On 27/07/2011, at 8:12 PM, Jeremy Chadwick wrote: > On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 10:38:36AM +0100, Tom Evans wrote: >> On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 11:55 PM, Jeremy Chadwick >> <free...@jdc.parodius.com> wrote: >>> >>> And before someone asks: in most cases you *cannot* use this card in a >>> PCIe x16 connector on a motherboard. ??Most generic motherboard >>> manufacturers at this point have special one-offs that assume their PCIe >>> x16 slots are for video cards only. ??If you aren't sure, you'll need to >>> ask your motherboard manufacturer/vendor if you can use a >>> non-VGA-adapter in their PCIe x16 slot. ??Some Supermicro boards do have >>> PCIe x16 slots that can be used by non-VGA adapters, but I haven't seen >>> this on, say, Asus/Gigabyte/Dell/Intel motherboards. >> >> Jeremy may not have seen PCI express x16 HBAs working on consumer >> boards, but I have, plenty of times. > > I'm glad -- people should probably start making a list, because the > number of boards I've seen it not work in easily exceeds that of the > times I HAVE seen it work. :-)
Where did it fail? >> I don't know why the FUD, but I have had no problems with an Intel >> SASUC8I (LSI 1068 based) running on an Asus P5Q Pro, a simple consumer >> P45 chipset. I'm not unique, many people have success doing this. > > Once in a blue moon, an intelligent board manufacturer puts comments in > their user manual to the effect of "the PCIe x16 slot is only to be used > for VGA adapters and will not work with non-VGA cards", or vice-versa. > Here's some hard evidence of my claim: > > Supermicro X7SBA server-class motherboard user manual has the following > line in it: > > "Note: The Intel 3210 chipset does not support add-in graphics cards in > the PCI-E interface provided by the Memory Controller Hub (MCH)." > > So in that boards' case, the PCIe x16 slot (which only has PCIe x8 worth > of lanes wired) will work with controller cards but not VGA adapters. > > And here's another, for the X7DVL series boards: > http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=10582 > > "This is a server board, and you cannot place a x8 or x16 VGA card on > this board. Only onboard VGA is possible. If you need to place a VGA > card please use X7DA(x) board". Perhaps I'm being thick, but this says "a 16x slot on this board does not support a display card" not "a 16x slot on this board only supports a display card." The examples you cite only support the "vice-versa" part of your claim, not the primary claim that 16x slots on some motherboards are only for display cards. Do you have a reference for that? > > And up until last week I owned and used an Asus P5Q SE (P45-based with > ICH10 SB) board, so I can refer you to the fact that the P5Q Pro user > manual "hints" that the PCIe x16 slot is for graphics only but doesn't > downright say that. Did you try a non-graphics card in the slot to see what happened? Saying "The 16x slot is where you put the graphics card" is probably not unreasonable for 99% of the users of that board. Regards, Jan Mikkelsen_______________________________________________ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
