Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 issues with videocard and PCI-Express.

[Hexicidal]

Hello.

I'm sorry if this is posted in the incorrect section but I just joined.

I bought a Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 motherboard a while ago, and received it already. I bought a EVGA GTX 650 Ti SC 2 GB Edition along with a TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 450Mbps Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter since I need to use wireless network since I can't get a cable up to my room.

According to my motherboard manual it's best to use the first PCIe slot (to get better performance) however if I put my videocard there I can't use the PCI Express adapter seeing as that slot is blocked.

Do you guys think it's smart to put the videocard down one slot so that I can use both my videocard and my wireless adapter without slowing down my videocard?

I'll link you to a picture to clarify what I'm saying: http://rog.asus.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/sabertooth-990fx-r2-overview1.jpg

If you look at that it's clear that there's barely any space between the first PCIe slot and the slot after that one.

Is anyone able to help me out?

Best Regards,
Hexicidal.

 

[songorocosongo]

If I were you I would return the Wireless Adapter and get a PCI one, not PCI Express, just to take out any placebo effect. But the truth is that in that motherboard the second PCI-e slot is just as fast that the first one.

I looked up the specs and this is what came out:
PCI Express 2.0 x16
3 (dual x16 or x16, x8, x8)
1 (x4 mode, black)

The two with lighter color are x16, so you're good to go.

 

[Hexicidal]

If I were you I would return the Wireless Adapter and get a PCI one, not PCI Express, just to take out any placebo effect. But the truth is that in that motherboard the second PCI-e slot is just as fast that the first one.

I looked up the specs and this is what came out:
PCI Express 2.0 x16
3 (dual x16 or x16, x8, x8)
1 (x4 mode, black)

The two with lighter color are x16, so you're good to go.

So if there the same speed there's no difference in the actual speed I'll be receiving right? Because if that's the case I'd just place the videocard in that other lighter colored slot.

Thanks for your quick reply.

 

[songorocosongo]

If I were you I would return the Wireless Adapter and get a PCI one, not PCI Express, just to take out any placebo effect. But the truth is that in that motherboard the second PCI-e slot is just as fast that the first one.

I looked up the specs and this is what came out:
PCI Express 2.0 x16
3 (dual x16 or x16, x8, x8)
1 (x4 mode, black)

The two with lighter color are x16, so you're good to go.

So if there the same speed there's no difference in the actual speed I'll be receiving right? Because if that's the case I'd just place the videocard in that other lighter colored slot.

Thanks for your quick reply.

Exactly! The speed will be the same

 

[Hexicidal]

If I were you I would return the Wireless Adapter and get a PCI one, not PCI Express, just to take out any placebo effect. But the truth is that in that motherboard the second PCI-e slot is just as fast that the first one.

I looked up the specs and this is what came out:
PCI Express 2.0 x16
3 (dual x16 or x16, x8, x8)
1 (x4 mode, black)

The two with lighter color are x16, so you're good to go.

So if there the same speed there's no difference in the actual speed I'll be receiving right? Because if that's the case I'd just place the videocard in that other lighter colored slot.

Thanks for your quick reply.

Exactly! The speed will be the same

Thank you. Just wondering you mentioned a regular PCI Wireless Network adapter, do you happen to know any adapters out there that have a good range since my router is 2 floors down as well as a decent speed?

I looked at a few online and I found this one: http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?model=TL-WN951N

Any recommendations? And I do apologize for all the questions.

 

[songorocosongo]

Mine is Rosewill and it's not so good. My laptop received a better signal than my gaming desktop at the same place. The one you posted has good reviews on newegg and it's a trusted brand. Looks like a good buy. There's also the same one but with 1 or 2 antennas, you might wanna look at those, the one with 2 antennas has the same specs.

 

[Hexicidal]

Mine is Rosewill and it's not so good. My laptop received a better signal than my gaming desktop at the same place. The one you posted has good reviews on newegg and it's a trusted brand. Looks like a good buy. There's also the same one but with 1 or 2 antennas, you might wanna look at those, the one with 2 antennas has the same specs.

Thank you, I'll probably use the PCI-E I have right now and do some benchmarks with the videocard in the bottom lighter slot and the top one to see if it gives me any difference in performance if not I'll most likely stick with the PCI-E was. Too bad for my aesthetics seeing as I wanted to see my videocard.

 

[Hexicidal]

I'm sorry to bump such an old topic but I was wondering if it's possible to run the PCI-E 1x (wireless network)card in a PCI-E 8 or 16x slot. I looked up a few things on the internet and they said yes however I'd like to ask you guys to make sure I don't break anything since it's my first build. The PCI-E 1x card is a lot smaller, so therefore I was wondering if it's possible to put it in a regular PCI-E slot (the longer ones also used for videocards).

Will that work for my motherboard?

I apologize for the bumping of an old thread.

 

[JoGary74]

I'm sorry to bump such an old topic but I was wondering if it's possible to run the PCI-E 1x (wireless network)card in a PCI-E 8 or 16x slot. I looked up a few things on the internet and they said yes however I'd like to ask you guys to make sure I don't break anything since it's my first build. The PCI-E 1x card is a lot smaller, so therefore I was wondering if it's possible to put it in a regular PCI-E slot (the longer ones also used for videocards).

Will that work for my motherboard?

I apologize for the bumping of an old thread.

I know this is an old post but i have an answer for anyone interested.
First of all The "Asus Sabertooth 990fx r2.0" manual states on p37 on a table labelled" PCI express Operating Mode" that PCIe slot 1 is the only slot that will operate at 16x when using a single graphics card. PCIe slot 2 operates at x4. PCIe slot 3 is N/A and PCIe slot 4 is 8x. These speeds are for only when you have a single PCIe Graphics card. Speeds are different when using Dual or Tri Cards.
To answer your question if you can use a PCIe x1 card into one of the PCIe x16 slots. Yes, I have my wireless PCIe x1 card in PCIe slot 4. As you will have noticed the PCIe x1 connection on your wireless card is much smaller in length than the PCIe slot but it fits all the same and works with no problems on my system. Hope this makes sense and helps.

 

[MIJ-VI]

Yes, this thread is old but then so is the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 which is still widely used (and with good reason for those who appreciate affordable ECC support and who are also aware of technologies such as the PSP and VPro etc).

IME the Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 (UEFI 2501 at the time) / FX-8350 combo does not like PCI cards. Their use interferes with the '990FX R2.0's ability to awaken from Suspend or Hibernate under 64bit Linux Mint 17.3 MATE, 4.2.0-42-lowlatency.

While I was using an Asus GTX750-DCSL-2GD5 in PCIe x16 #1, I tried an ST1000BT32, a PCIUSB7 (both of which I had bought for an older build) and a PCI300WN2X2. With the exception of the PCI300WN2X2, the first two PCI cards would prevent the Sabertooth' from awakening from Suspend or Hibernate whenever said PCI cards were under a load. However, when I switched to an Asus STRIX-GTX960-DC2OC-4GD5 in PCIe x16 #1 in conjunction with a PCI300WN2X2, the waking from Suspend or Hibernate issue returned.

The solution was to relocate the GTX960 to the 2nd PCIe x16 slot (thus burying the functionally useless PCI slot) while reclaiming the PCIe x1 slot for use with a PEX300WN2X2, thereby preserving the PCIe x4, x8 and remaining x16 slot for other duties. This approach ended for good the Suspend & Hibernate problems associated with the use of the PCI slot.

NOTE: Since upgrading the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 to UEFI 2901 last week (it adds NVMe support, is friendlier to the Marvell 88SE9230 and makes the '990FX R2.0 run the way it should have all along) I haven't bothered to re-test any PCI cards on the speculation that since UEFI 2901 likely came about as a result of lessons learned by Asus from tweaking UEFI 2501 for use with the new TUF SABERTOOTH 990FX R3.0 (which has no PCI slots), no effort would have been wasted on PCI improvement in the face of more pressing concerns.

BTW. Before & after Unigine Valley 1.0 benchmarking revealed no FPS difference between having the STRIX-GTX960-DC2OC-4GD5 in PCIe x16 slot #2 vs #1.

Caveat: I'm not a gamer and I don't OC anything.