How many PCI-E slots are you using and what's in them?

Grumbledook

Grumbledook

Grumbledook

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When I built my first PC back in the 90s, motherboards had lots of a combination of PCI and ISA slots and nearly everything had to be installed via an addon card. Graphics (separate 2d and 3d cards even), sound, networking etc.

Looking at motherboards now, so many features are integrated and there tends to be less slots on most motherboards. Often it seems a lot of them share bandwidth with another feature on the board or with other slots as well.

I'm just wondering how many slots people are using on their motherboard and what do you have installed in those slots. I'm guessing the majority just use the x16 top slot for a GPU?

I've got a capture card in my current one as well, just considering if there's anything further I might want to add in the future.
 
Just a GPU. Perhaps M.2 drives count too, as they are really just PCIe with a different connector. I also have a server with a 10Gb ethernet card in one slot. Other than that, the stuff integrated into motherboards is usually good enough, and when it's not, there's not much that needs the bandwidth of a PCIe slot, so a USB peripheral is more convenient.
 
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GPU in the top x16 , Sound card and a USB card. I probably don't need the USB card but as there was space for it and I had it installed in my previous build I put it in.
 
My mobo is only itx so just the GPU but I actually don't need more than 1 slot.

I use to have ATX mobos and really hated the wasted and unused space on it.

I haven't got a problem with them personally but when I look at most ATX builds on websites or YouTube, most the the pci-e slots are not used besides the GPU.
 
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Grumbledook said:
That's fair, though you can now fill a lot of that space up with m.2 drives. I'm probably going to buy a board that can accommodate four of these, I've always tended to have quite a few drives in all my builds.
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Yeah, I agree that the M.2 slots can be handy but do you really need that many?

I have a 1TB nvme for Windows 11, a 2TB SSD for games and an 8TB HDD network drive for movies and general storage I find that it is more than enough for my needs.
 
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Just a wifi card, because USB ones seem to like overheating/cutting out.

Still have a PCI-E Audigy laying around, but haven't used it since I ditched surround speakers for headphones.
 
hdpcgamer said:
Yeah, I agree that the M.2 slots can be handy but do you really need that many?

I have a 1TB nvme for Windows 11, a 2TB SSD for games and an 8TB HDD network drive for movies and general storage I find that it is more than enough for my needs.
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I like to have separate ones for video editing and 3D modelling, can see moving these onto NVME drives as prices keep falling and motherboards can accommodate more.
 
hdpcgamer said:
My mobo is only itx so just the GPU but I actually don't need more than 1 slot.

I use to have ATX mobos and really hated the wasted and unused space on it.

I haven't got a problem with them personally but when I look at most ATX builds on websites or YouTube, most the the pci-e slots are not used besides the GPU.
Click to expand...
That's why you buy an ATX mobo with the slots spaced sensibly. Costs more,but better in the long run. And the extra slots are there for future upgrades,so it's not wasted space if you have plans to do so
 
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On this PC 3070FE, Creative AE-5 sound card, Intel NIC, NVME adaptor as there is no native support for it on X79, interface for my power monitor.

Nice thing about the X79 platform it has 40 PCI-e lanes from the CPU and some additional ones from the chipset.
 
ooStevo said:
That's why you buy an ATX mobo with the slots spaced sensibly. Costs more,but better in the long run. And the extra slots are there for future upgrades,so it's not wasted space if you have plans to do so
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I agree and I don't have a problem with people who buy ATX mobos with the intention of populating most of the slots. However, if go to pcpartspicker and choose completed builds, on the 1st page you will see 99% of the ATX builds just using the GPU.
 
Nowadays just a GPU. I used to have a sound card as my previous Z77 and X470 audio sucked. However I now have a B550 with (pretty much) the same chips as the Xonar had and is slightly better.
 
MatteRB26 said:
Nowadays just a GPU. I used to have a sound card as my previous Z77 and X470 audio sucked. However I now have a B550 with (pretty much) the same chips as the Xonar had and is slightly better.
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Mobo audio has come a long way but I use a Creative Sound Blaster G3 USB Dac and I get fantastic Dolby Atmos audio for movies and games.
 
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Rroff said:
On this PC 3070FE, Creative AE-5 sound card, Intel NIC, NVME adaptor as there is no native support for it on X79, interface for my power monitor.

Nice thing about the X79 platform it has 40 PCI-e lanes from the CPU and some additional ones from the chipset.
Click to expand...

Most filled so far!

What's a power monitor? Name sounds pretty descriptive but I'm not certain...
 
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