Expansion Slots Explained/Recommended

[Belly]

Hi, I currently have a ASUS Z170-K Skylake Mother Board which has the following expansion slots:

2 x PCIe (16 x 4) x 16
2 x PCIe x 1
2 x PCI

Does that mean there are 6 expansion slots?

My computer will NOT accept Windows 11.

On an older PC there was a lightning strike nearby which I believed caused a surge up the Virginmedia cable and the wifi part of the mother board ceased to work, I was able to buy a wifi card and slot it onto the motherboard

I have installed a 4 gang USB card on my present PC and there is a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 1GB Graphics Card installed.

I’d want to have spare slots available if there is another lightning strike.

When I view modern motherboard specs (which I find near impossible to understand) there seem to be fewer slots than previous ones.

Are there any current motherboards with similar or more expansion slots for sale?

Thanks

 

[Elevon]

Most modern motherboard have everything already built in ie WIFI, Bluetooth, Lan, onboard sound and plenty of USB 2/3.0 and even USB C ports. I don't really use PCIe expansion slots apart from one for my gaming ie graphics card, I use more USB devices for expansion. Think my board has about 10 to 12 USB ports and I also have 7 port USB 3.0 powered hub with switches and 4x USB 3.0 ports on my monitor which covers the port expansions, plus a few more USB ports on my case.

So nowadays you don't really need a lot of motherboard PCIe expansion ports. USB covers virtually everything for add ons IMHO. I have like USB C SSD drive, USB/WIFI printer scanner, 3x USB 3.0 harddrives , USB keyboard and mouse, USB wireless phone charger/mouse bungee, RGB USB mouse mat, USB floppy drive (yes for my DOS old games) and USB 3.0 DVD writer, even 2x USB Wifi in my deskdraw, only have three things on my motherboard (not USB) ie video gaming card, NVME drive and one SATA SSD (not counting ram or CPU).
I have a lot more USB for my needs, makes upgrading to a new PC easier, ie plug and play to change it over.


I have mine connected to mains anti-surge six gang sockets, so far had no issues (talking decades FYI).

 

[Armageus]

Hi, I currently have a ASUS Z170-K Skylake Mother Board which has the following expansion slots:

2 x PCIe (16 x 4) x 16
2 x PCIe x 1
2 x PCI

Does that mean there are 6 expansion slots?

Yes there are 6 Expansion slots

Slots 5 and 6 are OLD technology that is essentially redundant - you won't find these on new motherboards

Slots 2 and 4 are Primarily for Graphics cards - physically they are always a big 16x slot, but depending on the motherboard/chipset/cpu the amount of electrical lanes they provide can be different - GPUs generally need at least 8x lanes, with 16x being preferred.
(Slots that only have 4x lanes can be used for Graphics cards with reduced performance, but are more commonly used for things like RAID controllers, high end Network cards, or NVME adapter cards)

Slots 1 and 3 are normally used for most other expansion cards, e.g. Network, Wifi, USB, Sound cards etc.
(PCIe 1x cards that fit slots 1 and 3, can also be used in the bigger PCIe 16x slots)

My computer will NOT accept Windows 11.

If use a tool such as Rufus you can bypass the artificial restrictions that stop you from installing Windows 11

I’d want to have spare slots available if there is another lightning strike.

When I view modern motherboard specs (which I find near impossible to understand) there seem to be fewer slots than previous ones.

As long as you have 2 PCIe 16x slots, and at least 2x PCIe 1x slots it's difficult to see a need for more. Motherboards these days also tend to have a lot more USB ports (typical 8 or 10 on the back alone), so there's less requirements for internal devices as even things like 2.5Gb network or fast wifi can all be found as USB devices
Spacing of slots is also a factor - as e.g. on your motherboard whilst there would be space for another PCIe slot between 2. and 3. in the picture above, it would largely be redundant, as most Graphics cards take up 2 slots and would encroach downwards from slot 2.

Are there any current motherboards with similar or more expansion slots for sale?

There are motherboards with a full 7 or more PCIe 16x slots - but they cost a lot more, and in most cases just aren't needed.

 

[coupe69]

I have,

1 x AGP
3 x PCI
2 x ISA

and a slot 1 for the processor

May be due an upgrade soon!

 

[Tetras]

My computer will NOT accept Windows 11.

Intel and Microsoft make the drivers available for Windows 11 with Skylake systems, though it looks like you can't fit a hardware TPM, so you'd have to bypass the requirements. Otherwise, my experience is that it will clean install on 6th/7th gen, even though the upgrade complains.

I’d want to have spare slots available if there is another lightning strike.

If it was caused by a lightning strike that came up the cable, you can get surge protection for that, to protect the LAN cable and the modem/router.

When I view modern motherboard specs (which I find near impossible to understand) there seem to be fewer slots than previous ones.

Most ATX motherboards seem to assume that you will have a very large graphics card and realistically 2x PCI-E with 1 lane is often all you get. It should be enough though, since almost everything is onboard, or available through USB.

 

[Elevon]

I have,

1 x AGP
3 x PCI
2 x ISA

and a slot 1 for the processor

May be due an upgrade soon!

I have the latest AMD AM5 B650E full ATX motherboard, only has 2x PCIe expansion slots and 1x PCIe 4.0 expansion slot, also has 4x M2 slots and 4x SATA, seems the norm nowadays, as I stated motherboards have it all built-in and USB ports covers the rest of your needs.

 

[Elevon]

I remember the old Intel 386/486 cpu days when sound cards were long ie Creative Labs Soundblaster AWE32 and video cards were small, how times have changed.