Position of soundcard

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dasos

New Member
I have a pci_xpess_x1 soundcard.
My mobo has 3 pci_xpress_x1 ports. One above the graphics card and two underside of the graphics card.
Is it better to install soundacard above or under ?

If I get a case with psu placed in the bottom, this means I ll have to put soundcard compulsorily under vga ?
 
As far away from the PSU as possible due to electrical noise. X1 slot is the best position, but if there's no spacing between it and the video card it can overheat. This caused pops/clicks with my card so I had to move it under the video card.
 
linkin said:
As far away from the PSU as possible due to electrical noise.
Click to expand...
psu now is on the top, but I m planning to buy a new case with psu placed down
This caused pops/clicks with my card so I had to move it under the video card.
Click to expand...
...so if I put it under the video card, then it will be nearer to psu.

In general is it better having psu on bottom, or it is better on the top(where it will be far away from soundcard)?

Well in fact I was thinking about videocard's warmth:) [Its fanless].

X1 slot is the best position, but if there's no spacing between it and the video card it can overheat
Click to expand...

The card itself is x1 so I put it in a pci_xpress_x1 port.
My previous mobo had one x1 port above and three under. My present mobo has one above and two under. One of the unders is unavailable because of vga's heatsink.
Overheat who? vga or soundcard?
 
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The heat from my GPU was overheating the sound card due to their close proximity and hot air rising. The STX itself also generates more heat
 
dasos said:
I heard thats is possible to put a pci x1 card in a x4 slot. Do u recommend this?
Click to expand...

You can put a PCIe card in any slot so long as it fits, it doesn't matter either, unless you put an x16 card in an x1 slot, performance will be the same.

Personally, I would either put it above the graphics card or as far from the graphics card below as possible so that you have the best airflow possible.
 
Put it as low as possible. Right above the video card it will run hot. Right below the video card will block air flow to the video card. Two slots or lower below the video is the best.
 
Okay, As to the above, there are 2 kinds of x4 slots. Physical x4 is exactly that, a x4 slot. It shorter than a full size x16 or x8 slot. .the electrical kind looks exactly like a x16 slot, but it only has the pinout of an x4 slot.

To answer your other question, yes. As long as it will fit the slot you can install it there. X1 card can be installed in x1/x4/x8/x16 slots. But a x16 can't go in a x1 slot. Make sense?
 
Ok, I want to move my soundcard so that its not opposite videocard, there is an x4 slot available, so I ll remove it from x1 slot and put it to x4 slot, since u tell me I have nothing to lose.

But you tell me that videocard cannot goes from x16 to x4 slot in any case, right?
 
You can put a video card into a x4 slot as long as it is electrically x4. But you loose a bit of performance doing it.

Put the sound card in the x4 and leave the gpu in the x16 slot.
 
Of course I wont touch videocard if I ll lose performance.

I m gonna now remove soundcard to x4 and report later :)
 
I removed x1 to x4 and seems ok. I only re-setted the settings.

Now a question for the psu's side. I m going to buy a new pc case with psu placed down. I prefer its fan up(because if its down means that case will have holes), is this a bad idea?
 
What do you mean the case will have holes.

I would suggest putting fan down if the case allows for it so that the PSU draws cooler ambient air through the PSU, thus increasing efficiency.
 
dasos said:
Now a question for the psu's side. I m going to buy a new pc case with psu placed down. I prefer its fan up(because if its down means that case will have holes), is this a bad idea?
Click to expand...
You're fan needs to go down as said above. And just for the record, all cases have spaces to let air in. If they did not it would not run more than a few minutes before frying the GPU, PSU, RAM, and CPU.
 
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