Will I be able to run my PCIe 1 cards in the new PCIe 2.0 slots?

Would solve alot of probs with current build!

Yes.

PCIe 2.0 is a superset of PCIe 1.1 so should be able to use older cards in newer motherboards.

thanks mate- i did give it a try... looks like I'm gonna need a new case If I ever want to use them though! Such a tight fit I bottled it in the end.
I might get brave again later.

And this is a case that took 2 big cards... god knows what monster sized case I'm looking for...

Much scraping and scratching and I got the two cards in.
After all it's almost exactly the same size as my old one and the first 2 slots I tried (the 2 blue pcie 2 ones) were in the same place.

Basically to cut one of my mammoth posts short.

Works fine in the bottom PCIe 2.0 slot, but could get not sli registering with the card in the other, top PCIe-2 slot. The indicator light was on indicating a connection; but I didnt like the way the board fell into the slot.



After running the top card back down to the bottom PCIe 1 slot (HD etc out again !) and the machine detecting SLi I'm coming to the conclusion that top PCIe2 slot could be out of action...?
Plus the two cards are super-snug now- i've seen them close together like that in 3-way sli/quad... but I dont much like it. I've got some pics to post to assess airflow. The CPU and memory area is super cool- but down by the GFX cards it feels toasty, am about to crank fan speed.

Ofc it may be for some strange reason you can only run 1 2.5gbs card through these new connectors at a time?. Makes no sense to me if they can run 5.

Its a shame I know noone with a PCIe2 card to try it as I have to decide on buying it pretty soon.

Still yet to see if I get comparitive performance with sli as I did on the P5N32E-sli+ Not dared fire a game up yet. If things run the same, or better, I could run these cards a bit longer now- and just buy one, meaty PCIe 2 card and live with 1 slot being broken.

Perplexing..... only one crash so far. That and it wont seem to let me at voltages yet in the BIOS. Is anyone more familiar with American Megatrend BIOS' as mine usually seem to have been the Pheonix Award ones of late.

Well my guess is tha the top one doesent work until the bottom 2 or main two are in action try it with jsut 1 card in thew top slot would be the easy way and see if it picksp it up

think I tried and it doesn't
It really is driving me nuts trying to work out whats up with this board (if anything) as the clocks ticking.... I wish i hadnt spread this across 3 posts

Plus it's looking like it's not getting near the benchmarks in Far Cry 2, which Id mentioned before had hugged my refresh rate @ 60fps.. dropping to 45 very briefly one time with alot of fire and an explosion.
Even with SLi now the P7 setup seems to struggle to hit 60 and drops into the 20's and 30's when it gets firey and explosiony.

It's really confusing- I didnt think a change (indeed, upgrade) in chipset would have such an effect.
Perhaps it's because I'm using the bottom white x16 slot for the 2nd card... but that wouldnt make much sense.

It's tricky as I have to make a decision pretty damn soon- well by Monday. I have 14 days return but with the Xmas post I'd be pushing it at Tuesday!

If the slot is truly duff maybe I could live with it if I get a decent PCIe2 card- the mobo has some really nice features: Solid capacitors, great heat dispersion- even comes with a SB X-fi extreme which works with the ALchemy patch for Vista.

If something else on the PCB is fried and limiting performance then obv it has to go back. Soon!

I was wondering about power at one point, as I know I've been on the limit of my system's needs for a while.
Would an upgrade from 750i to 780i require more power? the manual reccomends a 500w supply for a full system... I am running a 750w TT toughpower but I've been told about the unreliability of these PSUs and it seems to struggle with 50% efficiency in BIOS.

The strange thing is XP performance seems quite tight so far- I wish Id run a benchmark somewhere here to compare, and I've only run one game.
Fallout 3- a game that was giving me regular slowdown with my previous settings seemed much tighter.
I could even click the Ultra button, with a whole load of AA etc and the game was actually almost playable. I would usually have to tweak some LODs and drawdistance down a tad.

So more testing is the only way forward. Then I guess re-build and bench again (gahh!). (Any reccomended free benchers? I had used Mstnbenchmark in vista, just as it was quick. But the versions are different now and the results are conflicting)

The only other problematic areas I can think of are: I cant get at the Voltages to get my memory running at its stock timings. Any advice on enabling voltage control on MSI boards is welcome!

And I did actually rip the jumper from the back of my HD saying "limit to 150mbps" therefore enabling 300.
Was that a wise or stupid thing to have done? The HD came with a build so I thought of it as an oversight of the manufacturer. Drive seems to be running OK and actually picked up 0.1 in windows experience test I think!

I think it's time to call in the PiLsMeister on this one... or any other resident android want to pitch in?