which PCI slot do i use?

ok im in a bit of a dilema. im gonna buy a sound card soon, mainly the creative x-fi. i chose to put the sound card in the first PCI slot, but then i realised im going to go SLI as soon as vista arrives. the gfx card im going with (for SLI) has a low profile GPU fan so there will be a gap between the sound card and gfx card. however im concerned that this will affect the air flow and the cooling of the gfx card since the second PCI-E slot is next to the first PCI slot. will it? am i better of putting the sound card in the second PCI slot thus increasing the gap between the sound card and gfx card? any help would be appreciated.

 

If you have other open slots then it wouldnt hurt to put the sound card a little further away

 

ok so what will happen if i slot the sound card next to the gfx card which is in the second PCI-E slot?

 

If you have no other choice I would use the second PCI-E slot next to the video card.
Being low profile the video card... it is probably constructed to deal with another card close to it.
And overheating video cards usually send minor signs of overheating like jumpy video and video anomalies before getting hurt.
So you can always test it and change it if it doesn't work out for you.

But it sounds as if your building you system up almost from scratch.
I'm not quite sure having a PCI-E sound card will gain you enough of an advantage to warrant the possible disadvantages.

If it were me...
I'd put in a PCI-E video card then a PCI sound card.
Leave the extra PCI-E slot open just in case you want to take advantage of a fast network card or some other PCI-E card that can take full advantage of the faster bus.

 

no no pcjinx, u've misread...

the sound card is PCI. what im saying is what will happen if i slot the sound card into the first PCI slot and i installed a second gfx card into the second PCI-E slot thus bringing the sound card and second gfx card next to each other?

 

Actually...
I answered that too...
If you have an open PCI slot away from the video card... use that.
It makes no difference where you put a PCI card.

But if the only slot available is the one next to the video card... then use it and keep your eyes open for signs your video card is overheating.
I don't think you will have any problems either way though.

 

ok i get u. so the recommendation is put the sound card in the second PCI slot? btw the gfx card is a XFX 7600GT XXX (overclocked) Edition. when playing games the fan speeds up to push more heat out. so i reckon i might block the air flow if i put the sound card directly below it...

 

it will most likely be fine, you shouldnt have to worry about it