A7N8X-E DELUXE MB & PCI SLOT USAGE

[Sgt_Wilson]

Hi Everyone,

Im after some helpful advice on which PCI slots I should use to avoid
conflicts/IRQ sharing or which slot would be best to use for the following;

1/ 3Com 56K PCI Modem
2/ Soundblaster PCI Audigy Soundcard
3/ AGP Gfx Card

On Page 2-12 of the MB user manual it shows a table of 'IRQ assignments
for the motherboard' but I do not quite understand it. (I shall try to
replicate it below - so I hope it renders ok)

INT A INT B INT C INT D
PCI Slot 1 shared - - -
PCI Slot 2 - - - shared
PCI slot 3 - - shared -
PCI slot 4 - shared - -
PCI slot 5 shared - - -
AGP Slot - - - shared
Serial ATA - - shared -
Gigabit Lan - shared - -
WiFi Slot shared - - -


What does this mean? (is it if I put a card in PCI slot 1
, it will share the same interupt as slot 5 and the WiFi slot?

All help greatfully received.

Thanks

 

[JK (at mail dot dk)]

Hi Everyone,

Im after some helpful advice on which PCI slots I should use to avoid
conflicts/IRQ sharing or which slot would be best to use for the following;

1/ 3Com 56K PCI Modem
2/ Soundblaster PCI Audigy Soundcard
3/ AGP Gfx Card

On Page 2-12 of the MB user manual it shows a table of 'IRQ assignments
for the motherboard' but I do not quite understand it. (I shall try to
replicate it below - so I hope it renders ok)

INT A INT B INT C INT D
PCI Slot 1 shared - - -
PCI Slot 2 - - - shared
PCI slot 3 - - shared -
PCI slot 4 - shared - -
PCI slot 5 shared - - -
AGP Slot - - - shared
Serial ATA - - shared -
Gigabit Lan - shared - -
WiFi Slot shared - - -


What does this mean? (is it if I put a card in PCI slot 1
, it will share the same interupt as slot 5 and the WiFi slot?

Yes, that is what it means. But which one is pci1 ?

It does not mean so much with windows xp, but it's a good reminder in
order to keep Lan, agp and wifi (and probably sata) working on their
separate irq.

But I would think that pci1 is the one closest to agp.
It is normal in older computers to avoid using the first pci slot,
when agp is used. They normally shared irq. But here pci2 and agp are
shared.

best regards

John

 

[Paul]

Hi Everyone,

Im after some helpful advice on which PCI slots I should use to avoid
conflicts/IRQ sharing or which slot would be best to use for the following;

1/ 3Com 56K PCI Modem
2/ Soundblaster PCI Audigy Soundcard
3/ AGP Gfx Card

On Page 2-12 of the MB user manual it shows a table of 'IRQ assignments
for the motherboard' but I do not quite understand it. (I shall try to
replicate it below - so I hope it renders ok)

INT A INT B INT C INT D
PCI Slot 1 shared - - -
PCI Slot 2 - - - shared
PCI slot 3 - - shared -
PCI slot 4 - shared - -
PCI slot 5 shared - - -
AGP Slot - - - shared
Serial ATA - - shared -
Gigabit Lan - shared - -
WiFi Slot shared - - -


What does this mean? (is it if I put a card in PCI slot 1
, it will share the same interupt as slot 5 and the WiFi slot?

All help greatfully received.

Thanks

If you have a modem, you could put it in slot4 and disable
the Marvell Gigabit Lan. That would guve the modem an exclusive
interrupt.

You could put the SoundBlaster in Slot1 and leave Slot5
and the WiFi slot blank. That will give the SoundBlaster
the highest priority slot (Slot 1 - nearest the processor),
plus then it will have an exclusive interrupt.

The table in the manual isn't always accurate, so you
can check the IRQs assigned in Windows and see whether
the cards in question, received the same IRQ as some
other hardware. That could indicate the sharing table
isn't what it seems.

In any case, you only need to worry about the SoundBlaster,
if the sound is being distorted (crackling etc). The most
sensitive test I found, was listening to the Windows
startup sound, just after the desktop appears. Since there
is disk I/O happening at the time, that seems to be
enough to uncover any problem the SoundBlaster might be
having.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Thomas Clancy]

Read down the list (vertically)
I.E. Slot 1 shares with slot 5 and wifi slot. Slot 2 shares with
AGP. Slot 3 shares with Serial ATA and Slot 4 shares with Gigabit
LAN. If you're using XP it shouldn't really matter. Though I'd make
sure I wasn't sharing anything with SATA if I was using SATA.
If you are using XP, disable the feature in the BIOS that allows you
to have extra virtual IRQs. I've found this feature to cause issues
with sound cards stuttering etc.. Stick to the normal IRQ paradigm

Hi Everyone,

Im after some helpful advice on which PCI slots I should use to avoid
conflicts/IRQ sharing or which slot would be best to use for the following;

1/ 3Com 56K PCI Modem
2/ Soundblaster PCI Audigy Soundcard
3/ AGP Gfx Card

On Page 2-12 of the MB user manual it shows a table of 'IRQ assignments
for the motherboard' but I do not quite understand it. (I shall try to
replicate it below - so I hope it renders ok)

INT A INT B INT C INT D
PCI Slot 1 shared - - -
PCI Slot 2 - - - shared
PCI slot 3 - - shared -
PCI slot 4 - shared - -
PCI slot 5 shared - - -
AGP Slot - - - shared
Serial ATA - - shared -
Gigabit Lan - shared - -
WiFi Slot shared - - -


What does this mean? (is it if I put a card in PCI slot 1
, it will share the same interupt as slot 5 and the WiFi slot?

All help greatfully received.

Thanks

Regards,
Thomas

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[Quietman]

Do you know what option this is in this motherboard's BIOS? (A7N8X-E Deluxe)

 

[Thomas Clancy]

Do you know what option this is in this motherboard's BIOS? (A7N8X-E Deluxe)

Sorry, I have the non-E version. Manual is on the missing list. I
think it was something like APSIC, APIC ASPC or something like that.
You have to do it BEFORE you install XP. If you change it AFTER
you've installed XP you may not be able to boot unless you change it
back again.

Regards,
Thomas

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[DanO]

You've already been given good advice and comments by the others...

I am curious as to why you'd want to use an Audigy soundcard on a MB with
nVidia Soundstorm Sound? Soundstorm is really an excellent sound chip, not
your typical crap integrated stuff. It can actually do Dolby Digital 5.1
encoding on the fly, something no other consumer sound chip is capable of at
this time.