Covered PCI slot
- Thread starter Yo-Yo
- Start date
The_Other_One
VIP Member
Even if it's not covered, I'd suggest not using it just for the extra ventilation... I try to avoid using the PCI slots right by my AGP/PCI Express slots.
Generally the vpu cooler would be on the opposite from the pci slots. With that board only having two pci slots available for a sound card(if not using onboard sound) and one other expansion card you can't afford to avoid the problem seen with XP's resource sharing issues common with the first slot next to the AGP or PCI-Express video slot.
Pci slot coolers have been found to be rather useless when compared to more advanced cooling methods that see overall improvements over the stock cooling if your system came prebuilt. That micro-atx model board there was made strictly to use a PCI-Express video card unless you have onboard video on that model already. For better performance the PCI-E card would still be needed over the 64mb seen there.
Pci slot coolers have been found to be rather useless when compared to more advanced cooling methods that see overall improvements over the stock cooling if your system came prebuilt. That micro-atx model board there was made strictly to use a PCI-Express video card unless you have onboard video on that model already. For better performance the PCI-E card would still be needed over the 64mb seen there.
The AGP type card also has a sink on one side as well on many models. The one main physical difference seen besides a larger sink there for the PCI-E type over the old AGP is the bottom of the card while the side facing towards the remaining standard pci slots is flat like the older cards. Just like AGP type cards the clearance between the interface there and the first pci slot has to be equal to or greater then what is seen on an AGP slotted board to hold the standard clearance for installation of other expansion cards.
The only real problem that could come up with installing a card in the first slot is when you use a custom card cooler that goes over both sides of a card extending into the space of the first of the pci slots. That can be ignored at times however except on micro-atx models with only two pci slots due to the usual recommend to leave the first slot empty when having problems on an XP machine due to XP's resource sharing. If you slap a Sound Blaster or another known resource grabber that's where issues come up at times(yet I manage to keep an SB in any machine I run all the time.
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The only real problem that could come up with installing a card in the first slot is when you use a custom card cooler that goes over both sides of a card extending into the space of the first of the pci slots. That can be ignored at times however except on micro-atx models with only two pci slots due to the usual recommend to leave the first slot empty when having problems on an XP machine due to XP's resource sharing. If you slap a Sound Blaster or another known resource grabber that's where issues come up at times(yet I manage to keep an SB in any machine I run all the time.
).Any problems seen with either or both cards would depend more on how XP and the softwares allocated resources. Due to issues seen at times with XP's resource sharing moving an expansion card over from the first pci slot to the 2nd or 3rd can often solve resource conflict issues. The board there only has two pci slots suggesting trying both combinations would be one way to see if there will be any type of resource conflict with both cards used. Although a pci card may be thinner then another doesn't rule out any type of problems with either hardware or software resources. At times you may have to consult a manufacturer for a special patch if there are problems seen.