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PCI slots on Mac Pro - All the same?

JesterJJZ

JesterJJZ

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jul 21, 2004
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Are all the PCI-E slots on the Mac Pro the same? Is one better or faster than another or is there a certain order to install components as is with RAM? I just got a eSATA card and Firewire 800 card and curious before I go sticking them in. Logically I'd stick them in the top two to give the video card more breathing room.

Thanks!
 
There's one 16x PCIe slot. The rest can only be 8x. Put your video card in the 16x and use the Expansion Slot Utility to set speeds on the others for wherever you want to put your other cards. You can make the top two 8x and keep the first one 16x, I think... Anyone WITH a Mac Pro wanna back me up?


Nehalem can't come fast enough...
 
What's confusing? I think it all makes simple sense, at least up to and including table 1. The rest may be a bit complicated.

Basically, if you're putting the eSATA card and Firewire card in the top slots (slots 3 & 4) you're putting them in the x4 slots as configured in the default configuration, this leaves you with slot 2 which would be a x1 slot. And the graphic card of course stays in slot 1 which is a x16 slot.
 
This is the utility used to configure the slots.
 

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I believe both cards are 1x. So should I put them in 1x configured slots or can I just stick them in the 4x ones?
 
JesterJJZ said:
I believe both cards are 1x. So should I put them in 1x configured slots or can I just stick them in the 4x ones?
Click to expand...

You can stick them in any slot. If you add a third card, then maybe you'd want to consider rearranging them when the time comes.

What specific cards did you buy?
 
Well you want to stick your 2nd card in slot 3 or 4. As those are the fastest slots while keeping the GPU at 16x Slot 4 is the 2nd fastest followed by slot 3.
 
trainguy77 said:
Well you want to stick your 2nd card in slot 3 or 4. As those are the fastest slots while keeping the GPU at 16x Slot 4 is the 2nd fastest followed by slot 3.
Click to expand...

If they're really 1x cards, then which slot it's in really won't change the speed one bit.
 
JeffDM said:
If they're really 1x cards, then which slot it's in really won't change the speed one bit.
Click to expand...

This is true, tut i expect firwire 800 and esata cards to be atleast a 4x.

EDIT: i looked it up...chances are its a 1x card. the esata card could be 4x though.
 
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