No room for new sound card

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Murf5

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Nov 8, 2014
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I recently purchased a sound card which requires a PCI-E slot, but my motherboard (Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3) only has two, one is occupied by my graphics card and the other is blocked by the graphics card fan. I heard about riser cards which I was thinking might potentially make the installation possible? What are my options if I wish to install the sound card?
 
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Natsukage

Ideally, you should only use a riser for the sound card, as video cards can possibly lose performance or may be unstable when using a riser.
For your motherboard, I also suggest you use a PCI-E X1 riser on your sound card. An example is this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA7253CK3419
This will allow you to connect the sound card underneath the video card. You will have to find a place to install your sound card that doesn't touch the metallic parts of your motherboard or casing though. This is certainly not ideal, but allows you to make use of the PCI-E x1 port underneath your video card cooler.

In my opinion, you would be better off...
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Eldy

Eldy

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a PCI-E riser is probably the only reasonable solution i can think of right now... You could replace the cooler of the GPU with a liquid cooler and that might slim it down enough to fit the sound card underneath, but that's not the best way of solving the issue and is a bit of a gamble. I would suggest going with the riser.
 
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Murf5

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Nov 8, 2014
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So would I connect the riser to the graphics card or the sound card?
 
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Natsukage

Natsukage

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Oct 28, 2016
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Ideally, you should only use a riser for the sound card, as video cards can possibly lose performance or may be unstable when using a riser.
For your motherboard, I also suggest you use a PCI-E X1 riser on your sound card. An example is this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA7253CK3419
This will allow you to connect the sound card underneath the video card. You will have to find a place to install your sound card that doesn't touch the metallic parts of your motherboard or casing though. This is certainly not ideal, but allows you to make use of the PCI-E x1 port underneath your video card cooler.

In my opinion, you would be better off either finding a larger motherboard, or exchanging your sound card with a PCI (not pci-express) sound card, as your white PCI slot is most probably available.
 
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