Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2016 February 13

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February 13

mATX motherboards bottom connectors are blocked when 2 dual-slot graphics cards are installed

The title describes itself. There is no problem in this Asus Maximus VIII Gene, because its 2 PCIe slots are located at expansion slot 1 and 3. But the majority of micro-ATX sized motherboards have the 2nd PCIe slot located at slot 4, like this MSI B150M Night Elf.

If 2 graphics cards are installed, with the one at the 2nd PCIe slot being dual-width, the connectors at the bottoms of mATX motherboards are effectively blocked, except for those which follows the Asus Gene's slot distribution. What is the purpose of such motherboard design?

P.S: It is somewhat irrelevant, but I have noticed that the Asus Gene run 2 graphics cards at x8/x8, while those such as the MSI Night Elf runs them at x16/x4. I thought they were not designed to run 2 graphics cards at first, but after digging through their specifications, they all support 2-way CrossFireX and/or SLI. Livy (talk) 10:40, 13 February 2016 (UTC)

The M/B ist designed to fit every used component on this from factor. I do not see any electrical reason not to use the slot. If to is the same bus, a shorter slot will occupy the bus longer time for the same data transfer. If You need the slot, look for something like a riser card. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 15:29, 16 February 2016 (UTC)