PCI-E slots, bit more info

bluestreak101 · 10 Jun 2008 at 16:53

Hey,

I been looking at this for some time and never really come across a straight answer.

Most motherboards these days come with 2 PCI-E x16 slots for SLI/Crossfire etc. and some now come with 3 of these.

My question is, these x16 slots, can I buy a PCI-E x4 Disk Controller/TV/editing card and use this slot?

My beleive is you that you can, but like I said, no where gives a definitive answer. Can we have some definitive answers, its not like all of us need SLi GFX and having this slot available for other applications would make life much easier, well for me at least!

Cheers

Delvis · 10 Jun 2008 at 17:11

We have x1 cards is x4/x8 slots at work....So I don't see why having such cards in the x16 slot would be any different...

a lot of boards come with x4 slots etc on them now anyway as well.

mdjmcnally · 10 Jun 2008 at 17:58

Sure can, my Asus P5W64 WSPro works fine like that.

Wiggins · 11 Jun 2008 at 11:53

I ran a VGA Card and a Wireless PCIex1 Card off both my x16 lanes and had no issues.

rpstewart · 11 Jun 2008 at 12:03

PCI-e is designed to allow any card to work in any slot. That means a 1x card will work in a 16x slot but also if you have open ended 1x slots then in theory a 16x card should work albeit at 1x data rates.

Badgerpoo · 11 Jun 2008 at 13:24

rpstewart said:
PCI-e is designed to allow any card to work in any slot. That means a 1x card will work in a 16x slot but also if you have open ended 1x slots then in theory a 16x card should work albeit at 1x data rates.

Does that mean I can run an additional graphics card in my open ended 4x slot? Performance is not a concern, it is merely for a 3rd and 4th monitor.

wolvers · 11 Jun 2008 at 13:24

What about a PCI-Ex1 card in a PCI slot?

rpstewart · 11 Jun 2008 at 15:34

Badgerpoo said:
Does that mean I can run an additional graphics card in my open ended 4x slot? Performance is not a concern, it is merely for a 3rd and 4th monitor.

That should work fine, some of the real top end cards complain if they're not in a 16x slot (which is against the PCI-e standards) but a cheapo card just for extra monitors should be ok.

wolvers69 said:
What about a PCI-Ex1 card in a PCI slot?

No, PCI and PCI-e are totally different.

wolvers · 11 Jun 2008 at 16:32

That's what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation.

bluestreak101 · 3 Jul 2008 at 16:18

Thanks Guys (sorry about late reply was away for a while!)