PCI-E card form factor specification strictness and clarification?

[SaperPL]

So I've been wondering about this for a while now.

This is taken straight from PCI-E v1.1 specification and I couldn't get any electromechanical form factor diagrams for this in the newer versions.

What bothers me is that dashed/hatched areas and the note [1]

CROSS HATCHED AREAS SHALL BE COMPONENT AND TRACE FREE, BOTH SIDES

a) So the note says that its about cross hatched areas but its number is attached everywhere with single hatched and not cross-hatched areas.

b) What I'm interested in is why, If PCI-E spec defines that areas component-free, many the cards use it anyway to place DVI out there. Like for example reference blower GTX

If the spec was strict about that, it could enable us to take another 10mm off the case size in some configurations, but current state of affairs makes it another headache for end user when choosing the parts for the case.

 

[Pandur]

From what I can tell the DVI connector(s) are mounted in the area marked 5, and that only says there are to be no components or traces on the solder side of the card. And all I can see there on my graphic cards are just that, solder points for the DVI connectors.

 

[SaperPL]

Yeah - that's what I mean - the spec says it should be there within area 5 but then we have cards like this:

Extended PCI-E is one thing here, but you know that there's a lot of cards with dvi or dsub connectors over the bottom area with 6 mark.