[SwishaMane]

K guys, got my hands on a AWESOME, never used dual Xeon ES mobo. Came with twin 3.2ghz 1 core, 2 thread Xeons, 2x256MB ECC DDR2 400, PC3200 single sided memory. I do not know the chipset. The motherboard does have PCi-e, but one is 4x slot, and one is 8x slot, thing is, 8x slot is straight up 8x length, not 16x length to accomodate GPUs... Ive attached pics of the ES board, and the AMD 939 mobo with a 4x slot that has a cut out in it to accomodate longer cards, this is my idea for the 8x slot. What if I cut the plastic out for a 16x card to fit in it? Im thinking to remove the clip from the 939 board there, and modding it onto the ES board to help mount end of card.

So, Is this possible? Would my 8800gtx most likely run on the 8x slot even tho all pins wont be connected? Isn't that kind of the idea behind the slot on my AMD 939 board there, its cut out so a longer card can fit the slot, complete with clip at other end to secure it. IDK about Intel at all barely, this will be good learning experience.

EDIT: Im currently working on finding a set of backplates to mount the new Intel all copper, HEAVY passive heatsinks I got. This is a socket 604 board, and the Xeons are 1 core, 2 thread each. I plan to obviously fully test the board before I go cutting into the pci-e port and such for the mod, but theoretically, it should work, right? The board is prepared with an on-board video on/off jumper, so Im sure its ready for pci-e based GPUs, but being from as far ago as 2002, the chips being 2003, pci-e was probably pretty new, so 8x might have been the standard for this time. It IS a dev board ya know, lol

 

[Klue22]

I believe it should work. I saw a mod here on OCN once that showed how to use an adapter to hook a x16 card into a x1 slot. The reason for doing so was for folding farms which require very little PCIe bandwidth.

 

[SwishaMane]

Cool. I might be testing it on an old broken board first before I go through with it on this board. I tried researching a little, and it seems this shorter pci-e8x slot has been around, but I haven't found anything about anyone physically trying to cut the plastic. I see adapters here and there. Just so you know, thats a ATX mobo next to a wATX, its even bigger then eATX.

 

[Klue22]

The thread I saw advocated using the adapter so you didn't have to cut the plastic as it would void the warranty. So I guess that it would imply that its possible.

 

[Sin0822]

it will work, or it should. Now motherboard have 16x slots with half the pins, so i see no reason it shouldn't work.