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  1. AGP or PCI-E (Is that PCI-Express??)

    Just looking to buy a new video card and not sure which the latest greatest thing..

    Laterz...
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  2. Mod Neophyte redwudz's Avatar
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    PCI-E(I guess Express) is touted to be the replacement for AGP. Much more bandwidth, good if the rest of the system can make use of it. The big downside I see with PCI-E motherboards is they seem to all have a lot less regular PCI slots. That can be a problem if you have a PCI sound card, capture card, modem, HD card, etc. Runs out of space fast. My Gigabyte PCI-E MB has only three PCI slots. It also needs a 400W+ PS.

    If you are an extreme gamer, it's the only way to go. (They say ) SLI MBs including 2 high end PCI-E video cards will cost you a fortune, but it will be really, really fast.

    I don't game so I use a inexpensive Sapphire X300 ATI chip PCI-E card. Does what I want. Still, I think PCI-E will replace AGP fairly soon, at least with all newer MBs, especially X64 CPU MBs.
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  3. Member waheed's Avatar
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    i agree with redwudz on this one. PCI-E boards do have fewer PCI slots. That is because of the inclusion of pci-e X 1 slots for exansion cards like sound cards, tv cards etc. (though nothing really has taken advantage of this new slot). Mine also has only 3 PCI slots (one already being used for my sound card).

    One feature I do love about PCI-E over AGP is that if you purchase a mid-range GPU, you do not need to connect an external power cable for the GPU, where with the AGP version, you would.
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  4. Does the mobo have PCI-E and AGP slots together? Or does PCI-E replace AGP slot? If the later, then why should there be less PCI slots?
    *** My computer can beat me at chess, but is no match when it comes to kick-boxing. ***
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  5. Member waheed's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by pbhalerao
    Does the mobo have PCI-E and AGP slots together? Or does PCI-E replace AGP slot? If the later, then why should there be less PCI slots?
    No motherboard has both AGP and PCI-E slots together. Its either PCI-E or AGP.

    PCI-E replaces the AGP slot.

    Usually, there are 5 or 6 PCI slots on a motherbaord (AGP board). For the case of PCI-E, they contain the new type of PCI-E 1X slot, usually two of these. This means that are only room for 3 or 4 regular PCI slots.
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  6. Member waheed's Avatar
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    Below is an example of a PCI-E board (SLI Board)



    The Blue slot is the PCI-E Graphics card slot. (and so the blank one for SLI confguration)

    The two small white slots in the middle are the new standard of PCI, known as PCI-E 1X slot.

    At the bottom of the black slot are the regular PCI slots.
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  7. contrarian rallynavvie's Avatar
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    Mmm, that's a hot board.

    That's really only true in the case of boards with SLI though as they have two x16 slots for video cards and those bridgers between them for slim- to no-profile x1 cards (which I think are more likely to end up being breakouts for more rear USB, FireWire, network, or SATA ports). On boards without SLI there are still not as many PCI slots as other boards as current PCI-E chipsets are putting each PCI slot on its own bus for performance whereas the old PCI bridges were sharing all 32-bit PCI on one bus, 64-bit PCI on another, PCI-X on yet another, and so on.

    When you look at how much is integrated on boards these days you really don't need as many PCI slots. You GbE, USB, 1394, WiFi, and even decent audio is now usually a standard onboard feature. Boards are also incorporating enough SATA and IDE to fill up a typical ATX desktop case. Perhaps you'd need room for aftermarket audio, a PVT/tuner card, and I can't even think of what else you'd need.

    I'm waiting for more x8 SCSI HBAs to come out before moving to PCI-E as my next workstation will be all SCSI with SLI, but that's at least a year out for me. I don't like either the Intel or the AMD SMP PCI-E solutions on the market right now. And by then we could have some killer dual dual-core Opteron systems
    FB-DIMM are the real cause of global warming
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  8. Member waheed's Avatar
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    I think PCI-E boards without SLI have 3 PCI-E 1X slots, as well as PCI-E for the GPU, wheareas SLI boards have 2 PCI-E 1X slots.

    Will we see expansions cards such as sound cards, tv cards, etc.. using this new standard. Future will tell.

    I know that Creative are due to bring out their new sound card based on the new PCI-E.

    rallynavvvie, you right about not needing to use PCI slots. Most of it is now intergrated onto motherboards. Theres liitle need for them.
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  9. Good grief,

    Reading some of the stuff you guys write gives me a headache haha.

    Some of you boys and girls are wicked smart!!!

    I feel so inadequate :P

    LG
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