Looking for some assistance on a minor issue.  I understand the board is new and EVGA is doing their best to update the BIOS for the X99 line-up.  I am currently using Windows Pro 8.1 64-bit with EVGA BIOS 1.06.  The issue...
 
In the PCI-E Slot #6 (the bottom one or the one after the itty bitty one [PCI-E x 4]) I currently have a Creative Sound Blaster ZxR (as pictured in this post).  However, the audio card is not recognized by populating the slot in the BIOS and not found anywhere in Windows 8.1.  This also goes for all the PCI-E x16 slots.  In contrast, by placing the card in the conforming and appropriate PCI-E x4 slot...BINGO BANGO!  It works!!  My question is not whether I have a faulty board by some mischance, a BIOS error, limitations of some sort by the X99 blueprint or do I have computer gremlins?  Is Creative to blame for this or the Recon3Di onboard sound processor?  I've also are used the original 1.0 BIOS with no Creative drivers or sound enabled.  Additionally, I've placed my GTX TITAN BLACK in each of the other slots and tried them out in SLI.  They work as intended, but why won't my audio card function as normal when placed in the PCI-E x 16 slots?  What gives?  Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
 
 
P. S. My rig is still in progress and forgive the darkish picture.  Lighting wasn't good in my "Command Center".  Audio card is currently in the PCI-E x16 slot 6.  I personally prefer this setup to allow the GTX TITAN BLACK to have at least one full slot for air.  Happy gaming!!
 

Noted. That makes two of us.  In the meantime I've just popped the card back in the PCI-E x4 slot.  I've scoured around the net and haven't received any information worth passing on here.  Maybe some of the more savvy techies here may know a thing or two.

Not entirely.  When I place my sound card in PCI-E x 4 slot the card is recognized and works as intended.  I've also tried to disable both Recon3Di and Azalia in the BIOS and Device Manager within Windows.  When I do this and place my sound card in any of the PCI-E x 16 slots.  The card does not function and is not present in Windows.  I do agree about the X99 Classified having a nice onboard sound profile but I prefer using my Sennheiser HD 650 with my ZxR's headphone amp.  As you've noted Vlada011, this issue to me is very minor (and not tragic) but I'd like the ability to move my sound card to the bottom slot rather than keeping it in the PCI-E x 4 slot.  Maybe after a few more BIOS updates or some other system related software the issue may resolve itself.  Meanwhile, I'll keep an eye out on the web and this thread and see if anything comes up.

I looked at the manual for the X99 Classified motherboard and noticed item number 30 in the manual (for the connectors) says that this is a supplemental PCI-E power connector. Is this plugged in?

 

vanity59
Not entirely.  When I place my sound card in PCI-E x 4 slot the card is recognized and works as intended.  I've also tried to disable both Recon3Di and Azalia in the BIOS and Device Manager within Windows.  When I do this and place my sound card in any of the PCI-E x 16 slots.  The card does not function and is not present in Windows.  I do agree about the X99 Classified having a nice onboard sound profile but I prefer using my Sennheiser HD 650 with my ZxR's headphone amp.  As you've noted Vlada011, this issue to me is very minor (and not tragic) but I'd like the ability to move my sound card to the bottom slot rather than keeping it in the PCI-E x 4 slot.  Maybe after a few more BIOS updates or some other system related software the issue may resolve itself.  Meanwhile, I'll keep an eye out on the web and this thread and see if anything comes up.

Sound Blaster Z should work in PCIEx1 slot I think.

We will look into this.

We can reproduce this, can you try setting the PCIE slot to Gen2 manually? That should fix it temporarily.

I had to set my PCIe slot to Gen2 to get my creative z card to install.  Thanks for the tip!

Just thought I'd add my experiences with this since I encountered a similar issue with a Gigabyte GA-X99-UD5 WIFI motherboard (F8b BIOS), which has 4 PCI x16 (Gen 3) and 3 PCI x1 (Gen 2) slots.  Sound Blaster Z would install and work reliably under Win 7 32-bit when plugged into one of the x1 slots (the specific slot I tested is "PCIE_7" which is second from the bottom).  But doesn't seem to like the x16 slots (I tested it in "PCIE_3"), where mostly the driver fails to initialize (exclamation mark in Device Manager).  The SBZ cards have ill-fitting brackets and may not be fully seated when screwed in place, but I also tested without the screw and it made no difference.  Also tried setting x16 slot to PCI GEN 2 in BIOS which didn't help.
So whether due to the design of these cards or something with X99 boards in general, SBZ needs to go in one of the "short" slots for reliable operation.  (By contrast, I also have an E-MU 1212M PCIe sound card and this works fine in any kind of slot)

(Copy of my recent related thread)
Hey guys,
I recently got a SoundBlaster Z, on sale, and it works great, on any slot but Slot 6!
I've gone in bios and changed from Auto to PCIe 2.0 (to improve compatibility - in theory), but still card not seen.
SoundBlaster red LED lights up, but not seen in windows.
Here's my slot assignment:
Slot 1) EVGA GTX980sc (showing 16X in BIOS)
Slot 2) empty
Slot 3) empty
Slot 4) EVGA GTX980sc (showing 16x in BIOS) / SLI
Slot 5) empty (covered by above card)
Slot 6) SoundBlaster Z (subject of this thread)
 
I could put in 2) or 3) but that would negate possible 3-way SLI (return of decreasing dividends, so probably won't), and just looks goofy IMHO
Any thoughts?
 
Response indicated chipset issue.
 

We are working on fixing this in a future update.

Issue fixed in in bios 2.02 for sure  ^.^