P5N-T: Use SLI PCI-E slots for SATA/SASI controllers?

[back40]

Howdy...

I'm just about to pull the trigger on a P5N-T, which has just about the exact combination of slots I'm looking for...PCI-X and PCI-E.

My question is, the 3 16x PCI slots are apparently designed to be used in SLI mode, in either 16-1-16 or 8-8-16 or something similiar, can they be used for something other than video?

Here's he board: http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=82&l3=503&l4=0&model=1529&modelmenu=2

I would like to put in 1 video board (8600 GTS), 1 SASI controller, and 1 SATA, or possibly something else.

If anyone has any suggestions on a board that has PCI-X and PCI-E, I'd be happy to hear about it.

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[dagger]

I believe it can. There's no reason to think otherwise. But you should look it up or contact the manufacturer just to be sure.

I don't see PCI-X on that picture. And just curious, why would you need it?

 

[chookman]

Yeh no PCI-X on that mobo... i assume you already have a PCI-x controller card and that is why you want that slot. PCI-x is hard to find these days unless you goto a server board (lotsa money). The only deskop board i know of off the top of my head is ASUS P5K WS which has 1 PCI-x 1 PCI-e16x and a couple of 1x.
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=534&l4=0&model=1691&modelmenu=2
Not sure how available these are anymore.

Your other opinion would be to buy a new high end raid card that supports SAS and SATA drives . My Adaptec 3805 supports both and you can have 4 SAS and 4 SATA is you want.

And yes other cards will work perfectly fine in PCI-e slots. doesnt have to be GPU

 

[Turas]

most boards that have pci-x and pci-e are workstation boards and high $. I would not bother with pci-x as it is quickly fading to pci-e. PCI-E card can be used for the SAS controllers. I have had an Adaptec 31605 SAS controller on the PCI-E boards of 3 different boards.

 

[back40]

Sorry guys, I had the wrong motherboard in the link. I've corrected the link.

The PCI-X card is a very expensive card that cost more than the motherboard itself, so I'd like to make use of it.

 

[pinaplex]

Howdy...

I'm just about to pull the trigger on a P5N-T, which has just about the exact combination of slots I'm looking for...PCI-X and PCI-E.

My question is, the 3 16x PCI slots are apparently designed to be used in SLI mode, in either 16-1-16 or 8-8-16 or something similiar, can they be used for something other than video?

Here's he board: http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=82&l3=503&l4=0&model=1529&modelmenu=2

I would like to put in 1 video board (8600 GTS), 1 SASI controller, and 1 SATA, or possibly something else.

If anyone has any suggestions on a board that has PCI-X and PCI-E, I'd be happy to hear about it.

Thanks for any thoughts.

You don't have to use the other PCIe slots for graphics cards, you can put in any PCIe card (aka a PCIe SATA card) in those slots.