Asus P8P67 (base) PCIe sharing

[cantankerous]

Hi everyone. Been quite a while since I have thought of upgrading my aged system in sig, however, I am being forced to due to a very costly incompatibility with my current DFI board. Though I liked to game in the past, my old hobby of audio production/mastering is coming back into my life and I have found out the hard way that my current setup will not accept my $1500 purchase of a DSP based PCIe 1x processing card (http://www.uaudio.com/uad-plug-ins/u...ad-2-quad.html). I actually have two of above said cards, but I can only use 1 at a time as installing a second completely disables my video card from outputting any signal whatsoever. I was told this is 'possibly' an incompatibility with the design of the DFI P35 when it comes to using multiples of the DSP card and the sharing of the PCIe slots. I was told a newer motherboard should work fine as both DSP cards work fine on their own, however not in tandem.

I see no point in buying another P35/P45 based board so am looking into getting something more modern, hence my question on the P8P67. For my particular setup, slot types and orientation is an absolute deal maker or breaker with the expansion cards I have and need to have everything running 100% successfully and without issue. The idea of being able to put a PCIe 1x card ABOVE the video card is very sweet. The fact that I have 2 needed PCI slots next to each other at the very bottom of the board is also VERY sweet and exactly what I needed as that is how my current board is. Although the spacing and slot types are what I need in the P8P67, I am extremely nervous about the implementation of the PCIe lanes and how they work in relation to each other if certain slots are populated simultaneously with others. After being heart broken with the issues of my current system I am left very weary here. I need to know the following:

1.) I CAN install one of the above PCIe 1x DSP cards into the FIRST PCIe 1x slot ABOVE the video card without any issue when having a dual sloted video card installed underneath correct? (GTX 460 or future upgrade). I know this is probably a rhetorical question but I have to ask.

2.) If I put a DSP card in PCIe_1 1x right above the video card, a dual slotted video card in the PCIe_1 x 16 (blue) slot right underneath the above card can I put a second DSP 1x card into the SECOND BLACK PCIe 16x without issue? Yes the DSP card will work in any slot size as it only uses 1x anyways. I currently have the DSP 1x card in a 16x slot in my DFI without issue. What I am worried about is PCIe resource sharing, slot disablement etc. Is the second black PCIe 16x slot ONLY for second video cards or for ANY peripheral card? If I have a 1x card installed that is not a video card does that cause any sort of incompatibilities? Do any slots get disabled to free up resources? Do any slots fight with each for bandwidth?

This is how I would like my system to be built from top to bottom slot wise:

(1st slot) 1st PCIe 1x slot = UAD-2 QUAD DSP CARD
(2nd slot) 1st PCIe 16x (blue) = GTX 460 VIDEO CARD
(3rd slot) 2nd PCIe 1x slot = EMPTY
(4th slot) 1st PCI = EMPTY
(5th slot) 2nd PCIe 16x (black)= UAD-2 QUAD DSP CARD
(6th slot) 2nd PCI = UAD-1 DSP CARD
(7th slot) 3rd PCI = Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty sound card

from visually seeing the above layout, will having all the cards I own installed into the slots I am planning on installing them into appear to cause any issues? Will I not be able to use any due to slot disablement, resource sharing etc?

From reading reviews, it seems having a card in PCIe_2 16x (black) causes it to share with the PCIe 1x slots as well as USB3. Can you see this becoming an issue? Since I do not plan on using USB3 at all, does the bios contain an option to completely disable this feature to free up resources? Can you manually disable any unused ports for the same reason? Can I disable the 2nd and 3rd PCIe 1x slots since they will be covered/not used but leave the 1st enabled or is it an all or nothing scenario?

I am really sorry for this long winded chatter, but I really need to know what I am getting myself into before I spend all this money on top of what I already spent. This was completely unplanned and I am struggling here with the added costs so need to be sure. I do appreciate any and all info that can be shared with me. Thanks for reading.

P.S. I have tried to find this answer on my own, but could not. Does the UEFI bios contain a boot order menu during post at all? I love pressing ESC during post on my DFI and having a boot order menu appear where I can choose which drive to boot from on the fly without having to manually enter the bios, make a change, save and exit etc, just to have to do the same thing again the next time I want to make a change. If I could simply load a boot order menu during post this would make things so much easier as I dual boot between Win 7 and XP depending on my needs from two separate physical drives. Please tell me the UEFI bios on the P8P67 contains a boot order menu?

[EniGmA1987]

the second PCI-E 16x is only a 4x slot electrical wise, and thats at most. It is set to 1x speed normally, so your 1x card will work fine. If you go to a 4x card, USB 3 will be disabled, ESATA will be disabled, and the PCI-E 1x slots. But using a 1x card in the slot *should* keep the others active as it can use 1 lane without disabling anything. If you have a 4x card, all things it shares resources with will be disabled automatically, disabling some yourself wont matter because everything it shares with will auto shut off.

UEFI does have a boot order, in both basic and advanced. Basic you just drag around the icons to whatever order you want.


You will not be able to find a P67 board though as they are not supposed to be sold for another couple months due to the bug with sata connections.
I know I will probably get flamed for saying this in the Intel section, but you might want to look at a high end AMD board when the new boards and CPU get launched next month. They will have a lot more PCI-E lanes than the crap that Sandy Bridge gave us (16 lanes max in todays age? what crap). If you wanted to have lots more DSP cards then you could do that with AMD. But not with the new Intel stuff.




Thats a lot of audio processing power :O

[cantankerous]

Thank you ever so much. I really do appreciate you taking the time to reply. I know my original post was quite long and most get easily discouraged going through such a long rant. I am glad you took the time to do so. So from what I gather it is 4x or 4 X 1x meaning I can get all 4 PCIe lanes going to the one 16x black PCIe16x lane, or I can split it into 4 lanes across 4 separate slots meaning 1 x PCIe 1x, 1 x PCIe 1x, 1x PCIe 16x (but running at 1x) and the USB3 which runs at 1x. I am glad to hear that I will have all slots still working without issue. If I am correct, each slot will still be on its own dedicated lane meaning they are not fighting for the same bandwidth simultaneously on the same lane. I was afraid the PCIe 1x slot and the 16x slot would be trying to work off the same lane which would be catastrophic if they both contained a DSP card trying to to do processing simultaneously. They both must maintain full bandwidth each and be able to operate independently yet simultaneously with each other. So far things are seeming good.

I watched some videos on the UEFI bios and I did see what you meant about dragging and dropping the boot order, however, this still means I must enter the UEFI setup each time I boot if I want to change this. From what I gather this is not a quick process at all. It appears to load very slow and clunky when compared to traditional oldskool bios. What I was wanting was being able to bring up the boot menu only during POST without having to enter into the UEFI like I do on my current board. During post I just press ESC and a small menu list shows up where I can scroll down, highlight the drive I wish to boot from and press enter and its done. This way I am not stuck to any pre determined boot order as I can change it on the fly whenever I see fit and don't ever have to enter into the BIOS itself to have it changed. If I have to enter into UEFI to drag and drop a new boot order everytime I want to boot into a new drive that will be quite disappointing and a step back from what I am currently used to.

Thanks again for your reply. If I am off track or missing anything from my reiterating of the events above, please do let me know. If anyone else has anything else to share please do too!

[EniGmA1987]

I actually dont know if you can press a button to enter a boot menu like before. I would certainly hope so but I never actually bothered to look at what buttons I can press during boot time.

[cantankerous]

Ok, thanks again. Perhaps someone else can chime in on this. It really is a shame that the boards cannot be readily bought until this whole recall fiasco is over with. It really makes me wonder how people are dealing with the boards they already own and have set up? I guess it doesn't bother them? For me, I need the SATA2 ports, all 4 of them so I am definitely left without a system upgrade at the moment.

I do appreciate your reply.

[Wendy]

You can buy most brands of P67 boards here the UK, they came to a different arrangement with the motherboard manufacturers (I believe), where you can purchase a P67 and have it exchanged when the new (fixed) boards are available.
I have the P8P67 Deluxe, and have had that board since they were released. I am using the SATA2 ports, but only for optical drives, so i'm not really worried about the board, and will have it exchanged for a fixed one at some point.

BTW: You can access the boot menu on the Asus P67 boards by pressing F8.

[cantankerous]

You can buy most brands of P67 boards here the UK, they came to a different arrangement with the motherboard manufacturers (I believe), where you can purchase a P67 and have it exchanged when the new (fixed) boards are available.
I have the P8P67 Deluxe, and have had that board since they were released. I am using the SATA2 ports, but only for optical drives, so i'm not really worried about the board, and will have it exchanged for a fixed one at some point.

BTW: You can access the boot menu on the Asus P67 boards by pressing F8.

Thank you Wendy, I do appreciate your input and your confirmation on the boot menu being present during post. This is certainly a good thing.

[Falkentyne]

Ok, thanks again. Perhaps someone else can chime in on this. It really is a shame that the boards cannot be readily bought until this whole recall fiasco is over with. It really makes me wonder how people are dealing with the boards they already own and have set up? I guess it doesn't bother them? For me, I need the SATA2 ports, all 4 of them so I am definitely left without a system upgrade at the moment.

I do appreciate your reply.

I'm using all four SATA2 ports, with 4 HDD's (I have the DVD burner on the SATA3 port) without any problems. And I've had the board a month.

I did lower the PCH voltage to 1.000v, if that matters.

[EniGmA1987]

My sata2 ports work fine as well. I am using all the ports on my motherboard. Most boards are fine, and problems dont necessarily manifest themselves right away. There is supposed to be a 5-15% chance of the problems happening within the first 3 years.

[cantankerous]

I know with my luck I will be right in that category of defective boards. With everything I have gone through lately, I don't put much faith in my computer parts working as should, being compatible etc. That is why I made my long winded chatter in the first post. Though it was to get answers, it was more to solidify what was already on my mind and hoping to hear what I was already thinking before I pulled the trigger. It isn't like motherboards like these are purchased for needs like mine on an every day basis, makes it very hard to track down previous user experiences on compatibility etc. It is purely a gamble that this board will support the cards I need it to, in the slots I need them to without any other further unforeseen headaches etc.

Thank you both for your continued replies on this matter.

[Falkentyne]

Hope you can find what you need.
Sorry that my reply was a bit off topic compared to your original post, though.
And no, you won't always have bad luck...

[cantankerous]

sorry to keep dragging this on, but from further reading, the Sandybridge only supports 20 PCIe lanes? Serious? Even my P35 which is giving me issues has 22! How in this day and age can a brand new platform only support 20 PCIe lanes. I think I am seeing why new platform is so cheap to get into. I understand the main PCIe 16x slot takes just that, 16 lanes. That leaves only 4 left! So... PCIe 1x, PCIe 1x, USB3_34 and that is 20 total? I take it USB3_34 takes up 2 lanes? What about the onboard ICH10R? Is that on the PCIe bus at all? And the Realtek onboard LAN? From looking into it, that is on the PCIe bus, so does that mean I lose another lane if I use the onboard LAN? Does anyone know what else on the motherboard is tapping into the PCIe lanes that are so precious and far between on the Sandybridge platform? If anything else is also on any PCIe lanes then I am in big trouble with my addon cards if there isn't enough free lanes to use them!

[EniGmA1987]

I dont know how it disables things with only a 1x card in the PCI-E 4x slot, but I know it says if you have a PCI-E 4x card in there, it disables all PCI-E 1x slots, USB3, and ESATA.

I know I will probably get flamed for saying this in the Intel section, but you might want to look at a high end AMD board when the new boards and CPU get launched next month. They will have a lot more PCI-E lanes than the crap that Sandy Bridge gave us (16 lanes max in todays age? what crap). If you wanted to have lots more DSP cards then you could do that with AMD. But not with the new Intel stuff.

[pby5cat]

From what intel says the P67 chip has 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes, while the CPU has 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes. The 16 PCIe CPU lanes are direclty wired to the top 2 PCIe X16 slots. The P67 chip supplies the X1 lanes and the USB 3.0 and other PCIe chips.

So if you use the both PCIe X16 slots, the board shouls split to X8 on both slots, and you other slots will be unaffected. You can check this by running GPUZ, and the bus interface box should say PCI-E 2.0 X16 @ X8 2.0.

[cantankerous]

Thank you for this additional information. I suppose it really is down to the design of the motherboard from the manufacturer as I know some boards do not do the 8 x 8, but 16 x 4/16 x 1 etc. I assume the 16x from the cpu itself is directly related to the video card and 8 other lanes from the chipset are for the additional slots and other onboard features of the motherboard.