pci-express slots question

[frankyk]

so i notice a lot of motherboards now offer pci-express 1x slots, i was wondering what exactly do you put in these? like i know for pci slots you could put modems and wireless cards, and stuff, these pci-express slots are really small, so what could you fit in those? do they take up a metal tray slot also?

also for pci-express 16x, is that made specifically for graphics cards or could you put something else in it if you got a pci slot graphics card?

 

[J-Mag]

Technically you can put any 1x, 4x, 8x, or 16x type card into a 16x slot and it should work. However, I have never tested this and I don't know if there are specific limitations of the chipsets which use PCI-E.

The size of the 1x slot is not really important because it does not have anything to do with the actual size of the card. Not too many devices have been release in PCI-E except video cards. You can find some RAID adapters. I can bet GB ethernet controllers are being produced or will be using a 1x slot. The new AGEIA PPU is also going to use a 1x or 4x connector.

PCI-E is just in it's infancy thats why you don't see many devices out there. But in a year or two you should be able to find anything that was ever put on a PCI card in PCI-E form.

 

[frankyk]

so, these new pci-express devices will also take a tray slot in the back of your computer like the pci cards did?

 

[BillLeeLee]

PCI-Express will replace PCI for plug in devices.

PCI-Express is serial, not parallel, so it will take less power (perhaps not that significant).
PCI Express doesn't use a shared bus like PCI, so each device gets to use all the memory bandwidth they need. PCI was 133 MB/s shared amongst all devices on the PCI bus, and PCI-Express x1 is 500 MB/s. So PCI x16 is 8 GB/s, and as such is most useful for graphics.

With today's devices though, you really won't see a need for PCI-Express over PCI.

 

[J-Mag]

so, these new pci-express devices will also take a tray slot in the back of your computer like the pci cards did?

Yes form the rear of your machine it would look exactly the same as if you were to install a PCI card, except in the PCI-E slots are always above the PCI slots in every MB I have seen.