guys i need help, how many pci slots can i have on the Intel® Core? Core i7-980x?

i know its wrong forums but i use to have the m17x r2 but i returned it to issues, i plan on ordering a area 51 alx for university today, but after speaking with him on a deal i had to lower it by a fair bit as my budget was £4500, from £5400. he phoned back and said i had to remove to of the following due to lack of PCIE slots:

Intel® Core™ Core i7-980x (3.33GHz 12MB 6.4GT/sec)
Dual 2GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5970 graphics card
Killer™ 2100 Network Card
Soundblaster XFi Titanium PCIe card
Dell 1525 Wireless PCIe Network Card 802.11n

i said id remove the wirless card and the killer network card, but i got suspicious when he phoned me and said i should get 8 gigs of ram and not 12.

so is it possible to get all of the above in the machine as the website says i can spec this way? thnx alot

 

The Intel Core i7-980x is a CPU. The number of available PCI or PCI-E slots depends on the motherboard, and not the CPU.

There are generally two kinds of PCI-E slots on motherboards - a PCI-E x16 slot, and a PCI-E x1 slot. There are other kinds of PCI-E slots, but those two are the ones you are going to most commonly find. Video cards use PCI-E x16. Everything else you listed will use a PCI-E x1 slot.

I don't know the configuration of the motherboard they use in the Area 51 ALX, but it is quite common for PCI-E x16 and x1 slots to "share" the same physical moutning bracket on the back of the machine. So although there may be 6 PCI-E slots on the motherboard, it is quite common that only 3 or 4 of them are useable at any given time because of the way they are shared. So the rep isn't talking out of his arse.

As for your config: Get rid of the Killer NIC 2100. It is absolutely worthless. It does not increase framerates, it does not decrease CPU usage. It is 100% a waste of money. You will not find a single person or review that will tell you that a Killer NIC is worth it. Even if someone gave me a FREE Killer NIC, I still wouldn't put it in my system.

The other piece you can get rid of is the Dell Wireless 1525 802.11n wireless card. You should *always* hook up a desktop computer through an ethernet cord, unless it is absolutely impossible based on the way your house is laid out. Wireless is much slower, and is a much less reliable connection, than a hard-line ethernet cord. If you do need to get wireless, then get an external USB wireless adapter. It is going to be cheaper, easier to use, and much more versatile than an internal PCI-E wireless card.

And 8GB of RAM is more than enough. There is no reason to get 12GB of RAM. In all likelihood, you aren't even going to use 4GB of RAM, so don't bother going over-the-top and getting 12GB. 8GB of RAM will be fine.

If you really want to put your money in a place that will yield you some benefit, then get an SSD with your machine. They are absolutely worth buying, if you have a lot of budget and want bleeding-edge performance. It is quite common to see people with a fast 120GB SSD as their primary OS/apps/games drive, and a second 1.0TB - 2.0TB mechanical hard drive to store their music/videos/.

 

Hi Adrian

This is a great question and one that is highly misunderstood. The number of PCIe slots is dependent on what type of motherboard they are using. With the new graphic cards there is a real problem fitting them on some boards. Also things like heat sinks, fans, and liquid cooling can block some of these slots.

Secondly PCie slots have the following lanes 16x, 8x, 4x, 1. What you want is a motherboard that has the most true 16x. For example with smaller boards they may only have one true 16x and if you add say a second HD5970 than both will run at 8x. I have absolutely no idea how many PCIe or true 16x lanes Alienware has but I suspect more than most but less than the best.

The HD 5970 take up two slots. (the toxic 4gb cards take up 3 slots). You will need 2 PCIE slots for your crossfire but will take up 4 slots of space.

One mistake you appear to be making is putting in a wireless card on a desktop. Can you not just hardwire the desktop as you certainly won't be moving it as you will barely be able to lift it

You are spending an incredible amount of money here near $7000 US and personally I think you will enjoy your purchase more if you take the time and research what your alternative are. First I would price all these components out and see what the cost would be to assemble this yourself. Places like Tigerdirect in the USA allow you to just load up the shopping cart and they will assemble everything for you. You could probably build a better system for $4000 US dollars and use the money you have saved for your eduction.

Building a system yourself is not hard as the PC magazines build one just about every month and show you step by step. One of the main reasons for having a system professionaly built is to have them professionaly clock your system. You system with two HD 5970 will be faster stock than 99.999% of the computer out there.

If you are building a system yourself I would start with a top of the motherboard, with the most number of slots with good spacing and build the system around that.

PM if you have any further questions as this thread will probably get moved.

 

thanks very much for the info guys! i understand now ^.^

ye i wish UK had tigerdirect, but UK has nothing similar! ive looked at some custom sites to build comps, i can get same spec with maybe £200-400 cheaper but it doesnt come with alienwares look, and the 3 year warrenty that they do, which i like! (even tho they use refurbed parts)

ye i did tell them remove the killer card and the wirless, id rather have good sound and buy a wireless dongle usb stick later=)

as for the 12 gig, im going to obviously use this comp for gaming but also photoshop and maya/mudbox, ram defo helps there=)

thank you both for the indepth help, realllly appreciate it alot!
<3

 

Yea, it's amazing how fast an experienced photoshop user can chomp through an entire 8 gigs of ram and destroy the pagefile

 

PCIe slots labled 16x often drop to 8x or 4x depending on how many peripherals you have attached.
Here is an example of what my EVGA SLI LE board looks like.

1 – PCI-E 2.0 x16 - Slot 1 (Primary) {HD 5970}
2 – PCI-E x1 - Slot 1 {overlapped by GPU}
3 – PCI-E 2.0 x8 - Slot 2 {Titanium}
4 – PCI - Slot 1
5 – PCI-E 2.0 x4 - Slot 3
6 – PCI-E 2.0 x8 - Slot 4

My HD 5970 is in slot number 1 but covers slot number 2. My Titanium is in slot number 3.

When I add an extra HD 5970 it will go in slot number three and the titanium will go in slot number 6 and my board will be completely filled. Also note that in crossfire both my GPU will have to run at 8x. This board only has one true 16x.

These large oversized graphics cards are a relatively new phenomenon and one that requires careful planning.

 

I have the Area 51 alx pm me and i will send you any pics or answer any questions

john

 

i just ordered mines, top spec came to £5678.. i manage to get it for £4506! soo happy cant wait lol, i hope i get no problems like i had with my m17x r2!

 

how good is it m8 u had any problems? i really cant wait to get it and i got such a great deal by a 2 hour phone haggle lol

 

Sorry Adrian - NBR does not permit discussion of desktops anywhere here on the forum. Please continue this in your thread you created over @ desktopreview.com.

I encourage all who wish to respond to setup your login account over at DTR if you haven't already.

Thanks!

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