCIeX1, it's just that previous boards tended to have three PCIeX1 connectors, this one only has two, and both would be inaccessible. (One because of cooler clearance, the other because of GPU clearance)

 

[DSzymborski]

Really, you don't have a lot of options. If you don't want to use a riser or replace the motherboard, then decide which of the sound card/RAID card you need less. If it's a cheap sound card, the motherboard's audio is likely as good or better and a RAID is a waste of time for 99% of consumers (I don't know if you're in the very rare category of consumers for whom RAID isn't pointless).

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

Definitely can't ditch the RAID card.

As for the sound card, it's a Sound Blaster Z from 2012, I dunno if the sound hardware on the motherboard would be better than that card now.

The cooler (haven't purchased it yet) is infamous for being huge, if I got a smaller one that top PCIeX1 slot would be free (though I would have to check if the card clears the GPU), but the Noctua D14/D15 have been my go-to for years, not sure what would be a good alternative, especially since the 10700K runs pretty hot. Though I am almost certain I am not going to ever overclock it.

 

[USAFRet]

Definitely can't ditch the RAID card. It's a Sound Blaster Z from 2012, I dunno if the sound hardware on the motherboard would be better than that card now.

The cooler (haven't purchased it yet) is infamous for being huge, if I got a smaller one that top PCIeX1 slot would be free (though I would have to check if the card clears the GPU), but the Noctua D14/D15 have been my go-to for years, not sure what would be a good alternative, especially since the 10700K runs pretty hot. Though I am almost certain I am not going to ever overclock it.

Your SoundBlaster Z is also the RAID card??

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-z

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

Whoops, I meant "The sound card is a Sound Blaster Z", yeah, my sound and RAID cards are separate cards of course. I corrected my previous post.