[Quantum Reality]

As in the subject.

Situation:

My brother has a Core i7 + Asus P6T + as far as I know two HD4830s in Crossfire. He may or may not have gotten a 5850 by now, but if not he still has the 4830s.

Anyway, he's trying to use a USB 3.0 card (which, I assume is x1) in the third slot. He's saying the card just plain doesn't work. He's had problems before using a PCI-E x1 network card on the mobo so there may be some truth to his complaint that the third slot is a bum slot. According to X58 specs the chipset is capable of 36 PCI-E lanes, giving 16 to each of the top two slots, and on the third one, 4.

Can the X58 chipset dynamically use just one lane for a card physically smaller than the slot it's in? I know in theory it should work.

Any comments would be helpful.

 

[The_0ctogon]

For PCI-E, any size card will work in any size slot (though you'd have to cut out the back of the slot to use a bigger card in a smaller slot), so that's not a reason for it to not work. Has he tried the USB 3.0 card in a another slot/motherboard? He's gonna have to do more troubleshooting steps before declaring the slot dead/malfunctioning.

 

[Quantum Reality]

It turned out the USB 3.0 card was just crud. I had him try out a video card in the bottom PCI-E slot and it worked fine.