Is it possible to have SLI and a sound card with the Asus P9x79 Pro?

[DM426]

It seems with the slot configuration of this board you lose both of th PCI-e slots when using SLI. I noticed that Falcon Northwest offers the P9x79 Pro with two GTX 680's and Creative Recon Fatality sound card. My question is how are they doing this? Or is it that they are just adding a second GTX 680 in slot 3 or 4 and there is no SLI?

 

[DM426]

It seems with the slot configuration of this board you lose both of th PCI-e slots when using SLI. I noticed that Falcon Northwest offers the P9x79 Pro with two GTX 680's and Creative Recon Fatality sound card. My question is how are they doing this? Or is it that they are just adding a second GTX 680 in slot 3 or 4 and there is no SLI?

 

[jaquith]

Well first off build the rig yourself. Yeah sure you can add a Sound card by using either White PCIe slot preferably the one above the lower Blue PCIe slot. The (2) Blue PCIe slots are for the SLI GPU's which leave the two White PCIe slots open, but for idea airflow (in this picture) the White PCIe slot to your left above the Blue PCIe slot. In 3-WAY SLI then no a Sound card will not fit unless to Water Block the GPU's or externally use e.g. a DAC for Audiophile quality sound.

As an option on LGA 2011 you might want to consider the ASUS Rampage IV Formula with it's onboard SupremeFX III; the only downside is 4xDIMM vs 8xDIMM - http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_2011/Rampage_IV_Formula/

 

[jaquith]

Duplicate Post ; see - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/318497-30-sound-card-asus-p9x79

 

[COLGeek]

Yes, you can do this. You just install the sound card into one of the x16 slots. x16 slots are backward compatible with x8, x4, and x1 devices.

 

[DM426]

So you use a PCI-e x1 card (a sound card, for example) in a PCI-e 3.0 x16 slot? I didn't know that. I just kind of assumed these had to go in the "smaller" slots.

Thanks!

P.S. Yes, I'm building it myself. I just referred to Falcon as an example.

 

[jaquith]

Yep you can run a PCIe x1 Card in ANY PCIe Slot (x1~x16) and PCIe 2.0~3.0. However, you cannot run a PCI Card in a PCIe slot.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

This next topics has been merged by Area51reopened
■ Is it possible to have SLI and a sound card with the Asus P9x79 Pro?

 

[Cybershaman]

I know this is an old thread but on the off chance someone is searching around I thought I'd add a little something. I use Asus GTX 680 DirectCUii TOP cards in SLI on this board and had a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z wedged between the two. I didn't like that because of the reduced airflow. Fortunately I have a Cooler Master Cosmos II case and was able to come up with a somewhat unique solution to alleviate the situation. The Cosmos II has a special vertical card slot meant for daughter boards or other plug expansions meant to slide into a typical card slot on a case. What I did was find a PCIe 1x extension cable, plug it in (yes, to the 16x slot I was using) and run it to the sound card in it's new vertical location. The setup works great and now I can even get to see the Sound Blaster Z in all of its glory. Now...I just need a case window so I can look at it without opening the case door... 😉 Here are some helpful links for parts and visualization:

HOTER PCI-E Express 1X Riser Card with Flexible Cable: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057M0ABA/

My relocated sound card: http://youtu.be/BVqGgMP_h0c

How to add a custom window to the Cosmos II case (which I will do someday when I get brave enough): http://youtu.be/cHIwa8DISjU