Possible Issue?

[Destroysall]

Well, as of recent, I've been looking at sound cards to put in my sig setup. The sound card I have my heart set on is the ASUS Xonar Essence STX. Now, knowing it has a PCI-E x1 Interface, and me having a PCI-E x1 slot available on my motherboard, I thought there wouldn't be any issues. But today when I was dusting my PC, I realized how close the PCI-E x1 slot is to the North Bridge. Now it's pretty close, so does that mean I should:

A. Go for it anyway.


B. Choose a different sound card with a PCI Interface


C. Get a single slot GPU and use the second PCI-E x16 slot (running at x4) as the slot for the ASUS Xonar Essence STX?



Here is Newegg's page for my motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-157-176&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=27



Mind you all that I haven't purchased this sound card yet.


Any help would be greatly appreciated,





Destroysall

 

[dhicks19]

If you have an issue, use a tissue

 

[plasmastorm]

The looks like a mighty small fit, doubt a Xonar would squeeze into the space between the back of the case and the north bridge heatsink.

Easy way to find out though is email Asrock and ask them, they should have a list of compatible and non compatible products.

 

[Destroysall]

Well I sent them a message and they replied saying to use the second PCI-E x16 (orange slot that runs only at x4). Problem is that when a graphics card is in the first PCI-E x16, the second one is blocked off entirely. That really doesn't solve my problem at all.

Should I upgrade my GPU to a single slot card (like Galaxy's GTX 460 Razor or Power Color's Single Slot HD6850) and then use the sound card in the second PCI-E x4 slot?

Another thing I was looking at was the ASUS Xonar Essence ST, it has a PCI Interface. My question is, is it just exactly the same, or are there any issues with it? I read that somewhere that something between the ST and STX was different, but can't remember what.

 

[gamerk316]

Easy solution: If you have a PCI slot free, get the ASUS Essence ST instead.

The ST is exactly the same as the STX, except it adds a jitter clock. As a result, the ST is actually ever so slighty superior to the STX. Functionally the same though.

 

[Destroysall]

So just go for that then? Are there are driver issues I should be worried about or anything or no?

 

[Destroysall]

Best answer selected by Destroysall.