From my experiences as a hobby enthusiast I have learned, that the top PCI slot is a replacement for the AGP slot, thus, any cards placed in the top PCI slot while the AGP slot is occupied, will malfunction and behave wierd.

So when this PCI slot is almost useless now when everybody use AGP graphiccards, I do wonder whats all the fuzz about 'card occupies two slots' is about.

Maybee there are some late motherboards that can handle cards in both the top PCI slot and the AGP slot in the same time, but that was not the case with the latest machines we bought to our office (2-3 months ago).

Best Regards
JemyM

you can always do that dude.

Do what? Use the top PCI in the same time as the AGP?
I have heard the opposite from some various sources and seen cards like soundcards and ethernet cards malfunction this way. Lots of wierd results, crashes, non working sound, non working network connections, until you put the card in another slot. Its always the top slot that doesnt work, if a agp graphics board is present.

Best Regards
JemyM

the top pci slot works fine, but its true that it shares irq with the AGP slot and can cause problems that way. but usually it works fine. i once had my sound card there and it worked fine. I later moved it because of possible signal noise from the AGP fan.

It was just a month ago we couldnt get a lancard running at all on my machine. It was found by pnp, but windows claimed that the network cable was unplugged.

After moving it one step down, it ran fluid like a morning wind.

Best Regards
JemyM

Well with a GeForce FX you won't be able to use the top slot anyway, since the massive fan and heatsink will overlap the PCI slot.

Personally in my experience not very many enthusiasts put cards in they're top PCI slot anyway.
At least I never have. The only reason people are complaining about this is because people love to hate nVidia. If ATI did it I doulbt anyone would say a word.

Why can't people just grow up face it nVidia and ATI are both good manufacturers just let people make they're own descisions.

I never said anything about Nvidia I want a GeForce FX and you're right...my only used PCI slot is the bottom one. And its a 56K modem I don't use. I might take it out this weekend

KillerKebab
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I know of that. My point is that that is not important, since the top PCI slot cannot be used anyway, even if you have a Matrox G200, TNT2 or ATI Rage...
You may physically fit one into the slot, but it will not work like it should, becouse of the collision between the AGP slot and the top PCI slot.
And GeForce FX is an AGP card, so whats the fuzz about covering up a non-useable slot?

Sparkesy
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You give me a reply that I feel is correct: "becouse they love to hate NVidia".

But the reason I posted the topic was to get a stright answer from someone that actually bash this 'minus feature' and recieve their detailed response to the topic:
Why whine about a slot that is practically unuseable anyway?

Best Regards
JemyM

I wasn't whining. I was just pointing about that even if someone managed to "bash" the feature many new cards make this impossible. And I wasn't making fuzz. If you notice my previous reply I said that I didn't use any PCI slots

I wasnt refering to you when I mentioned 'bashing the minus feature' or "whining people" in my message. I was reffering to every damn review that lists this as a "minus feature".

I personally have 2 cards in my computer, a second lan (my primary is on my motherboard), and my Audigy card.

My Audigy Card takes up 2 slots, and my extra USB ports takes up a slot, so I have -2 slots in my machine.

Best Regards
JemyM

Older ATX mainboard, P3's and early age Athlon boards and some new boards have a large space between the AGP and PCI slots

thats just wrong.. i've had no problems with my last four motherboards (Gigabyte, MSI, MSI, Soltek). perhaps your had some design failures, idunno, but generalising like that and calling the top pci slot useless is just stupid.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that they never work. I've had a few problems with them in the past, so i know what you mean but that was with an old Pentium and Nexgen board.

I have seen and heard about this happen far to many times to declare it a coincidence, and this includes some later motherboards. Im using a later ASUS board at work (forgot the exact revision, but its one of their x8 boards with built-in-lan) that have this problem.

Best Regards
JemyM