I have a question about pci express

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crazdude

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Well, first of all what is pci express x16, or 16x whatever it is, lol, because I have seen at a lot of motherboard specifications where some say pci express slots and other say pci expres x16 slot, what is the difference? and in pics they look the same..... and i see cards that say pci express required and some say pci express x16 required, once again, what is the difference...... most newer cards say they need pci express x16, amd my mother says it has pci express, again.... it confuses me, lol, can anyone give me a hand why some say x16 and some dont?
 
Hello

The thing with the 16x means the speed of your pci express slot. Usually you can find the speed of your motherboards pci express slot speed by looking on your computer manufacturers website. Are you upgrading your video card? If so, tell me your system specs and maybe i can help you
 
I looked at your motherboard specs, and found a pci express slot, but it looks strange...ive never heard of a pci express 1x slot before, but i know there arent any good gaming graphics cards with pci-e 1x :(

However, I found that you have 3 PCI slots. This way, you can upgrade your computer using a PCi slot on the MOBO. PCI cards are ok, if you get the right one. I will look for some compatible graphics cards. What brand would you like? I know of ATI, and nVidia. I will look for compatible graphics cards fo both brands, in the PCI and PCI-E form, ok?


best regards
sw123
 
ive opened my pc and looked at diagrams, it looks exactly like a pci express x16 slot, same size and all, and i saw x1 and they are a lot smalled.... weird....
 
i have found an ATI reccomendation:

Diamond's RADEON X300SE

This one is $99.99(if you live in america) and it has 256MB DDR VRAM. Its a good one.
 
will do :eek: , and if anyone can also answer my question id apprciate it, I live in Canada by the way, lol
 
PCI-E 1X slots are slots for expansion cards just as PCI slots have been, but different. If you go to Newegg, for example, you can find some accessory cards that fit the PCI-E 1X format. They may eventually replace PCI.
 
OK

Perhaps you can call them from canada. look on hp's website, they usually have a number for USA/Canada in the contact or support section on the website.
 
There are also PCI-E x 4 slots which are longer than x 1 slots. Don't you have a manual?
 
Call Dell and ask them for recommendations for your system, tell them to me and i will provide links to where you can buy them online(I will not put on ebay, if you wanna know)
 
OK, I'm not an expert on this but hopefully I get most of this right.

PCI was the original bus protocol and was used for most periphrals including vid cards until around mid 90's. Then the AGPX2 came out, it had a different voltage level from the PCI bus and I think it transferred info on both the up and the down clock cycle. (Thus the X2 part). Then the AGP bus took over and we had an evolution of X4 and X8 up to today.

But meanwhile, back at the PC labs, they worked out a way to speed up the original PCI bus (with its much simpler protocol) and BAM, PCI-E X16 hit the mobo market. The X16 means it's 16 times faster then the original PCI, this means it's X2 faster then the AGPX8 bus. Whew, still with me?

Now this is the part where I'm not really sure of the details. There is a change with the PCI-E X16 protocol from the original. I think it's voltage for sure but also other stuff to do with the clock transitions again , but not as complicated as the AGP bus. SO (stay with me), there is a PCI-E X1 bus which will soon be the replacement of all PCI slots. This new bus is the same protocol as the PCI-EX16 but without the expensive ICs(chips) needed to move it at X16, and this make things sooooooo much easier/cheaper to build a mobo! The article I read some months back basically said the new PCI-E X1 will replace all PCI slots within the next few years.

With that being said, I wouldn't buy a PCI-E X1 video card, it's still 16 times slower then the X16 slot and 8 times slower then the AGPX8.
 
kirock said:
OK, I'm not an expert on this but hopefully I get most of this right.

PCI was the original bus protocol and was used for most periphrals including vid cards until around mid 90's. Then the AGPX2 came out, it had a different voltage level from the PCI bus and I think it transferred info on both the up and the down clock cycle. (Thus the X2 part). Then the AGP bus took over and we had an evolution of X4 and X8 up to today.

But meanwhile, back at the PC labs, they worked out a way to speed up the original PCI bus (with its much simpler protocol) and BAM, PCI-E X16 hit the mobo market. The X16 means it's 16 times faster then the original PCI, this means it's X2 faster then the AGPX8 bus. Whew, still with me?

Now this is the part where I'm not really sure of the details. There is a change with the PCI-E X16 protocol from the original. I think it's voltage for sure but also other stuff to do with the clock transitions again , but not as complicated as the AGP bus. SO (stay with me), there is a PCI-E X1 bus which will soon be the replacement of all PCI slots. This new bus is the same protocol as the PCI-EX16 but without the expensive ICs(chips) needed to move it at X16, and this make things sooooooo much easier/cheaper to build a mobo! The article I read some months back basically said the new PCI-E X1 will replace all PCI slots within the next few years.

With that being said, I wouldn't buy a PCI-E X1 video card, it's still 16 times slower then the X16 slot and 8 times slower then the AGPX8.
Click to expand...

Almost there.

Let's start from the beginning. On the First mobo type, IBM placed ISA. On the Second mobo type, Intel placed PCI. Then Intel improved the PCI, and called it PCI-X. However, PCI-X was still slower than AGP, so a new Bus was created: PCI-Express.

PCI-Express is NOT a faster kind of PCI Bus, just like PCI was NOT a faster kind of the ISA Bus. PCI-Express is a completely new kind of Bus, and although it is somtimes made compatible with AGP (nVidia makes chipsets that allow AGP cards to work simultaneously with PCI-Express), it has a completely differernt protocol.

The Protocol:
PCI-Express is compromised of "lanes" that carry the data back and forth, and allow components to talk at a rate of 500MBps full-duplex (250MBps one way). The "x1" after a PCI-Express slot lets you know that the slot "owns" only one lane; the "x16" slot owns all 16 lanes. This is why graphics cards are not run in the "x1" lane, because 16 lanes are much better at full-duplex than 1 lane.

If you have questions about this stuff, and want more info, check out www.answers.com and www.wikipedia.org

By the way, you will never hear of PCI-X because its technology has been incorporated into the current PCI, and the difference is so marginal that it's not worth it to advertise a mobo as PCI-X compatible and confuse the masses.

Also, a PCI-Express x32 is coming out soon. Watch for it, as it will allow you to run graphics cards as fast as you do with SLI, except you will only use one slot... Just imagine, using SLI with two graphics cards with 2 PCI-Express x32 slots... WOW
 
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