Using PCI-E slots 1 & 3 for X-FIRE

[hooray4boobies]

Hey boys & girls,

My question is this...am i able to purchase a motherboard with 3 PCI-E slots and use slots 1&3 to achieve a double spacing between graphic cards??

ATM i have 2 HD5970's sitting on a Gigabyte X58-UD3R (i know, cheapo board, powerful cards...blah blah blah), with only 2 PCI-E slots as i lacked the forethought to get the double spacing (card 1 fan is blocked by card 2 and is overheating). Aside from water cooling, this is my only option. Suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Smithy.

 

[tecmo34]

Have you tried adjusting your fan speeds? In my dual card setup (not as powerful as yours), I set the fans to 80% and my temps keep very cool.

Your method is an option but I'm sure it will not run at x16, x16 more like x16,x8 (or x8,x8) Also, you may have issues with the bridge being to short to connect since they are design to go across two slots not four.

 

[saint19]

Hi.

Yeah u can and the Crossfire will run @x8, but I can't see any problem on install both GPUs one near to the other if u case have a good airflow the overheat will not a problem.

 

[hooray4boobies]

mmmm...8x isn't really acceptable. Well, i have the HAF922, which has incredibly good airflow. And i've even stuck an extra fan (from my corsair ram) to push air through from the end of the card as well.

ATM card 2 will sit at 38c no load, card 1 60c no load. Playing crysis or modern warfare 2 for example, bumps card 2 to about 65c, and card 1 to 96c which is close to the gpu's limit. The fans tend to wind up to 100% themselves when watching GPU-Z, so that won't help...the problem is getting airflow into the card.

Are there any decent double spaced LGA1366 boards out there? Price is not really an object at this stage.

 

[saint19]

^x8 is enough and u won't see any difference with x16.

The HAF 922 is a very solid case with very good airflow, I would go with the Crossfire in the 1st and 2nd line.

All mobos are standard the only difference is the number of PCI-E lines and the features that all those have but all have the same or a very similar space among the PCI-E lines.

 

[hooray4boobies]

I have seen a couple of biostar boards with 2 pci slots between the 2 pci-e slots...but none of the top end boards have these unforunately.

Thankyou for your suggestions...guess i'll just have to get some trial & error going between pci-e 8x and just hammering it with more fans lol

Cheers ;-)

 

[saint19]

Any time, that's why we are here. Come back to the forum if u need more help.

 

[hooray4boobies]

Best answer selected by hooray4boobies.