Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H Does it have 2 pcie 3.0 slots ?

[karthikparys]

I am planning to get gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H,

after long confusion between this and asrock z77 extreme 4. Since its gigabyte which is more reliable, am extending some extra bugs for gigabyte.

In more than two of the sites, specially where i am gonna purchase i noticed the second pcie (x8) slot is mentioned as a pcie 2.0 slot.

of course am having an i5 3450 ivy bridge processor.

In newegg site its mentioned as

Expansion Slots

PCI Express 3.0 x16 1

PCI Express 2.0 x16 2 (x8, x4)

But in Gigabyte site i could see its mentioned as

The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard

.




I am confused. Is there possibility for a x8 slot to be a pcie 2.0 slot in the z77 motherboard ?

Shall i proceed to but this board ?

Thx in advance .

 

[GhislainG]

It has 3 PCI Express slots.

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
This is the slot closest to the CPU.

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
* The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
(The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
* PCIE Gen.3 is dependent on CPU and expansion card compatibility.
This is the middle PCI Express slot.

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
* The PCIEX4 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX1_1/2/3 slots. The PCIEX1_1/2/3 slots slots will become unavailable when a PCIe x4 expansion card is installed.
This is the slot closest to the edge of the motherboard.

You referred to the second PCIE as x8 and that's correct, but it still is a 3.0 slot if you buy the i5 3450 Ivy Bridge CPU. If you install a video card in the PCIEX16 and the PCIEX8 slots, they'll both run at x8 Gen.3 as long as both the video card and the CPU support it.

 

[karthikparys]

Thanks for your reply,

As you said, this is what mentioned in the gigabyte spec sites and some other sites.

What i am worried about is that in the newegg site's spec its not mentioned as such.

So is it kind of a spec error in newegg spec ???

 

[GhislainG]

Do you trust Newegg more than Gigabyte who manufacture that motherboard or Tom's that reviewed it? If not, then please read this review http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-express-ivy-bridge-benchmark,3254-18.html The reviewer wrote "We still get the same single x16 to twin x8 slot conversion from the processor’s sixteen PCIe 3.0 lanes, and the third slot is still a four-lane PCIe 2.0 product of the Z77 Express PCH. Gigabyte further warns that all three of the board’s x1 slots are disabled whenever a PCIe x4 (or larger) card is installed in the bottom slot, since only four of the chipset’s eight lanes are available for expansion. The aforementioned drive controllers, plus a network controller and PCIe-to-PCI switch, consume the chipset’s other four lanes."

 

[karthikparys]

Yes your are right. Thanks.

 

[karthikparys]

Thanks for you support , After long confusions i went for Asrock extreme 4 z77 board.

 

[karthikparys]

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