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I got this rig:

  • Intel i7 2500K
  • Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 rev1.0
  • Gigabyte GTX970-G1
  • 16GB Corsair XMP
  • Windows 7 x64

Now I added a LSI SAS3801E Host Bus Adapter to connect a LTO-drive, though while the LEDs of the card light up, I don't get to see the card's BIOS nor does Windows detect the card.

I tried already switching PCI-gens in the UEFI and turned off the onboard-GPU, nothing.

Can it be that Gigabyte never thought about other hardware than GPUs for the second x16 slot? They also only connected half of the slot, so it is practically a x8-slot despite the length. GPU and the CPU-cooler block also each one x1 slot, so I'm left with just 1 spare PCIe x1 slot and 2 PCI-legacy slots.

Is there anything I could try to get the LSI-card working? Or is there a working alternative like USB2SAS or SATA/eSATA2SAS? I'm out of ideas here myself...

Phish
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  • Hmm. Just for kicks, does it work in the primary x16 slot? Use the integrated GPU to test. – Bob Aug 07 '18 at 13:26
  • I haven't tested that earlier because I had to unmount the CPU-cooler (else I wouldn't be able to reach the lock of the PCIe-slot). Interestingly it works in the first slot, with the GPU in the second. Odd.... So I guess the GPU is now 50% slower using only 8lanes? – Phish Aug 07 '18 at 14:42
  • Hm. I wonder if you need to configure the PCIe slot to operate in 2x x8 in the UEFI firmware. No matter what you do, you'll only be able to run the GPU on x8 (even in the first slot) because your CPU only supports x16 total. But that doesn't really matter - practically, you'll see something like 99% of the x16 performance (look up benchmarks). – Bob Aug 07 '18 at 15:08
  • No, the GPU is probably just as fast or maybe at 99% of the speed. – Hennes Feb 27 '19 at 16:32
  • As background, your GPU performance will drop when you do not have enough bandwidth. If you have ten times what you need then halving it will not make any significant influence. And just about nothing needs more than PCI-e v3 x8 speeds. – Hennes Feb 27 '19 at 16:34

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