Asus A8N32-SLI Delux 2nd x16 PCIe Slot Usage

[CpuDesigner]

Looking at what little information is publicly available on nVidia's nForce x16 SLI chipset (no product briefs let alone datasheets), it appears that the south bridge (MCP)'s x16 PCIe interface is capable of providing a single PCIe interface of up to 16 lanes (x16) --- when used in non-sli applications.

I did not see any info on using the 2nd PCIe slot for any thing other than for a graphics adaptor in the user manual available online.

Anyone tried using an I/O adaptor (e.g., x8 raid controller) in this slot ?

 

[CpuDesigner]

It does appear that the PCIe controller on the MCP's x16 interface (the 2nd one used for x16 SLI) supports arbitrary connectivity (number of lanes). Perhaps this is more of a question of what the chipset driver supports.

Unfortunately, there is no spec or real release notes with Nvidia's nforce drivers as far as I can find...

I did find an individual in the Asus forums asking a similar question (determining the number of lanes being used in the x16 slot) after trying a Megaraid 320-2e x8 adaptor and observing a max transfer rate of 512 Mbytes/sec.

Anyone else tried using the second x16 slot with an I/O adaptor of some sort ?

Any info on what the Nvidia's drivers will support/configure for the second x16 slot?