WHat kind of cards go in the PCI Express x1 minicard socket?
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From: Paul on 23 Jan 2010 13:11 Al Dykes wrote: > What is the PCI Express x1 minicard socket on the machine I'm about to > order for? > A PCI Express x1 slot is used for expansion cards. In the same sense as a regular PCI slot is used for expansion cards. The old PCI slot is a 32 bit parallel bus, delivering data at speeds up to 133MB/sec theoretical. That is the desktop version. The PCI Express x1 is a serial, point to point bus. The chipset is a "hub" for those interfaces. The bus is private and runs between the expansion slot and the chipset. For a revision 1 lane, the interface delivers 250MB/sec. For a revision 2 lane (less common on PCI Express x1 slots), you get 500MB/sec. So the PCI Express x1 slot is smaller than PCI, and delivers more data. And because it is a private interface, none of the other slots interfere with it. At least, not like the PCI bus used to (as PCI is shared amongst all the cards on the same bus segment). What can you use it for ? All sorts of stuff. For example, you can buy new sound cards with that interface on them. But if you have an old PCI sound card you liked, and move that from machine to machine, then a computer with nothing but PCI Express in it, means you won't be able to reuse your old PCI sound card. It has taken some time for other functions to show up with that interface on them. One company rushed to market, in an attempt to be first, and they did cards like this. USB PCI chip | | PCI <--> PCI EXpress Bridge Chip | | PCI Express x1 connector If they do a card that way, the end user may end up paying about $20 more for the card. So if a USB PCI card costs $10, a bridged card might cost $30. You can see, that if you're competing head to head with PCI, you lose by doing that. Eventually, some day, PCI will be eliminated just as surely as ISA was, so the cheap PCI cards will disappear to be replaced by PCI Express ones. If there is enough of a market, companies will eventually make chips with native PCI Express interfaces. It took the longest time for sound cards to show up. I figured they'd just slap a bridge on an existing design, and rush to market, but that didn't happen. If you look at the PCI Express sound cards on Newegg right now, people aren't very happy with them, which makes me appreciate my $8 PCI sound card all the more. There are pictures of the various flavors of PCI Express here. The first article has desktop slots and mini card pictures. (All instances of internal expansion solutions.) The second article is for laptops. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci_express http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard Paul
From: Al Dykes on 23 Jan 2010 17:21 In article <7s0mtqFh1kU1(a)mid.individual.net>, Mike Easter <MikeE(a)ster.invalid> wrote: >Al Dykes wrote: > >> Thanks. Oddly, this is a desktop machine. > >Nowhere have you mentioned any identification of the machine in >question. Some desktops are like 'nettops' which have the >characteristics of a netbook with a hdd in a desktop. > It's a MicroATX machine. -- Al Dykes News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is advertising. - Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail
From: Mike Easter on 23 Jan 2010 17:54 Al Dykes wrote: > Mike Easter >> Al Dykes wrote: >> >>> Thanks. Oddly, this is a desktop machine. >> Nowhere have you mentioned any identification of the machine in >> question. Some desktops are like 'nettops' which have the >> characteristics of a netbook with a hdd in a desktop. > It's a MicroATX machine. > To me, microatx means a mobo form factor standard, not a brand and modelno identification of a particular machine which is about to be ordered. Microatx doesn't identify it any better than desktop did. -- Mike Easter
From: Benedict on 25 Jan 2010 06:50 "Al Dykes" <adykes(a)panix.com> wrote in message news:hjf0n0$hbf$1(a)panix5.panix.com... > > What is the PCI Express x1 minicard socket on the machine I'm about to > order for? > > -- > Al Dykes > News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is > advertising. > - Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail > I've got this sound card in my PCI-E x1 slot http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129740 also I believe you can get network cards for PCI-E x1
From: Jon Danniken on 25 Jan 2010 08:44
Benedict wrote: > "Al Dykes" <adykes(a)panix.com> wrote in message > news:hjf0n0$hbf$1(a)panix5.panix.com... >> >> What is the PCI Express x1 minicard socket on the machine I'm about >> to order for? >> >> -- >> Al Dykes >> News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is >> advertising. >> - Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail >> > > I've got this sound card in my PCI-E x1 slot > http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129740 > > also I believe you can get network cards for PCI-E x1 Indeed, I am running one now. Jon |