I have an issue with my GPU and network adapter

[thebaconviking]

I have this motherboard: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132697
This is my GPU: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAD2C5AX5031
Here is my Wireless Network PCI Adapter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TQEX7AQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Anyway, everthing works correctly but my Network adapter wont fit in the first PCI slot because A screw is sticking out from the top and the I/O is blocking it from going in by like a millimeter. I put it in the next one which is right under my GPU. They are almost touching each other with a millimeter of clearance. I think one of my GPU fans is hitting against the wifi card because when I am in a game I hear a little scrape sound and gets progressively louder. The first time I heard it, I got so scared I immediately killed power and then found that this was the cause. My GPU is on the first PCIE slot. Would I be able to move my GPU down to my second PCIE slot so the Wifi card would be above the GPU and therefore not scrape against the fan?

 

[bjornl]

No.

Your answer is from the newegg link:
Expansion Slots
PCI Express 3.0 x16
1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 mode, gray)
1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (max at x4 mode, black)
PCI Express x1
2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x1
PCI Slots
3 x PCI Slots

The 2nd slot won't have the same throughput.

 

[rhysiam]

You need the GPU in the top slot unfortunately. On your board that is the only x16 slot, all the others come from the chipset which is slower and higher latency. Fine for wifi adapters and the like, but definitely not a GPU.

However, you have a second PCIx16 slot (which runs at x4 - but that's plenty for wifi). Use that. It's the other long slot, looks like the GPU slot but is black instead. The wifi card will only sit in the first little bit of the slot, but that's how it's designed and should all work fine, and give you a gap for airflow to the GPU.

 

[thebaconviking]

You need the GPU in the top slot unfortunately. On your board that is the only x16 slot, all the others come from the chipset which is slower and higher latency. Fine for wifi adapters and the like, but definitely not a GPU.

However, you have a second PCIx16 slot (which runs at x4 - but that's plenty for wifi). Use that. It's the other long slot, looks like the GPU slot but is black instead. The wifi card will only sit in the first little bit of the slot, but that's how it's designed and should all work fine, and give you a gap for airflow to the GPU.

can you send me a zoomed screenshot so i know what your talking about

 

[bjornl]

You need the GPU in the top slot unfortunately. On your board that is the only x16 slot, all the others come from the chipset which is slower and higher latency. Fine for wifi adapters and the like, but definitely not a GPU.

However, you have a second PCIx16 slot (which runs at x4 - but that's plenty for wifi). Use that. It's the other long slot, looks like the GPU slot but is black instead. The wifi card will only sit in the first little bit of the slot, but that's how it's designed and should all work fine, and give you a gap for airflow to the GPU.

can you send me a zoomed screenshot so i know what your talking about

He is just letting you know that you don't have to use the short PCIE slots for your wifi card. You can just as easily use on of the longer ones. For example the one you were considering moving your graphics card to.

Also, your graphics card's fans should not be hitting anything in an adject slot. If this is actually happening one of the cards is not aligned correctly. But regardless, moving the WiFi card away from your video card is desirable because you want as much air around your graphics card as possible for better cooling.

 

[rhysiam]

can you send me a zoomed screenshot so i know what your talking about

Just take a minute to learn about the slots in your motherboard. I realise this is a long post, but it's worth getting your head around this so you know what you're doing in future:

Going from the top (nearest the CPU) you have...
Slot 1 (sometimes call slot 0 depending on the number convention - but for these purposes I'll call it slot 1): PCIe x1
Slot 2: GPU slot, PCIe x16 slot
Slot 3: PCI (not PCIe!) these are legacy slots that aren't really that useful anymore unless you have some old cards you're trying to reuse
Slot 4: PCIe x1 (this is the one that interferes with the GPU I believe?)
Slot 5: PCIe x16 slot, with x4 lanes coming from the chipset (use this one for the wifi card)
Slot 6 & 7 - more legacy PCI slots

PCIe slots (the ones used by your GPU & Wifi card - and most other modern cards) have different lengths, generally either x1 (the really short ones on your board), x4 (a bit longer again) and x16 (full sized ones that you have two of).

On top of the physical slot, the system then provides a certain number of active PCIe lanes to each slot, with the greater number of lanes meaning more bandwidth, thus allowing more data per second between the card and the system.

The nice thing about the PCIe standard is that as long as a card physically fits in a slot (as in, the slot is at least the size of the card, or bigger), then it will work. A performance sensitive card like a GPU might not run as fast in a slower slot (where the system is limiting the number of CPU lanes to the slot), but it will work.

So again - your board has two full length x16 PCIe slots. Because they're full sized, they should will work with ANY PCIe card.

The top one (the grey one) gets the full x16 lanes of bandwidth straight from the CPU. That's your GPU slot and has been coloured differently to make sure you use it for the most bandwidth sensitive card - which is almost always your GPU.

The second x16 slot (the black one - slot 5 from our list above), while full length, is only electrically connected to x4 PCIe lanes which come from the chipset. That's why you do NOT want to put your GPU in there. It'll run slower. Your wifi card however, will physically fit in that slot and run absolutely fine too, because it only needs 1 PCIe lane. Pop it in there and you should be good to go.

Does that all make sense?