I built a computer about a year and a half ago in an Ncase M1 case. It's awesome and fast and I love it. Only thing is I have to make some adjustments now and I am confused and bewildered and need some help!
Here was the original setup:
Asus z270-itx motherboard
EVGA 1080ti SC2
G.skill 32gb RAM
i7-8700k overcloacked to 5.0ghz
Samsung 960 pro 1TB m.2 NVME SSD
This was intended as a gaming PC and audio/midi/.vst instrument powerhouse. It rules for those purposes! Only problem is, I am an audio engineer and my audio-Mac has finally bitten the dust so I need to figure out a way to use this computer with my studio gear as I don't want to buy another Mac.
My studio audio interface is Firewire based. Obviously this mobo doesn't have FW. I am now left with $3,000 worth of converters and outboard DSP chips with no way to run them on the PC.
So I bought & installed a Sonnet FW PCI-e card, took the GPU out completely, and now my audio gear works perfectly. Only problem is after work, I can't play DCS flight simulator anymore...
The Asus z270-i has 2 m.2 slots. Right now the SSD is installed in the top one and the bottom m.2 slot is open.
I want to figure out a way to install both the GPU and the FW PCI-e card at the same time on the z270-i. The FW card is PCI-e x1, very small, short, and technically I think this idea will work with some custom cabling and a little headscratching.
Ncase M1 has 3 PCI-e case space slots.
I know you can get into the PCI-e bus via the m.2 slot on the mobo. Organizationally inside the case, it'll be extremely tight either way but I think it would actually make more sense to leave the FW card in the PCI-e slot in the 1st x16 PCI-e slot since it is so small and short, and then install a m.2-to-PCI-e adapter on the top m.2 slot and use a 300mm riser cable to get over the FW PCI-e x1 card and into the connector of the 1080ti which will be installed in the 2nd and 3rd PCI-e spaces in the NCase M1.
However, what I don't know is: Will the 1080ti GPU's performance be degraded by installing it into the m.2 slot of the z270-i motherboard? I play graphically intensive games like Destiny, DCS World 2.5, Witcher 3, etc.
I am a little scared of frying the audio interface and other FW peripherals which are worth a lot more money than the GPU in case I do something wrong and plug my audio interface into a short circuit or something... That's another reason I want to plug the GPU into the m.2 to PCI-e adapter and not the audio interface & FW card. I'd rather leave them in the PCI-e slot, and then any risk of problems would only be to the GPU, which would also suck a lot if anything happened to it, but it's less important to me.
Suggestions? Am I on track here, am I worrying about nothing, or will something not work right or get fried? Is it going to be better (and safe) to run the audio interface's FW PCI-e card into the m.2 slot via the adapter since it uses less lanes, and just leave the GPU in the dedicated x16 PCI-e slot on the mobo?
Thank you!!! I applaud anyone who made it all the way through this post... GEEZE I can ramble.
MIDIBoss
Here was the original setup:
Asus z270-itx motherboard
EVGA 1080ti SC2
G.skill 32gb RAM
i7-8700k overcloacked to 5.0ghz
Samsung 960 pro 1TB m.2 NVME SSD
This was intended as a gaming PC and audio/midi/.vst instrument powerhouse. It rules for those purposes! Only problem is, I am an audio engineer and my audio-Mac has finally bitten the dust so I need to figure out a way to use this computer with my studio gear as I don't want to buy another Mac.
My studio audio interface is Firewire based. Obviously this mobo doesn't have FW. I am now left with $3,000 worth of converters and outboard DSP chips with no way to run them on the PC.
So I bought & installed a Sonnet FW PCI-e card, took the GPU out completely, and now my audio gear works perfectly. Only problem is after work, I can't play DCS flight simulator anymore...
The Asus z270-i has 2 m.2 slots. Right now the SSD is installed in the top one and the bottom m.2 slot is open.
I want to figure out a way to install both the GPU and the FW PCI-e card at the same time on the z270-i. The FW card is PCI-e x1, very small, short, and technically I think this idea will work with some custom cabling and a little headscratching.
Ncase M1 has 3 PCI-e case space slots.
I know you can get into the PCI-e bus via the m.2 slot on the mobo. Organizationally inside the case, it'll be extremely tight either way but I think it would actually make more sense to leave the FW card in the PCI-e slot in the 1st x16 PCI-e slot since it is so small and short, and then install a m.2-to-PCI-e adapter on the top m.2 slot and use a 300mm riser cable to get over the FW PCI-e x1 card and into the connector of the 1080ti which will be installed in the 2nd and 3rd PCI-e spaces in the NCase M1.
However, what I don't know is: Will the 1080ti GPU's performance be degraded by installing it into the m.2 slot of the z270-i motherboard? I play graphically intensive games like Destiny, DCS World 2.5, Witcher 3, etc.
I am a little scared of frying the audio interface and other FW peripherals which are worth a lot more money than the GPU in case I do something wrong and plug my audio interface into a short circuit or something... That's another reason I want to plug the GPU into the m.2 to PCI-e adapter and not the audio interface & FW card. I'd rather leave them in the PCI-e slot, and then any risk of problems would only be to the GPU, which would also suck a lot if anything happened to it, but it's less important to me.
Suggestions? Am I on track here, am I worrying about nothing, or will something not work right or get fried? Is it going to be better (and safe) to run the audio interface's FW PCI-e card into the m.2 slot via the adapter since it uses less lanes, and just leave the GPU in the dedicated x16 PCI-e slot on the mobo?
Thank you!!! I applaud anyone who made it all the way through this post... GEEZE I can ramble.
MIDIBoss