Trouble installing sound card into motherboard

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MagikHairbrush

Reputable
Aug 3, 2015
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Hi guys,

I am using an Asus X99-S Deluxe Motherboard (specs are here). I am using a 5820K CPU.

Now I was using the following PCI-E x16 slots in my board:

1 GTX 980 GPU (2.5 slot)
2 ///////////
3 ///////////
4 Wireless Card
5 Sound card

I then bought a second GTX 980 to run in SLI. The board has LEDs to show where I need to connect the second card and I thus installed as follows:

1 GTX 980 GPU (2.5 slot)
2 ///////////
3 Sound Card
4 GTX 980 GPU (2 slot)
5 ///////////

In this configuration the sound card does not work. If I change the configuration thus:

1 GTX 980 GPU (2 slot)
2 ///////////
3 GTX 980 GPU (2.5 slot)
4 ///////////
5 Sound Card

The sound card works but the primary card becomes 20 degrees celcius hotter than the secondary card. I believe this is either a) because they are sitting next to eachother or b) because the secondary card was designed (as shown by the motherbaord LED) for slot 4.

Is there any solution to this? I don't understand why my soundcard is not working in slot 3. It's a SoundBlaster Z 5.1 PCI-E OEM card. The degradation in sound quality eg for Battlefield 4 is extremely noticeable. Can the MB just not run all slots at the same time? Expensive board so would be annoying...

unnamed.jpg
 
Solution
WyomingKnott
Not quite my reading of the manual
a) Two PCIe cards will run in x16 and x8. My reading of the manual suggested that only slots 1, 2, and 4 are usable with that cpu, but I could be wrong.
b) I've never seen a mobo that dynamic. That is, one that would see "Oh, I have a video card in X8 but the user wants another device so I'll bleed off four lanes from that." The lane allocation that I've read about is fixed.

My personal suggestion in your situation is to ensure that both GPUs are in slots that are actually running PCIe 3.0 and use a USB sound device. I'm a bit of a sound-device fanatic myself; I'm dedicated to my Asus Xonar Essence STX which runs from one lane of PCIe 2.0. I've got two pairs of studio monitors attached to it...
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WyomingKnott

WyomingKnott

Legenda in Aeternum
Aug 29, 2006
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I don't understand yet, but I want to point out one thing. The board is capable of supporting 40 PCI-e lanes if the processor is. But that's a 28-lane max processor if I read correctly: http://ark.intel.com/products/82932/Intel-Core-i7-5820K-Processor-15M-Cache-up-to-3_60-GHz . So you don't have all the lanes that you think you have.

But the SB card should run on a single lane - I'm trying to see if it requires a 3.0 lane, but I doubt it.

EDIT: My read of the manual is that with the graphics cards in slots 1 and 3, the second one is running PCIe 2.0, not 3.0. Don't know if that would make the heat difference or not.
 
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MagikHairbrush

Reputable
Aug 3, 2015
6
0
4,510
Hi WK,

Thanks for your swift response. I suspect you are correct with regards to the GPU slots arrangement. I just looked up some of the technical reasoning behind this so correct me if I'm wrong but:

a) Two 16x PCE-E GPUs will eat up the entire 28 lanes on the CPU
b) Nothing on any other slots will work - or if it does it will just be stealing bandwidth off of one of the GPUs?

Would a fair summary therefore be that I have no option but to remain without a soundcard?

I'm also guessing, based on what you have said, that say 4x GPUs in SLI is possible but they would have their bandwidth halved to 8x PCI-E and they would require a recently released pricey 40 lane CPU to manage it?

Edit: I did have a look for you regarding whether the card runs 2.0 or 3.0 but I can't find anything on it. Would this really make a difference in any case?

Cheers again,

Magik
 
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WyomingKnott

WyomingKnott

Legenda in Aeternum
Aug 29, 2006
13,249
3
51,960
Not quite my reading of the manual
a) Two PCIe cards will run in x16 and x8. My reading of the manual suggested that only slots 1, 2, and 4 are usable with that cpu, but I could be wrong.
b) I've never seen a mobo that dynamic. That is, one that would see "Oh, I have a video card in X8 but the user wants another device so I'll bleed off four lanes from that." The lane allocation that I've read about is fixed.

My personal suggestion in your situation is to ensure that both GPUs are in slots that are actually running PCIe 3.0 and use a USB sound device. I'm a bit of a sound-device fanatic myself; I'm dedicated to my Asus Xonar Essence STX which runs from one lane of PCIe 2.0. I've got two pairs of studio monitors attached to it, one AKG and one Audio Technica.
 
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Solution
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MagikHairbrush

Reputable
Aug 3, 2015
6
0
4,510
Right you are WK - you've been a great help. I added a pic of my situation in case anyone else finds themselves in a similar boat.

I shall give the sound card to my brother in that case! On a final note - I have never used a USB Sound Device. Is this viable? Any idea how it would work? If you have a recommendation that would be most useful, though you've done more than enough already. Solution picked.
 
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WyomingKnott

WyomingKnott

Legenda in Aeternum
Aug 29, 2006
13,249
3
51,960
With a USB sound device,you plug it into a USB port and use the Playback Devices menu to make it your default device.

They can cost from $40 to $24,000 easily. My personal one is a bit extreme in that it's battery-operated, fits in my shirt pocket, is part of a beautiful headphone amplifier, and cost $500. ( http://www.raysamuelsaudio.com/products/predator ) Look for a less-expensive one from Creative or Asus, buy one, and give it a test listen. A lot depends on your ears.

And don't worry about jitter. It's real, people can hear it, but it probably won't bother you. And the hardware to implement asynchronous USB and an onboard clock gets expensive.
 
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