Motherboard Socket 1150 ITX boards that support PCI-e Risers?

[zovc]

Hey,

Does anyone have a ITX Socket 1150 board (or know of a board) that works with PCI-e risers? Preferably an unpowered one like Josh sells with the S4 mini. (My GPU has a power connector on it.) Preferably an overclocking-enabled board, since I'm using an i7-4790K.

I've emailed ASRock about my Z97E-ITX/ac not working with a PCI-e riser cable and am waiting to see if they have any way of getting it to work, but I've determined that the board (in its current state) just doesn't work with PCI-e risers.

The card works when its directly inserted into the PCI-e slot, but when I use either of my two riser cables, it doesn't. Josh suggested I try setting my PCI-e speed to Gen2 since some ASRock boards need that, and that hasn't done the trick. I've used both of these risers on different boards and they worked fine, so by troubleshooting tells me that this board does not want to work with riser cables in general. Which is a bummer, because that means I can't use it and this is why I bought it. (Used.)

More or less, while I'm trying to troubleshoot this, I'm also trying to track down a board I can be sure will work. In case it comes to that.

Thanks.

 

[gffermari]

It's weird since the older model, Z87E ITX works even with bifurcation pci-e.

https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/macpro-late-2013-mini-itx-case-mod.427/page-5#post-8483

 

[zovc]

It's weird since the older model, Z87E ITX works even with bifurcation pci-e.

https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/macpro-late-2013-mini-itx-case-mod.427/page-5#post-8483

That makes this situation even more frustrating! Haha

 

[CC Ricers]

My Asus Z97i-Plus has worked perfectly well with the Sintech 5cm flexible riser. I have also tried the HD-PLEX riser but that one didn't work. That may have been a defective unit, since I bought it as used.

 

[zovc]

Man, why are these boards so expensive?! Haha

Thanks. I found someone who was trying to sell a few (?) of that Asus board, I asked if they still had one and if they could try it with a PCI-e riser. Still no word for ASRock, I wonder if they're off for Thanksgiving.

 

[Chrizz]

I think that no additional hardware or software is needed to support risers, you're literally just extending the contract points.

I'd wait for ASRock to respond before giving up on this motherboard.

 

[chx]

PCIe is quite a high speed bus and accordingly you need quality wires to extend it. Yes, you might have two lemons. The signal loss over a riser can be significant and there's a reason 3M risers cost what they do.

 

[zovc]

The reason I don't believe I have two lemons is that these riser cables have worked on other motherboards with the same GPU.

Does anyone have any other Socket 1150 boards that are confirmed to work with riser cables? The person I thought I had gotten a hold of hasn't responded still.

ASRock basically told me the motherboard "doesn't support" riser cables, and I asked for a better explanation. The rep is supposedly 'contacting HQ about this.'

 

[zovc]

Here's an update for anyone in the future or anyone who was curious:

I ordered an Asus Z97i-Plus motherboard. I found a used one on ebay listed for like $300 (lol?) so I made an offer of $120 without shipping, they countered $150 without shipping, I countered with $130 and they countered with $150 again. So instead I bought a used one off of Amazon for $155 without shipping to stick it to the man or something.

The motherboard came in, and the system works fine with either of my riser cables. (Both the riser cable that came with a S4 Mini, and a random 2.0 x8 molex-powered riser I bought to use with a janky setup for a little while.)

ASRock "HQ" finally got back to me, sending me pictures of a janky video card, a PCI-e riser card, and some screenshots from Device Manger and dxdiag in windows saying that they were able to get a video card working with a PCI-e riser. So, it's possible my Z97E-ITX/ac is a lemon, but only in the sense that it can't use a PCI-e riser???

 

[gffermari]

155$ is way too much for a used motherboard. Even for a new Z97.
At least you solved the problem.
Haven't you thought to change the whole base system? I mean, since the asrock denies to work properly with the riser, you could sell it with the cpu and memory and upgrading to a used AM4/ITX.....

 

[zovc]

155$ is way too much for a used motherboard. Even for a new Z97.
At least you solved the problem.
Haven't you thought to change the whole base system? I mean, since the asrock denies to work properly with the riser, you could sell it with the cpu and memory and upgrading to a used AM4/ITX.....

I am trying to get this system up and running, eventually it'll become my "beater" LAN system. The 4790K is still a really fast CPU, and the difference of cores/threads in new chips won't make a huge difference in gaming (at least for now).

It might have been better value (and I agree that $155 is too much) to upgrade to a new platform, but it would have required the legwork of selling my system. I value the convenience more than the time it would have taken to make the sale and find time to pack and ship the parts, then figure out the new system from the ground-up.

I'm hopefully going to be building a new, flashy system in 2018. Possibly waiting until 2019 if this system ends up pulling its weight well enough.