Jumpers to use Bottom PCI-e x16 Slot

[AMDZen]

I apologize if this has been asked before but I can't find what I'm looking for. I checked my manual, but since my manual doesn't have SLI (at least unless you mod it) I believe the manual doesn't have the info I need.

 

I bought an 8800GT and installed last night. This sucker is long, it extends over the SATA ports on the top slot so you can't use those two SATA ports. This didn't work for me as I use all 4 ports, so I installed on the bottom PCIe x16 slot. Booted no problems, installed latest drivers. Cruising around trying to get a feel for how it performs and its performing HORRIBLE. Turns out GPU-Z shows its running at x2, ok. So I did research and discovered I need to change the jumpers so the bottom slot is x16 and the top is x2. Can someone with an SLI motherboard be so kind as to explain to me how I do this? These jumpers are huge too so pictures (if at all possible) might be good as well.

 

Thanks

[radodrill]

There are 6 jumper blocks between the 2 x16 slots; with them in the top position the top/bottom x16 slots operate at x16/x2 speeds, by moving the jumpers to the bottom position the slots will run at x8/x8.

 

Since I don't have previous experience with this board I'm not sure if you'd need to do the SLI mod to enable full support for graphics cards in the lower slot.

[AMDZen]

Oh shoot, so I need to do the SLI mod to enable full x16 support on the bottom slot?

 

I know how to do that, but people say to use a conductive Pen (i have the pic of the connection i need to make) but nobody in town has one for sale. You can't find one at all, RadioShack said they will never get them back in stock.

 

Anyone know where else I might be able to go to find something like this?

[AMDZen]

OK I found this

 

http://www.diy-street.com/forum/showpost.p...740&postcount=2

 

There is no way to get x16 in the bottom slot. This is crappy, can't use two hard drives or can't use this card. This guide is 2 years old, so I doubt what it says about video cards not utilizing x16 slots is correct any longer

[radodrill]

Most current PCI-e graphics cards don't fully saturate the full x16 bandwidth and there isn't really any noticeable real-world performance difference when running it at x8.

 

It may work without the SLI mod but I'm not sure; it can't hurt to try it without the mod.

 

Only the Radioshacks designated as parts stores will stock the conductive pen; but it can also be purchased at numerous electronics online stores such as allelectronics.com, jameco.com, digi-key.com, newark.com

 

If you absolutely need to run the GFX card off the full x16 bandwidth (top slot) then you can always get a PCI (or PCI-e) based SATA controller

[AMDZen]

Thanks man, I called RadioShack and they said that there are no stores in town that have the CircuitWriter and none of them carry it so I'll have to order online. The problem is that the CircuitWriter is $6 and all the rest I've seen are $17 or so. Oh well.

 

And yea, I guess I'll have to go buy an SATA controller card and use that. What a pain. I know that 2 years ago cards didn't utilize the x16 slot to its full, but I have a hard time believing the brand new ones like the 8800GT don't utilize more then x8

[radodrill]

The interfaces often evolve faster than the hardware that uses them.

 

I personally don't think you'd see any real difference between running it on x8 vs x16; perhaps there might be a small difference in benchmarks, but the key factor is real-world gaming performance.

 

In fact it only the PCI-e 2.0 standard defines support for full x16 bandwidth on both slots; primarily to guarantee that new motherboards will be able to support future graphics hardware that'd require more than x8 bandwidth to run properly, but those are probably still 1 or 2 revisions down the road.

[AMDZen]

Perhaps, I'll try it as well.

 

I don't suppose anyone has angled SATA cables like this

 

http://www.svc.com/gc10aubm12.html

 

That they could tell me if the clearance is still above the slots on the board. Basically if you run your hand or use a ruler level to the slot, does the angle cable come above that?

 

Maybe I'll buy a couple and see. I guess another question is, would you be able to use 2 of the angled cabled on the 2 ports closest together?

[wevsspot]

You do not need to do any mod on the chipset to enable 8x/8x support for both PCIe slots. Just move all of the vga jumpers to the appropriate position. As delivered from the factory the jumpers are set such that the top slot is dedicated to 16x. Move the jumpers and both top and bottom slots will operate at 8x. Thats it. All that's needed. p.s. Ditto what Rado said. You will be fine running at 8x Cheers.

[wevsspot]

You do not need to do any mod on the chipset to enable 8x/8x support for both PCIe slots. Just move all of the vga jumpers to the appropriate position.

 

As delivered from the factory the jumpers are set such that the top slot is dedicated to 16x. Move the jumpers and both top and bottom slots will operate at 8x.

 

Thats it. All that's needed.

 

p.s. Ditto what Rado said. You will be fine running at 8x

 

Cheers.

[AMDZen]

There are 6 jumper blocks between the 2 x16 slots; with them in the top position the top/bottom x16 slots operate at x16/x2 speeds, by moving the jumpers to the bottom position the slots will run at x8/x8.

 

OK so I am not sure that they are all in the top position now, but I'll take your word for it. I was thinking the top 3 were in the top and bottom 3 were in the bottom. So all I have to do is change positions on all 6, correct?

[wevsspot]

See this link here;

 

http://www.manualnguide.com/dl/3387/

 

Select the manual for the NF4 Ultra-D

 

See page 68 I believe for a photo illustration.

 

edit........

Hang on. Let me double check at DFI's official site first.