ASRock Z77 Extreme3 manual Expansion Slots PCI and PCI Express Slots

2.6 Expansion Slots (PCI and PCI Express Slots)

There are 2 PCI slots and 4 PCI Express slots on this motherboard.

PCI slots: PCI slots are used to install expansion cards that have the 32-bit PCI interface.

PCIE slots:PCIE1 (PCIE 2.0 x1 slot) is used for a PCI Express x1 lane width card, such as a Gigabit LAN card, SATA2 card, etc.

PCIE2 (PCIE 3.0 x16 slot) is used for PCI Express x16 lane width graphics cards, or to install PCI Express graphics cards to support CrossFireXTM or SLITM function.

PCIE3 (PCIE 3.0 x16 slot) is used for PCI Express x8 lane width graph- ics cards, or to install PCI Express graphics cards to support CrossFi- reXTM or SLITM function.

PCIE4 (PCIE 2.0 x16 slot) is used for PCI Express x4 lane width graph- ics cards, or to install PCI Express graphics cards to support 3-Way CrossFireXTM function.

1.In single VGA card mode, it is recommended to install a PCI Express x16 graphics card on PCIE2 slot.

2.In CrossFireXTM mode or SLITM mode, please install the PCI Express x16 graphics cards on PCIE2 and PCIE3 slots. Therefore, both these two slots will work at x8 bandwidth.

3.In 3-Way CrossFireXTM mode, please install the PCI Express x16 graphics cards in PCIE2, PCIE3 and PCIE4 slots. PCIE2 and PCIE3 will work at x8 bandwidth, while PCIE4 works at x4 bandwidth.

4.Please connect a chassis fan to the motherboard’s chassis fan connector (CHA_FAN1, CHA_FAN2 or CHA_FAN3) when using multiple graphics cards for better thermal environment.

5.Only PCIE2 and PCIE3 slots support Gen 3 speed. To run the PCI Express in Gen 3 speed, please install an Ivy Bridge CPU. If you install a Sandy Bridge CPU, the PCI Express will run only at PCI Express Gen 2 speed.

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ASRock Z77 Extreme3 Motherboard