Does order of cards in PCI slots really make a difference?

[Mohamed110]

I'm building an XP 1700+ rig right now and I'm running the Maxtor 80GB ATA/133 hard drive (which comes with the ATA/133 controller card). I just called up Maxtor to see why my system was taking so damn long (2.5 minutes) to boot up to Win XP Pro and he asked which slot I have the controller card in. I said farthest from the processor. He said it should be in the slot closest to the processor. He said that should fix my problem...

I'll give it a try, but I'm wondering... Does PCI card position really make a big difference? What kind of PCI cards would I want closer to the motherboard and which ones will survive if they're farther out? Thanks a ton!

 

[scoobydooby]

I don't know the specifics of it but I know that it does make a difference. A guy wrote up a guide for the MSI pro2 over in the forums at amdmb.com and he said that soundblasters should go in slot 3 and NIC's in slot 4 etc etc. Maybe someone can give you some more detail on the matter. Hope that helps.
Scoob

 

[Mohamed110]

When counting slots for NICs, sound cards, etc. (which all use PCI slots), does the AGP slot count as "1" slot?

 

[JoeBob]

AGP does not count as a slot. Order does make a big difference. I experienced several stability issues until I got my modem and soundcard in the correct slots. I posted some on here to get advice and experimented until I got it right. What worked for me was Modem in Slot 1 and SoundBlaster in slot 3 by the way.

 

[mooseAndSquirrel]

<< When counting slots for NICs, sound cards, etc. (which all use PCI slots), does the AGP slot count as "1" slot? >>



No, but the PCI slot next to the AGP is #1.

 

[splice]

AFAIK, the PCI bus arbitrator works in a rotating priority manner. If two masters request the bus at the same time, the one with the highest priority wins and when it finishes it recieves the lowest priority, allowing for other devices access to the bus. So, I think on start up PCI device 0 recieves the highest priority and everything starts from there. Another thing that would effect the PCI bus is that all cards have to have there own DMA (Direct Memory Access) bus-master device on the card/chip itself. So, there are going to be variations between manufacturers for the DMA controllers and how they handle the bus when it's their turn. I'm not quite sure why slot/device location would make a difference, but sometimes it does... It could have to do with the PCI bus arbitrator. I'll have to read more about it when I get home.

 

[Mohamed110]

How does this sound:

ASUS A7V266 motherboard with 1 AGP, 5 PCI slots.

AGP slot: ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV graphics card
PCI slot 1: Maxtor/Promise ATA/133 controller card
PCI slot 2: OPEN
PCI slot 3: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy sound card
PCI slot 4: Linksys LNE100TX NIC
PCI slot 5: OPEN

System is running Windows XP Pro w/"Plug and Play O/S" currently disabled in the BIOS (default setting).

Any suggestions?

 

[avedis]

I dunno... I just threw my cards in, and they work fine.

AGP
PCI 1 and PCI 2 blank to leave room for air for GPU fan.
Slot 3 TV Tuner card/Raido Card
Slot 4 Sound Card
slot 5 NIC
Slot 6 Modem

Everything works with no problems

 

[Cheep]

Order of PCI cards is always a trial and error process, and it's different for different mobos. I usually throw them in one at a time.

 

[Frosty3799]

i usually just put em in, if it works, leave it

 

[Lorne]

There is another critical area that is always thought over as a possible problem, Power.

Some cards require alot more, You will find that GFX is the most demanding and that is why the AGP is closest to the powerplug as possible (It just became standard to put it first then), Next Would be Soundcards and controllercards, Soundcards being more common and use a great amount of Current to produce audio even though most are amplifide after the fact.
Controllers eg HD wether SCSI,IDE have to make sure there is a constant voltage across the the cables or you get errors and thats not good.
Remeber USB had a big deal about this when they came out , The standard for those has made them always placed near the rightside of the MB near the power connector so sufficiant power to USB powered devises dont fry the MB.
Lan and modems in most cases are not a problem.

Problem Ive also noticed is that the PCI slots farther down are a little more sensative to overclocking from not enough power and bigger supplies dont help if the MB etching cant carry it.