PCI Express interfaces for new graphic cards

[kiwiboy]

Hi, I have a 3400+ AMD Athlon 64 Processor with a ATI Radeon 9800 se PRO graphics card.
I am looking at the latest graphics card by NVIDIA - the GE XFX 7800 series which can only be connected to a PCI Express slot.

How do I find out if I have a PCI Express slot onboard my PC without opening it up physically?

If I do have to open it up-what does the new PCI Express slot look like?

 

[IronDuke]

Download Everest Home from here.
That will give you a lot of info on what's inside your box.

Welcome Kiwiboy

 

[momalyd]

i might be wrong but the board for a 64-bit processer sould have pci express as standerd because its a 64bit version of pci ----- no doubt someone will prove me wrong, and yes i know its a 32bit chip with a 64bit whistle (i have been won over and am getting one next week) and i also know you can get pci express for a 32bit system i think that should cover it all)

 

[vnf4ultra]

Well, basically you don't have pci-e, if you have a 9800pro, 9800pros were never made in pci-e, and almost all motherboards have either agp or pci-e. You most likely have agp. Pci-e slots are longer than agp(or pci) from looking at them.

I'm not sure, but I don't think pci-e is a 64bit pci slot, I think that's pci-X, which is for servers, but I may be wrong.

Also there are amd 939 socket boards with agp, and ones with pci-e, just because it's 939 doesn't mean it's pci-e. For example, the abit av8 is agp and 939, IIRC.

 

[momalyd]

yea pci-x and pci express are the same, good old americans naming things again.it was introduced in servers long before pc's

 

[nein]

yea pci-x and pci express are the same, good old americans naming things again.it was introduced in servers long before pc's

No, (pci express) PCIe and PCI-X are not the same, to use PCI-X with PCIe you needed a bridge just as you would need one for AGP or the older PCI.

 

[momalyd]

oh yea pci-x is the size of pci and pcie is realy short. my mistake